sydney to host north v south game sydney will host a northern versus southern hemisphere charity match in june or july  the australian rugby union (aru) said on wednesday.  the match will include players from the lions tour of new zealand.  the australian rugby union has thrown its support behind a proposed north-south match to raise funds for the tsunami appeals   the aru said. the date is yet to be decided but the most likely venue is sydney s olympic stadium. aru chief executive gary flowers said the world cricket charity match in melbourne earlier this month had inspired the aru.  we still need to discuss the options with the irb (international rugby board)  the lions and our sanzar (south africa  new zealand and australia rugby) partners  but june or july is seen as a better option than march to ensure we have the cream of southern hemisphere rugby available   he said. wallabies captain george gregan said the charity match was a  great initiative . tri-nations rivals australia  new zealand and south africa would feature prominently in a southern team against a northern side comprised of six nations teams france  ireland  england  wales  italy and scotland. coach clive woodward s lions squad will tour new zealand in june and july  including tests on 25 june  2 and 9 july.  almost 80 000 fans packed into melbourne cricket ground on 10 january for a charity match that raised £5.9m for victims of the asian tsunami.


uk coal plunges into deeper loss shares in uk coal have fallen after the mining group reported losses had deepened to £51.6m in 2004 from £1.2m.  the uk s biggest coal producer blamed geological problems  industrial action and  operating flaws  at its deep mines for its worsening fortunes. the south yorkshire company  led by new chief executive gerry spindler  said it hoped to return to profit in 2006. in early trade on thursday  its shares were down 10% at 119 pence. uk coal said it was making  significant progress  in shaking up the business. it had introduced new wage structures  a new daily maintenance regime for machinery at its mines and methods to continue mining in adverse conditions. the company said these actions should  significantly uplift earnings . it expected 2005 to be a  transitional year  and to return to profitability in 2006.  the recent rise in coal prices has failed to benefit the company as most of its output had already been sold  it said. total production costs were £1.30 per gigajoule  uk coal said  but the average selling price was just £1.18 per gigajoule.  we have a long journey ahead to fix these issues. we continue to make progress and great strides have already been made   said mr spindler. uk coal operates 15 deep and surface mines across nottinghamshire  derbyshire  leicestershire  yorkshire  the west midlands  northumberland and durham.


bath faced with tindall ultimatum mike tindall s agent has warned bath they have until next week to improve their contract offer to the england man or risk losing him to a rival club.  dipo alli says he has received an offer for tindall which dwarfs bath s deal and that two other clubs want to talk.  mike does not want to go into the six nations worrying about where he will be playing his club rugby next season   alli told the guardian newspaper.  it is up to (bath owner) andrew brownsword. he has to make it happen.  tindall is out of contract at the end of the season but it is understood that brownsword is unwilling to break the club s salary structure to accommodate the 26-year-old s demands. but alli insists the player is worth more than bath have put on the table.  mike has been at bath for eight years and wants to remain with the club and his demands are anything but excessive   the agent added.  but brownsword has to recognise mike s value and we want to resolve things by the end of next week.


banker loses sexism claim a former executive at the london offices of merrill lynch has lost her £7.5m ($14.6m) sex discrimination case against the us investment bank.  an employment tribunal dismissed stephanie villalba s allegations of sexual discrimination and unequal pay. but the 42-year-old won her claim of unfair dismissal  resulting from her sacking in august 2003. her partial victory is likely to cap her compensation to about £55 000  a tiny fraction of what she asked for. the extent of damages will be assessed in the new year. the action - the biggest claim heard by an employment tribunal in the uk - had been viewed as something of a test case.  the tribunal decided that ms villalba had been unfairly dismissed because  having been removed from a senior post  she was entitled to wait to see if a suitable alternative position could be found in the organisation. ms villalba  the former head of merrill s private client business in europe  has made no decision on whether to appeal.  a spokesman for her lawyers described the decision as  very disappointing   but pointed to some criticism of merrill s procedures within the lengthy judgement. the tribunal upheld ms villalba s claim of victimisation on certain specific issues  including bullying e-mails in connection with a contract  but said it found no evidence of  laddish culture  at the bank.  we said from the start that this case was about performance not gender   merrill said in a statement.  ms villalba was removed by the very same person who had promoted her into the position and who then replaced her with another woman.  merrill lynch is dedicated to creating a true meritocracy where every employee has the opportunity to advance based on their skills and hard work.   based in london s financial district  ms villalba worked for merrill s global private client business in europe  investing funds for some of merrill s most important customers. but in 2003 her employers told her she had no future after 17 years with the company  and she was made redundant. merrill lynch denied ms villalba s claims and said she was removed from her post because of the extensive losses the firm was suffering on the continent. the firm had told the tribunal that ms villalba s division had been losing about $1m a week. merrill said ms villalba lacked the leadership skills to turn around the unit.


hewitt survives nalbandian epic home favourite lleyton hewitt came through a dramatic five-set battle with argentine david nalbandian to reach the australian open semi-finals.  hewitt looked to be cruising to victory after racing into a two-set lead. but nalbandian broke his serve three times in both of the next two sets to set up a nailbiting decider. hewitt eventually grabbed the vital break in the 17th game and served out to win 6-3 6-2 1-6 3-6 10-8 and set up a meeting with andy roddick. the winner of that match will face either roger federer or marat safin in the final. ninth seed nalbandian had never come back from two sets down to win a match  and there was no indication he would do so as hewitt dominated the first two sets.  the argentine had stoked up the temperature ahead of the match by saying hewitt s exuberant on-court celebrations were  not very good for the sport . and he had words with hewitt during one change of ends in the second set when the australian appeared to brush shoulders with him as they went to their chairs. the balance of power changed completely in the third set as hewitt allowed his level to dip  and he double-faulted twice as nalbandian broke on the way to taking the fourth set. but the tiring third seed showed incredible reserves of strength to force the break despite being outplayed for much of the final set and three times coming within two points of defeat. he then produced a love service game to finish off the match in four hours and five minutes.  i just kept hanging in there. it was always tough serving second in the fifth set   said hewitt  who had never reached the last four at his home grand slam.  i told myself to give everything and in the end it paid off once again.  it s a long way from holding that trophy up there but i m hanging in there.  only four guys left that can win and we re the top four in the world. it s set up for a pretty good showdown in the semis and finals.


saab to build cadillacs in sweden general motors  the world s largest car maker  has confirmed that it will build a new medium-sized cadillac bls at its loss-making saab factory in sweden.  the car  unveiled at the geneva motor show  is intended to compete in the medium-sized luxury car market. it will not be sold in the us  said gm europe president carl-peter forster. as part of its efforts to make the us marque appeal to european drivers  the car will be the first cadillac with a diesel engine.  gm s announcement should go some way to allay fears of the saab factory s closure. the factory in trollhaettan has been at the centre of rumours about gm s planned severe cutbacks in its troubled european operations. but the group s new commitment to the swedish factory may not be welcomed by the group s opel workers in ruesselsheim  germany. they may now have to face a larger proportion of gm s cuts.  neither will the announcement be seen as unalloyed good news in sweden  since it reflects saab s failure to make significant inroads into the lucrative european luxury car market. for years  saab has consistently said it is competing head-on with bmw  mercedes and jaguar. the segment s leaders do not agree.  gm s plans to build the american marque in sweden is part of its efforts to push it as an alternative luxury brand for european drivers. in the us  it has long been established as an upmarket brand - even the presidential limousine carries the badge. yet it could prove tough for cadillac to steal market share from the majors in europe. other luxury car makers  most notably the toyota subsidiary lexus  have enjoyed tremendous success in the us without managing to make significant inroads in europe. there  german marques mercedes benz and bmw have retained their stranglehold on the luxury market.  bringing cadillac production to sweden should help introduce desperately-needed scale to the saab factory  which currently produces fewer than 130 000 cars per year. that is about half of what major car makers consider sufficient numbers for profitable operations  and saab is losing money fast - albeit with losses halved in 2004 to $200m (£104m; 151m euros) from $500m the previous year. beyond the 12 000 job cuts announced last year at its european operations  gm is reducing expenditure by building saabs  opels - badged as vauxhalls in the uk - and now cadillacs on the same framework  and by allowing the different brands to share parts. another way to further reduce saab s losses could be to shift some of the production of saabs to the us  a market where drivers have adopted it as an upmarket european car. doing so would remove the exposure to the weak us dollar  which is making saabs more expensive to us consumers. but not everyone in the industry agree that it would be the best way forward.  we know that in five years the us dollar will be stronger than it is today   the chief executive of a leading european car maker told bbc news. the current trend towards us production was  stupid   he said.  in a separate announcement  gm unveiled a new scheme to allow european consumers the chance to test drive its opel and vauxhall models. it is to deploy a fleet of 35 000 test cars across 40 countries  inviting potential buyers to try out a vehicle for 24-hours. it follows a similar initiative by gm in the us. gm said it wanted to change  customers  perceptions  about opel and vauxhall cars  showing them that the quality had improved in recent years.


kenyon denies robben barca return chelsea chief executive peter kenyon has played down reports that arjen robben will return for the champions league match against barcelona.   he s been responding well to treatment and started running on friday  but we ll have to wait and see   he told bbc five live s sportsweek.  we re looking to getting him back as soon as possible  but he ll be back when it s right for him and for us.  there s no plans at the moment around the barcelona game.  his comments contradict those of chiropractor jean pierre meersseman who treated the dutchman after he fractured his foot at the start of february. robben had been expected to be out for six weeks  but meersseman hinted that the winger could be fit for the vital stamford bridge game on 8 march.  i hope he can be back and i will try to help him make that happen   meersseman told the mail on sunday.  i put everything right with arjen s foot the last time i saw him 12 days ago. it was an obvious correction and easy to perform.  i know he was pleased with what i did and now that he is running again. i am due to see him one more time again in the next few days.  meersseman is the medical co-ordinator at italian side ac milan.


mobiles rack up 20 years of use mobile phones in the uk are celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend.  britain s first mobile phone call was made across the vodafone network on 1 january 1985 by veteran comedian ernie wise. in the 20 years since that day  mobile phones have become an integral part of modern life and now almost 90% of britons own a handset. mobiles have become so popular that many people use their handset as their only phone and rarely use a landline.  the first ever call over a portable phone was made in 1973 in new york but it took 10 years for the first commercial mobile service to be launched. the uk was not far behind the rest of the world in setting up networks in 1985 that let people make calls while they walked. the first call was made from st katherine s dock to vodafone s head office in newbury which at the time was over a curry house. for the first nine days of 1985 vodafone was the only firm with a mobile network in the uk. then on 10 january cellnet (now o2) launched its service. mike caudwell  spokesman for vodafone  said that when phones were launched they were the size of a briefcase  cost about £2 000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes.   despite that they were hugely popular in the mid-80s   he said.  they became a yuppy must-have and a status symbol among young wealthy business folk.  this was also despite the fact that the phones used analogue radio signals to communicate which made them very easy to eavesdrop on. he said it took vodafone almost nine years to rack up its first million customers but only 18 months to get the second million.  it s very easy to forget that in 1983 when we put the bid document in we were forecasting that the total market would be two million people   he said.  cellnet was forecasting half that.  now vodafone has 14m customers in the uk alone. cellnet and vodafone were the only mobile phone operators in the uk until 1993 when one2one (now t-mobile) was launched. orange had its uk launch in 1994. both newcomers operated digital mobile networks and now all operators use this technology. the analogue spectrum for the old phones has been retired. called global system for mobiles (gsm) this is now the most widely used phone technology on the planet and is used to help more than 1.2 billion people make calls. mr caudwell said the advent of digital technology also helped to introduce all those things  such as text messaging and roaming that have made mobiles so popular.


dawson joins england injury list scrum-half matt dawson is an injury doubt for england s six nations opener against wales next weekend.  the world cup winner missed wasps  12-9 loss to bath on saturday after injuring his right calf. wasps coach warren gatland said:  he s got a fitness test in the week but he s got a good chance of playing.  gloucester s andy hazell and leicester star lewis moody also received knocks during their respective league matches  but should be fit for wales next week. if dawson is not fit to face wales  robinson will have to choose from gloucester s andy gomarsall or leicester youngster harry ellis.  jamie noon is another player on the sidelines after he limped off in the first half against saracens on friday with a dead leg. the centre  who is in line for a first six nations start against wales  will have to wait 48 hours before knowing the state of his injury.


yukos drops banks from court bid russian oil company yukos has dropped the threat of legal action against five banks it had accused of involvement in the sale of its key yugansk unit.  state-owned rosneft bought the unit for $9.3bn (£5bn) after yukos was forced to sell assets to meet a $27.5bn tax bill. yukos says the sale was illegal and is pursuing damages in a us court. its lawyers now accept abn amro  bnp paribas  calyon  jp morgan chase bank  and dresdner kleinwort wasserstein were not involved in the sale financing. however  yukos still has an outstanding complaint against deutsche bank  which it alleges to be the leader of a consortium that was behind a bid for yugansk by state gas monopoly gazprom. the company has also accused gazprom  the russian federation and two other russian firms.  gazprom had been expected to win the december auction  but ended up not bidding. yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company  which in turn was bought by rosneft. yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder mikhail khodorkovsky. the firm  whose finance chief is now based in the us  filed for bankruptcy in houston  texas  and sought a court injunction against the sale. but deutsche bank has suggested yukos artificially manufactured a legal case to stop the sale of its main asset. a hearing scheduled for february 16 and 17 will rule on whether the us court has jurisdiction in the case.


spurs to sign iceland u21 star tottenham are primed to snap up iceland under-21 international emil hallfredsson after he impressed on trial at white hart lane.  the 20-year-old midfielder  who plays for fh hafnarfjordur  also starred in the uefa cup match against scottish side dunfermline earlier this season. spurs have agreed a fee for the player  who has yet to agree personal terms.  he had offers from two other clubs but he decided to come to tottenham   said spurs sporting director frank arnesen.  he is a left-sided player  a position we have been looking at and he showed so much talent in his time here that we decided to take him.  it s down the road of bringing in talent  good prospects and giving them a place at tottenham where they can improve.


ec calls truce in deficit battle the european commission (ec) has called a truce in its battle with france and germany over breaching deficit limits.  the move came after france and germany vowed to run their budget deficits below the eu cap in 2005 - for the first time in four years. but  the ec did warn the two were under close scrutiny and it would act if their fiscal situations deteriorated. under eu rules  member countries must keep their deficits below 3%. france and germany will breach that this year. it will be the third year in a row that the two countries have broken the european union s stability and growth pact rules.  the eurozone s two biggest economies left the pact in tatters in november 2003 when they persuaded fellow eu members to put the threat of penalties for deficit breaches on hold.  the commission then took the pair to the european court of human justice - which ruled eu countries could not put the pact  in abeyance   and confirmed the ec s right to launch  excessive debt procedures . after announcing its decision to erase france and germany from its list of deficit rule breakers  the eu said that the time lag created by the ruling meant that 2005 should be the target year for the pair to bring their budget s below 3%.  the commission concludes that the two countries appear to be on track to correct their excessive deficits by 2005   it said in a statement. the eu expects the german deficit to fall to fall to 2.9% of gdp next year from 3.9% this year  while france s is forecast to drop to 3% from an expected 3.7% this year. the forecasts are based on ec predictions of gdp growth of 1.5% in germany next year and 2.2% in france.  berlin welcomed the decision  with finance minister hans eichel saying it showed that the ec recognised germany s fiscal policy was  on the right track even amid very difficult economic conditions . however paris was more subdued  with finance minister herve gaymard telling parliament:  we must continue along this path of saving money.  however  the move still had its critics  with the european people s party (epp) attacking the ec for backing down from punitive action.  the commission is buckling under the pressure from germany and france    epp spokesman alexander radwan said.  the scary fact is that budget sinners  despite having repeatedly exceeded the 3% deficit limit  do not have to fear any sanctions.  despite the commission delivering its decision on the two biggest eurozone economies  it refused to comment on similar action against greece which has also broken the 3% deficit ceiling. monetary affairs commissioner joaquin almunia said that it was a matter for next week.


computer grid to help the world your computer can now help solve the world s most difficult health and social problems.  launched this week  the world community grid will use idle computer time to test solutions to these problems. the donated processor cycles will help the wcg create virtual supercomputers via the net. the idea follows the success of other similar projects that have used the untapped processing power of millions of desktop pcs. one of the most successful collaboration projects was seti@home  run by the search for extra terrestrial life project  which sorted through radio signals looking for signs of alien communication.  anyone can volunteer to donate the spare time of their computers by downloading a special screensaver from the wgc website. once installed  the virtual terminal gets a chunk of the computational task to process  and reports back after completing that task. the first wcg problem being tackled will be the human proteome folding project  which hopes to identify the ways that the proteins in our body fold.  the subjects of study are being selected by an international advisory board of experts specializing in health sciences  and technology. the body will evaluate proposals from leading research  public and not-for-profit organizations  and is expected to oversee up to six projects a year. organisations also represented on the board include the united nations development programme and the world health organisation.   the world community grid will enable researchers around the globe to gather and analyze unprecedented quantities of data to help address important global issues   said elain gallin  program director for medical research at the doris duke charitable foundation.  [it] will inspire us to look beyond the technological limitations that have historically restricted us from addressing some of our most intractable problems   she added. ibm has donated the hardware  software  technical services and expertise to build the basic infrastructure for the grid. the computer company  working with united devices  previously developed the smallpox research grid  which linked together more than two million volunteers from 226 countries to speed the analysis of some 35 million drug molecules in the search for a treatment for smallpox.


japanese banking battle at an end japan s sumitomo mitsui financial has withdrawn its takeover offer for rival bank ufj holdings  enabling the latter to merge with mitsubishi tokyo.  sumitomo bosses told counterparts at ufj of its decision on friday  clearing the way for it to conclude a 3 trillion yen ($29bn) deal with mitsubishi. the deal would create the world s biggest bank with assets of about 189 trillion yen ($1.8 trillion). sumitomo s exit ends the most high profile fight in japanese bank history.  ufj holdings  japan s fourth-largest bank  has been at the centre of a fierce bid battle over the last year. sumitomo  japan s third-largest bank  tabled a higher offer for ufj than its rival  valuing the company at $35bn.  however  ufj s management was known to prefer the offer from mitsubishi tokyo financial group (mtfg)  japan s second-largest bank. concerns were also raised about sumitomo s ability to absorb ufj and the former has now admitted defeat.  we believe the market and most investors accept a ufj-mtfg merger   sumitomo said in a statement.  given the ongoing integration of ufj and mtfg operations  persisting with our proposal may not be in the best interests of our shareholders or ufj s.   mitsubishi s takeover of ufj - which will be japan s largest-ever takeover deal - will still have to be approved by shareholders of the two firms. however  this is expected to be a formality. sumitomo may now turn its attention to deepening its ties with daiwa securities  another japanese financial firm. the two are set to merge their venture capital operations and there has been speculation that this could lead to a full-blown merger. japanese banks are increasingly seeking alliances to boost profits.


takeover rumour lifts exel shares shares in storage and delivery firm exel closed up 9% at a two-and-a-half year high on tuesday on speculation it is to receive an imminent takeover bid.  the talk in the city is that us giant united parcel services (ups) is the most likely bidder for the firm. yet other names mentioned in connection to buying exel are dhl-owner deutsche post and finance firm ge capital. with its shares closing tuesday at 873p  bracknell-based exel is currently valued at £2.6bn ($6.3bn).  exel employs 109 000 people in more than 120 countries and has itself been active in the consolidation of the logistics sector  paying £328m to buy fellow uk firm tibbett & britten last august. its customers include boots  burberry  mothercare and consumer products giant procter & gamble. andrew beh  of brokers ing  said ups and deutsche post were the most likely bidders and an offer of 950p a share would be fair if a bidding battle did not break out.  it s a great strategic fit for both companies   he said.  both are interested in expanding in logistics and you can make a decent case for cost synergies which could justify the premium and that s before you make any argument about revenue synergies.


cairn shares up on new oil find shares in cairn energy have jumped 6% after the firm said an indian oilfield was larger than previously thought.  cairn said drilling to the north-west of its development site in rajasthan had produced  very strong results . the company also said it now believed the development area would be able to produce oil for more than 25 years. cairn s share price rose 300% last year after a number of oil finds  but its shares were hit in december following a disappointing drilling update. december s share fall means that cairn is still in danger of being relegated from the ftse 100 when the index is reshuffled next month. cairn s shares closed up 64 pence  or 6%  at 1130p on thursday.  before christmas  cairn revealed that drilling to the north of the field in rajasthan had been disappointing  which caused its shares to lose 18% in one day.  however  on thursday  the group said its belief that the path of oil in the area actually moved further to the west had proved correct.  this area does need more appraisal drilling but it looks very strong   dr mike watts head of exploration said. chief executive bill gammell added:  the more we progress in rajasthan the better we feel about it.  cairn made the discovery after having been granted an extension to their drilling licence in january by indian authorities. the firm has applied for a 30-month extension to scout for oil outside its main development area  which includes the mangala and aishwariya fields where cairn has previously announced major discoveries. it also said production at its other fields across the globe was likely to surpass levels seen in 2004.


soderling wins tense milan final fifth seed robin soderling took the milan indoors title with a dramatic win over radek stepanek in sunday s final.  the 20-year-old swede edged the final set tie-break for a 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5) victory and his second tour title after winning in lyon last year.  i m delighted to have won against such a good opponent in a tournament of this importance   said soderling.  i was really on form  my service was good and i really liked playing on the synthetic surface.  soderling  the world number 37  shrugged off a nervous start to take the opening set on his first set point. a change in approach from fourth seed stepanek in the second set paid dividends as he took it on a tie-break  but soderling s superior power proved too much in the third.


eu aiming to fuel development aid european union finance ministers meet on thursday to discuss proposals  including a tax on jet fuel  to boost development aid for poorer nations.  the policy makers are to ask for a report into how more development money can be raised  the eu said. the world s richest countries have said they want to increase the amount of aid they give to 0.7% of their annual gross national income by 2015. airlines have reacted strongly against the proposed fuel levy.  profits have been under pressure in the airline industry  with low-cost firms driving down prices and demand dipping after the 11 september terrorist attacks and the outbreak of the killer sars virus.  things have picked up  but some european and us companies are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. at present  the fuel used by airlines enjoys either a very low tax rate or is untaxed in eu member states.  of course we applaud humanitarian initiatives  but why target the airlines   said ulrich schulte-strathaus  secretary general of the association of european airlines.  our industry is in the midst of a fundamental crisis...only to be once again confronted with a measure designed to increase our costs   he continued.  the eu sought to allay the airlines  fears  stressing that thursday s meeting was only a first step and that other proposals were also under consideration. it added that any plan to levy taxes on jet fuel  should not hinder the competitiveness of the airlines and that they themselves will not be solely funding development . any tax would only be implemented after full consultation with the airlines  the eu said. there is thought to be widespread support for the plan - tabled by france and germany following the recent g7 meeting of the world s richest nations - from eu ministers. the issue of poverty in africa and south asia has forced itself to the top of the politicial agenda  with politicians and campaigners calling for more to be done. at their meeting in london  g7 finance ministers backed plans to write off up to 100% of the debts of some of the world s poorest countries.


candela completes bolton switch bolton boss sam allardyce has signed roma defender vincent candela on a five-month deal.  the 31-year-old former france international gave his last press conference as a roma player on monday  anouncing his move to bolton.  i have signed a five-month contract with bolton   said candela  who will travel to england on tuesday.  in june i will decide whether to continue to play for bolton or retire from professional football.  allardyce hopes candela s arrival will relieve bolton s injury crisis after defender nicky hunt limped out injured during oldham s 1-0 win against oldham in the fa cup on sunday.  in light of what has happened to nicky hunt  with his injury  it might be a blessing in disguise that we can bring in a highly-experienced full-back to help with our injuries at the back   allardyce said.  he has an outstanding pedigree in the game and has won honours at the highest level including the world cup in 1998.  he has not played regular football this year but is eager to impress in the premiership.  he can play in any position at the back and despite him being predominately right-footed he has played the majority of his career at left-back.  candela  who was a member of the roma side that won the title in 2001  has made only seven league appearances this season for luigi del neri s side.


sun offers processing by the hour sun microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the hour.  sun grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour s worth of processing and storage power on systems maintained by sun. so-called grid computing is the latest buzz phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a commodity as hardware and software. sun likened grid computing to the development of electricity.  the system could mature in the same way utilities such as electricity and water have developed  said sun s chief operating officer jonathan schwartz.  why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour   he asked in a webcast launching sun s quarterly network computing event in california. the company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it said it already had interest from customers in the oil  gas and financial services industries.  some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5 000 processors each  sun said. mr schwartz ran a demonstration of the service  showing how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. hundreds of servers were used simultaneously  working on the problem for a few seconds each.  although it only took a few seconds  the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up 12 hours  worth of computing power. the sun grid relies on solaris  the operating system owned by sun. initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. it has not said how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in ibm  which argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by sun.


liverpool pledge to keep gerrard liverpool chief executive rick parry insists the club will never sell steven gerrard amid reports chelsea will renew their bid to lure him from anfield.  gerrard reiterated his desire to win trophies with the reds after his superb champions league winner on wednesday. and parry has moved to scotch claims that chelsea could launch a £35m bid.  there is no chance of stevie going in january   said parry.  that just won t happen. our intention is that we will never let him go.  gerrard scored a spectacular late goal to give liverpool a 3-1 win over olympiakos and book their place in the knockout stages.  of course he is ambitious but so are we   parry added.  we firmly believe that if we can satisfy his ambition he will remain a liverpool player.  we have an open and straightforward relationship. we both know where we stand and that played a big part in his decision to stay last summer. if he was not so committed to liverpool he would have gone by now.  gerrard had said before wednesday s game he would consider leaving if the club was knocked out of europe  with real madrid also believed to be monitoring his situation.   the main point i have made is i want to be in a liverpool side which challenges for the champions league and the title all the time   he said afterwards.  i want to be winning things with liverpool  not somewhere else.  i am a fan as well and i think what i have said the supporters will agree with.  we have to build on wins like that  not just settle for a great win and then not progress any further.  my goal was one of the most important i have ever scored and i hope it turns out to be one of the most important for the club for a long time.  i know i put a lot of pressure on myself because of what i said  and i felt i needed a big performance  but i am not going to go around telling lies about how i feel.   reds manager rafael benitez believes gerrard can win everything he wants to without moving clubs.  steven can win all he wants with us and we need him. he has seen that we have a good team and we can do more things in the future   said benitez.  but if we want to win more games  important games  we need steven in the team.  we need his strength  the strong mentality he has and his quality. i think he likes and wants the responsibility of leading this team.


wenger handed summer war chest arsenal boss arsene wenger has been guaranteed transfer funds to boost his squad the summer.  the club s managing director  keith edelman  stressed that the development of their new £350m stadium had no affect on wenger s spending power.  the money is there. don t worry we ve got it   edelman told bbc sport.  hopefully  we ll spend it this summer and in the coming years. arsene attends all our board meetings and he knows our finances are very strong.   edelman added that it was pointless having a brand new stadium if the team did not match the surroundings.  its great to have nice  new surroundings  but if the team aren t performing on the pitch  then there isn t great respect in having a fabulous stadium   he said.  it s important that we had sufficient funds for our team in place  before we began on the stadium.


how to smash a home computer an executive who froze his broken hard disk thinking it would be fixed has topped a list of the weirdest computer mishaps.  although computer malfunctions remain the most common cause of file loss  data recovery experts say human behaviour still is to blame in many cases. they say that no matter how effective technology is at rescuing files  users should take more time to back-up and protect important files. the list of the top 10 global data disasters was compiled by recovery company ontrack.  careless - and preventable - mistakes that result in data loss range from reckless file maintenance practices to episodes of pure rage towards a computer. this last category includes the case of a man who became so mad with his malfunctioning laptop that he threw it in the lavatory and flushed a couple of times.  data can disappear as a result of natural disaster  system fault or computer virus  but human error  including  computer rage   seems to be a growing problem   said adrian palmer  managing director of ontrack data recovery.   nevertheless  victims soon calm down when they realise the damage they ve done and come to us with pleas for help to retrieve their valuable information.  a far more common situation is when a computer virus strikes and leads to precious files being corrupted or deleted entirely. mr palmer recalled the case of a couple who had hundreds of pictures of their baby s first three months on their computer  but managed to reformat the hard drive and erase all the precious memories.  data can be recovered from computers  servers and even memory cards used in digital devices in most cases   said mr palmer.  however  individuals and companies can avoid the hassle and stress this can cause by backing up data on a regular basis.


consumer concern over rfid tags consumers are very concerned about the use of radio frequency id (rfid) tags in shops  a survey says.  more than half of 2 000 people surveyed said they had privacy worries about the tags  which can be used to monitor stock on shelves or in warehouses. some consumer groups have expressed concern that the tags could be used to monitor shoppers once they had left shops with their purchases. the survey showed that awareness of tags among consumers in europe was low. the survey of consumers in the uk  france  germany and the netherlands was carried out by consultancy group capgemini. the firm works on behalf of more than 30 firms who are seeking to promote the growth of rfid technology. the tags are a combination of computer chip and antenna which can be read by a scanner - each item contains a unique identification number.  more than half (55%) of the respondents said they were either concerned or very concerned that rfid tags would allow businesses to track consumers via product purchases. fifty nine percent of people said they were worried that rfid tags would allow data to be used more freely by third parties. ard jan vetham  capgemini s principal consultant on rfid  said the survey showed that retailers needed to inform and educate people about rfid before it would become accepted technology.  acceptance of new technologies always has a tipping point at which consumers believe that benefits outweigh concerns.  with the right rfid approach and ongoing communication with consumers  the industry can reach this point.  he said that the survey also showed people would accept rfid if they felt that the technology could mean a reduction in car theft or faster recovery of stolen items. the tags are currently being used at one tesco distribution centre in the uk - the tags allow the rapid inventory of bulk items. they are also in use as a passcard for the m6 toll in the midlands  in the uk. mr vetham said the majority of people surveyed (52%) believed that rfid tags could be read from a distance. he said that was a misconception based on a lack of awareness of the technology. at least once consumer group - consumers against supermarket privacy invasion and numbering (caspian) - has claimed that rfid chips could be used to secretly identify people and the things they are carrying or wearing. all kinds of personal belongings  including clothes  could constantly broadcast messages about their whereabouts and their owners  it warned.


senior fannie mae bosses resign the two most senior executives at us mortgage giant fannie mae have resigned after accounting irregularities were uncovered at the company.  chief executive franklin raines  a former senior official in the clinton administration  and chief financial officer tim howard have left the firm. fannie mae was criticised by financial regulators and could have to restate its earnings by up to $9bn (£4.6bn). it is america s second largest financial institution.  recent investigations have exposed extensive accounting errors at fannie mae  which supplies funds to america s $8 trillion mortgage market. last week  the firm was admonished by the securities and exchange commission which said it had made major errors in its financial reporting.  the financial regulator said fannie mae would have to raise substantial new capital to restore its balance sheet. analysts said the sec s criticism made it impossible for fannie mae s senior executives to remain. mr raines  head of the office of management and budget under president clinton  has taken early retirement while mr howard has also stepped down  the company said on tuesday. kpmg  fannie mae s independent auditor  will also be replaced.  by my early retirement  i have held myself accountable   mr raines said in a statement.  fannie mae was found to have violated accounting rules relating to derivatives - financial instruments used to hedge against fluctuations in interest rates - and some pre-paid loans. as a result  it could be forced to restate $9bn in earnings over the past four years  effectively wiping out a third of the company s profits since 2001. although not making loans directly to buyers  fannie mae is the largest single player in the mortgage market  underwriting half of all us house purchases. the firm operates under charter from the us congress. it has faced stinging criticism from congressional leaders who held hearings into its finances earlier this year and from government regulator  the office of federal housing enterprise oversight (ofheo).  we are encouraged that the board s announcement signals a new culture and a new direction for fannie mae   armando falcon  ofheo director said. the problems afflicting fannie mae are just the latest to hit the us mortgage industry. freddie mac  the country s other largest mortgage firm  was forced to restate its earnings by $4.4bn last year and pay a $125m fine after an investigation of its books.


further rise in uk jobless total the uk s jobless total rose for the second month in a row in december  official figures show.  the number of people out of work rose 32 000 to 1.41 million in the last three months of 2004  even as 90 000 more people were in employment. average earnings rose by 4.3% in the year to december up from november s 4.2%  the office for national statistics (ons) added. meanwhile  the benefit claimant total fell 11 000 to 813 200 last month. throughout 2004  the number of people in work increased by 296 000 to 28.52 million - the highest figure since records began in 1971.  the apparent discrepancy between rising unemployment and record numbers in work can be explained by an increase in the working population and a fall in those who are economically inactive. while the uk s jobless rate rose to 4.7% from 4.6% in the previous quarter  the rate still remains one of the lowest in the world  compared with 12.1% in germany  10.4% in spain and 9.7% in france. but  despite more people being in work  the manufacturing sector continued to suffer  with 104 000 workers axed during the last quarter of 2004 - pushing employment in the sector to a record low of 3.24 million by the end of last year. the figures prompted some analysts to forecast that the bank of england will almost certainly raise rates this year. marc ostwald  a strategist at monument securities told reuters that while no immediate market impact could be expected   it is enough to underline that they (the boe) will be more hawkish on rates .


first look at playstation 3 chip some details of the chip inside sony s playstation 3 have been revealed.  sony  ibm and toshiba have released limited data about the so-called cell chip that will be able to carry out trillions of calculations per second. the chip will be made of several different processing cores that work on tasks together. the playstation 3 is expected in 2006 but developers are expecting to get prototypes early next year to tune games that will appear on it at launch.  the three firms have been working on the chip since 2001 but before now few details have been released about how it might function. in a joint statement the three firms gave hints about how the chip will work but fuller details will be released in february next year at the international solid state circuits conference in san francisco.  the three firms claim that the cell chip will be up to 10 times more powerful than existing processors. when put inside powerful computer servers  the cell consortium expects it to be capable of handling 16 trillion floating point operations  or calculations  every second. the chip has also been refined to be able to handle the detailed graphics common in games and the data demands of films and broadband media. ibm said it would start producing the chip in early 2005 at manufacturing plants in the us. the first machines off the line using the cell processor will be computer workstations and servers. a working version of the ps3 is due to be shown off in may 2005 but a full launch of the next generation console is not expected to start until 2006. as well as being inside the playstation 3  the chip will also be used inside high-definition tvs and powerful computers.  in the future  all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network   said ken kutaragi  chief operating officer of sony.  current pc architecture is nearing its limits.


pc ownership to  double by 2010  the number of personal computers worldwide is expected to double by 2010 to 1.3 billion machines  according to a report by analysts forrester research.  the growth will be driven by emerging markets such as china  russia and india  the report predicted. more than a third of all new pcs will be in these markets  with china adding 178 million new pcs by 2010  it said. low-priced computers made by local companies are expected to dominate in such territories  forrester said. the report comes less than a week after ibm  a pioneer of the pc business  sold its pc hardware division to china s number one computer maker lenovo.  the $1.75bn (£900m) deal will make the combined operation the third biggest pc vendor in the world.  today s products from western pc vendors won t dominate in those markets in the long term   simon yates  a senior analyst for forrester  said.  instead local pc makers like lenovo group in china and aquarius in russia that can better tailor the pc form factor  price point and applications to their local markets will ultimately win the market share battle   he said. there are currently 575 million pcs in use globally. the united states  europe and asia-pacific are expected to add 150 million new pcs by 2010  according to the study. the report forecast that there will be 80 million new pc users in india by 2010 and 40 million new users in indonesia.


wenger dejected as arsenal slump arsenal manager arsene wenger claimed their display in the 3-1 defeat against bayern munich was  our worst peformance in the champions league .  kolo toure s late goal gives the gunners hope for the second leg  but wenger said:  the only positive is that we are still in the tie.  the players are really down in the dressing-room. i feel we really turned in a bad performance.  at 3-0 we faced a real struggle  but 3-1 at least gives us a chance.   goalscorer toure was also at fault for two goals  and wenger said:  we need to help toure rebuild his confidence as he is low at the moment.  wenger also tried to stay upbeat himself  adding:  but there is enough time for crying. i could cry - maybe it would be easier - but life goes on.  in this job  you have good and bad nights. this was a bad night - but i still have confidence in the quality of my players  as well as their spirit and desire.  but wenger s bayern counterpart felix magath was in no mood to celebrate either. he said:  i am far from happy despite the win. my players failed to try and score a fourth to kill the tie and then conceded the late goal.   arsenal are fully capable of scoring several goals against us on their own turf.  arsenal keeper jens lehmann  whose personal rivalry with bayern goalkeeper oliver kahn was not helped by the result  said:  do i blame myself for the third goal  as a goalkeeper  i always blame myself.  i just know the goals were very easy against us. in my time here  we have never conceded three easy goals like that - but sometimes it happens.  it would have been impossible to go through at 3-0 - but with the goal we have chances. everything is now possible.


sony psp console hits us in march us gamers will be able to buy sony s playstation portable from 24 march  but there is no news of a europe debut.  the handheld console will go on sale for $250 (£132) and the first million sold will come with spider-man 2 on umd  the disc format for the machine. sony has billed the machine as the walkman of the 21st century and has sold more than 800 000 units in japan. the console (12cm by 7.4cm) will play games  movies and music and also offers support for wireless gaming. sony is entering a market which has been dominated by nintendo for many years.  it launched its ds handheld in japan and the us last year and has sold 2.8 million units. sony has said it wanted to launch the psp in europe at roughly the same time as the us  but gamers will now fear that the launch has been put back. nintendo has said it will release the ds in europe from 11 march.  it has gaming at its core  but it s not a gaming device. it s an entertainment device   said kaz hirai  president of sony computer entertainment america.


munster cup tie switched to spain munster s heineken cup quarter-final tie against biarritz on 3 april has been switched to real sociedad s paseo de anoeta stadium in san sebastian.  real s ground holds 32 000 whereas the parc des sports aguilera in biarritz has a capacity of just 12 667. the irish province will be given at least 8 000 tickets.  the decision to move was a difficult one  but as we considered the fans as one of our primary objectives   said biarritz chairman marcel martin.  we hope we will be rewarded as a huge crowd behaving in the best rugby tradition.  the match will be the first heineken cup fixture to be played in spain  and is expected to attract the biggest-ever attendance for a rugby match in the country. ulster were the last irish team to play at the paseo de anoeta stadium where they faced a euskarians side during a pre-season tour in 1998.


telegraph newspapers axe 90 jobs the daily and sunday telegraph newspapers are axing 90 journalist jobs - 17% of their editorial staff.  the telegraph group says the cuts are needed to fund an £150m investment in new printing facilities. journalists at the firm met on friday afternoon to discuss how to react to the surprise announcement. the cuts come against a background of fierce competition for readers and sluggish advertising revenues amid competition from online advertising. the national union of journalists has called on the management to recall the notice of redundancy by midday on monday or face a strike ballot.  pearson s financial times said last week it was offering voluntary redundancy to about 30 reporters.  the national union of journalists said it stood strongly behind the journalists and did not rule out a strike.  managers have torn up agreed procedures and kicked staff in the teeth by sacking people to pay for printing facilities   said jeremy dear  nuj general secretary. nuj official barry fitzpatrick said the company had ignored the 90-day consultation period required for companies planning more than 10 redundancies.  they have shown a complete disregard for the consultative rights of our members   said mr fitzpatrick  who added that the company now planned to observe the consultation procedures. the two telegraph titles currently employ 521 journalists.  some broadsheet newspapers - especially those which have not moved to a tabloid format - have suffered circulation declines  which are hitting revenues. the telegraph has announced no plans to go tabloid although both the independent and the times have seen circulation rise since shrinking in size.  the guardian is hedging its bets  planning a larger tabloid format like those popular in continental europe. the telegraph group was bought by the barclay twins - frederick and david - last year  having previously been owned by lord conrad black s hollinger international. the brothers are currently mulling the sale of another of their businesses  retailer littlewoods.  telegraph executive murdoch maclennan said the two newspapers would add eight colour pages in the coming months.   journalists are the lifeblood of any newspaper  and maintaining the quality of the daily telegraph and the sunday telegraph for our readers is vital   he said.  however  action to improve our production capability and secure our titles against the competition is also vital.  many newspapers are investing in new printing machinery that enables them to print more colour pages  or in some cases  have colour on every page. they are hoping that by boosting colour it will make their publications more attractive to advertisers and readers alike. in recent months news corp s news international unit  which publishes the sun and the news of the world  the guardian media group  trinity mirror and the daily mail & general trust have all announced substantial investments in new printing plants.


rovers reject third ferguson bid blackburn have rejected a third bid from rangers for scotland captain barry ferguson  bbc sport has learnt.  it is thought blackburn want £6m for the midfielder but chief executive john williams has confirmed the club are still  in dialogue  with rangers. the 26-year-old has already handed in a transfer request at ewood park as he seeks a return to ibrox. but the clubs have been unable to reach agreement over a fee for ferguson  who moved to lancashire in 2003 for £6.5m. on thursday rangers said they would not be increasing their offer of £4m.  blackburn have said all along that they want £6m for the midfielder and williams has rejected proposals from rangers over a player-swap deal. williams said:  we are in dialogue with glasgow rangers but we have no agreement.  the negotiations will have to be concluded by midnight on monday  when the winter transfer window shuts. williams conceded any deal for ferguson was looking  unlikely  before the close of the transfer window but rangers still had a chance to seal the deal.  we have no comment to make other than we have not got an agreement with glasgow rangers   he added.  the way things are looking  i think it is unlikely we are going to.  the ball is in their court but we have not got an offer that is acceptable at this moment.  it is understood that blackburn accepted a £5m offer for ferguson from everton at the weekend. but the player is determined to return to scotland and rejected a move to goodison park. ferguson did not play in the fa cup win over colchester on saturday despite recovering from a groin injury with rovers boss mark hughes claiming it had been an  emotional and difficult time  for the player.


yukos unit fetches $9bn at auction a little-known russian company has bought the main production unit of oil giant yukos at auction in moscow.  baikal finance group outbid favourite gazprom  the state-controlled gas monopoly  to buy yuganskneftegas. baikal paid 260.75bn roubles ($9.37bn: £4.8bn) for yugansk - nowhere near the $27bn russia says yukos owes in taxes. yukos reacted immediately by repeating its view that the auction was illegal in international and russian law  and said baikal had bought itself trouble.   the company considers that the victor of today s auction has bought itself a serious $9bn headache   said yukos spokesman alexander shadrin. he said the company would continue to make  every lawful move  to protect tens of thousands of shareholders in yukos from  this forcible and illegitimate removal of their property . meanwhile  tim osborne  head of yukos main shareholders  group menatep  said that yukos may have to declare itself bankrupt  and that legal action would be taken  outside russia  against the auction winners. reports from russia say baikal has paid a deposit of nearly $1.7bn from a sberbank (savings bank) account to the russian federal property fund  for yugansk.  the sale came despite a restraining order issued by a us court dealing with the firm s bankruptcy application for chapter 11 protection. yukos has always insisted the auction was state-sponsored theft but russian authorities argued they were imposing the law  trying to recover billions in unpaid taxes. there were originally four registered bidders  and with its close ties to the kremlin  state-backed gas monopoly gazprom had been seen as favourite. but just two companies turned up for the auction  gazprom and the unknown baikal finance group  named after a large freshwater lake in siberia. and  according to tass news agency  gazprom did not make a single bid  leaving the way open for baikal  which paid above the auction start price of 246.75bn roubles.  mystery firm baikal finance group is officially registered in the central russian region of tver  but many analysts believe it may be linked to gazprom. kaha kiknavelidze  analyst at troika dialog  said:  i think a decision that yugansk should end up with gazprom was taken a long time ago. so the main question was how to structure this transaction.   i would not exclude that the structure of the deal has slightly changed and gazprom now has a partner.  i would also not exclude that baikal will decline to pay in 14 days  that are given by law  and gazprom is then recognised as the winner. this would give gazprom an extra 14 days to accumulate the needed funds.  another surprise was that the winner paid a significant premium above the starting price.  however  gazprom has announced it is not linked to baikal in any way. and paul collison  chief analyst at brunswick ubs  said:  i see no plausible explanation for the theory that baikal was representing competing interests.  yugansk will most likely end up with gazprom but could still end up with the government. there is still potential for surprises.  yugansk is at the heart of yukos - pumping close to a million barrels of oil a day. the unit was seized by the government which claims the oil giant owes more than $27bn in taxes and fines. yukos says those tax demands are exorbitant  and had sought refuge in us courts.  the us bankruptcy court s initial order on thursday - to temporarily block the sale - in response to yukos filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection  was upheld in a second ruling on saturday. the protection  if recognised by the russian authorities  would have allowed yukos  current management to retain control of the business and block the sale of any company assets. yukos has said the sale amounts to expropriation - punishment for the political ambitions of its founder  mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky is now in jail  on separate fraud charges. but president vladimir putin has described the affair as a crackdown on corruption - and the bbc s sarah rainsford in moscow says most russians believe the destruction of yukos is now inevitable. hours before the auction lawyers for menatep  a group through which mr khodorkovsky and his associates control yukos  said they would take legal action in other countries. menatep lawyers  who were excluded from observing the auction  said they would retaliate by seeking injunctions in foreign courts to impound russian oil and gas exports.


o sullivan commits to dublin race sonia o sullivan will seek to regain her title at the bupa great ireland run on 9 april in dublin.  the 35-year-old was beaten into fourth at last year s event  having won it a year earlier.  i understand she s had a solid winter s training down in australia after recovering from a minor injury   said race director matthew turnbull. mark carroll  irish record holder at 3km  5km and 10km  will make his debut in the mass participation 10km race. carroll has stepped up his form in recent weeks and in late january scored an impressive 3 000m victory over leading american alan webb in boston. carroll will be facing stiff competition from australian craig mottram  winner in dublin for the last two years.


apple sues  tiger  file sharers apple has taken more legal action to stop online leaks of its new products.  the computer giant has sued three men for releasing preview versions of its latest mac osx software onto file-sharing sites prior to its release. it said two versions of the operating system  codenamed tiger  were put onto the net in october and december. it is the second time in two weeks apple has taken legal action to protect its future products. tiger is due to be shipped in early 2005. last week  it filed a lawsuit against  unnamed individuals  who leaked details about new products onto the web.  the latest action was against members of the apple developer connection  a group of programmers which gets to see test versions of upcoming software so they can develop or change their own programs to work with them.  members of apple developer connection receive advance copies of apple software under strict confidentiality agreements  which we take very seriously to protect our intellectual property   apple said in a statement.  it added that its future financial results were very much dependent on developing and improving its operating systems and other software. it is thought the men used sites which employ bittorrent technology. with bittorrent technology  sites do not host actual files being shared  instead they host a link that points people to others that have the particular file. last week  the motion picture association of america launched a legal campaign targeting websites that operate using the bittorrent system in an effort to clamp down on movie piracy. apple is no stranger to taking legal action against those who leak product information. in december 2002  it sued a former contractor who allegedly put drawings  images and engineering details of its powermac g4 computer online. the latest action was filed on monday in the us district court in california. it comes just weeks before the macworld conference in san francisco  used to showcase new products.


parmalat to return to stockmarket parmalat  the italian dairy company which went bust after an accounting scandal  hopes to be back on the italian stock exchange in july.  the firm gained protection from creditors in 2003 after revealing debts of 14bn euros ($18.34bn; £9.6bn). this was eight times higher than it had previously stated. in a statement issued on wednesday night  parmalat finanziaria detailed administrators  latest plans for re-listing the shares of the group.  as part of the re-listing on the italian stock exchange  creditors  debts are expected to be converted into shares through two new share issues amounting to more than 2bn euros. the company s creditors will be asked to vote on the plan later this year. the plan is likely to give creditors of parmalat finanziaria shares worth about 5.7% of the debts they are owed. this is lower than the 11.3% creditors previously hoped to receive. creditors of parmalat  the main operating company  are likely to see the percentage of debt they receive fall from 7.3% to 6.9%.  several former top parmalat executives are under investigation for the fraud scandal. lawmakers said on wednesday night enrico bondi  the turnaround specialist appointed by the italian government as parmalat s chief executive  spoke positively about the company during a closed-door hearing of the chamber of deputies industry commission.  bondi supplied us with elements of positive results on the industrial positions and on the history of debt which will find a point of solution through the parmalat group s quotation on the market in july   italian news agency apcom quoted several lawmakers as saying in a statement.


irish finish with home game republic of ireland manager brian kerr has been granted his wish for a home game as the final world cup qualifier.  ireland will close their bid to reach the 2006 finals by playing switzerland in dublin on 12 october 2005. the republic met the swiss in their final euro 2004 qualifier  losing 2-0 away and missing out on a place in the finals in portugal. the group four fixtures were hammered out at a meeting in dublin on tuesday. the irish open their campaign on 4 september at home to cyprus and wrap up the 10-match series on 12 october 2005  with the visit of switzerland. manager brian kerr and fai officials met representatives from switzerland  france  cyprus  israel and the faroe islands to arrange the fixture schedule. kerr had hoped to finish with a clash against france  but got the reigning european champions as their penultimate home match on 7 september 2005. the manager got his wish to avoid a repeat of finishing their bid to qualify with too many away matches.  republic of ireland v cyprus; france v israel; switzerland v faroe islands.  switzerland v republic of ireland; israel v cyprus; faroe islands v france.  france v republic of ireland; israel v switzerland; cyprus v faroe islands.  republic of ireland v faroe islands; cyprus v france.  cyprus v israel.  france v switzerland; israel v republic of ireland.  switzerland v cyprus; israel v france.  republic of ireland v israel; faroe islands v switzerland.  faroe islands v republic of ireland. august 17 - faroe islands v cyprus.  france v faroe islands; switzerland v israel.  republic of ireland v france; cyprus v switzerland; faroe islands v israel.  switzerland v france; israel v faroe islands; cyprus v republic of ireland.  france v cyprus; republic of ireland v switzerland.


worldcom boss  left books alone  former worldcom boss bernie ebbers  who is accused of overseeing an $11bn (£5.8bn) fraud  never made accounting decisions  a witness has told jurors.  david myers made the comments under questioning by defence lawyers who have been arguing that mr ebbers was not responsible for worldcom s problems. the phone company collapsed in 2002 and prosecutors claim that losses were hidden to protect the firm s shares. mr myers has already pleaded guilty to fraud and is assisting prosecutors.  on monday  defence lawyer reid weingarten tried to distance his client from the allegations. during cross examination  he asked mr myers if he ever knew mr ebbers  make an accounting decision  .  not that i am aware of   mr myers replied.  did you ever know mr ebbers to make an accounting entry into worldcom books   mr weingarten pressed.  no   replied the witness. mr myers has admitted that he ordered false accounting entries at the request of former worldcom chief financial officer scott sullivan. defence lawyers have been trying to paint mr sullivan  who has admitted fraud and will testify later in the trial  as the mastermind behind worldcom s accounting house of cards.  mr ebbers  team  meanwhile  are looking to portray him as an affable boss  who by his own admission is more pe graduate than economist. whatever his abilities  mr ebbers transformed worldcom from a relative unknown into a $160bn telecoms giant and investor darling of the late 1990s. worldcom s problems mounted  however  as competition increased and the telecoms boom petered out. when the firm finally collapsed  shareholders lost about $180bn and 20 000 workers lost their jobs. mr ebbers  trial is expected to last two months and if found guilty the former ceo faces a substantial jail sentence. he has firmly declared his innocence.


car giant hit by mercedes slump a slump in profitability at luxury car maker mercedes has prompted a big drop in profits at parent daimlerchrysler.  the german-us carmaker saw fourth quarter operating profits fall to 785m euros ($1bn) from 2.4bn euros in 2003. mercedes-benz s woes - its profits slid to just 20m euros - obscured a strong performance from the chrysler group whose returns met market expectations. mercedes faces fierce competition in the luxury car sector from bmw and but hopes to revive its fortunes by 2006.  mercedes  profits over the period compared unfavourably with 2003 s 784m euro figure and were well below analyst expectations of 374m euros. for the year as a whole  its operating profits fell 46% to 1.6bn euros. sales of mercedes  brands fell 2% as demand cooled  while revenues were affected by the weakness of the us dollar.  the carmaker blamed the fall in profits on high launch costs for new models and losses from its mercedes smart mini-car range. mercedes is hoping to increase productivity by 3bn euros  having negotiated 500m euros in annual savings with german workers last year. the firm said it was determined to retain mercedes  position as the world s most successful luxury brand. however  daimlerchrysler s shares fell 1.5% on the news.  while all these divisions are doing well the big worries continue to surround mercedes-benz   michael rabb  an analyst with bank sal oppenheim  told reuters.  in contrast  chrysler enjoyed a 5% annual increase in unit sales while revenues - calculated in us dollars - rose 10%. the us division - whose marques include dodge and jeep - transformed a full year operating loss of 506m euros in 2003 into a 1.4bn euros profit last year.  overall  daimlerchrysler saw worldwide vehicle sales rise 8% to 4.7 million in 2004 while total revenues added 4% to 142bn euros. chrysler s strong performance helped the world s fifth largest carmaker boost net income by 400m euros to 2.5bn euros.   the year 2004 shows that our strategy works well - even in such a challenging competitive environment   said jurgen schrempp  daimlerchrysler s chairman. daimlerchrysler took a 475m euro hit in costs stemming from a defects scandal at its joint venture  japanese subsidiary fuso. daimlerchrysler last week agreed a compensation package with partner mitsubishi motors which will see it buy out its stake in fuso. looking forward  daimerchrysler s profits are expected to be slightly higher in 2005. however  it is expecting  significant improvements  in profitability in 2006 as a result of a major investment in the mercedes product range.


anelka apologises for criticism manchester city striker nicolas anelka has issued an apology for criticising the ambitions of the club.  anelka was quoted in a french newspaper as saying he would like to play in the champions league for a bigger club. but chairman john wardle said:  i ve spoken to nicolas and he s apologised for anything that might have been mistakenly taken from the french press.  we are a big club. nicolas told me that he agrees with me that we are a big club.  wardle was speaking at the club s annual general meeting  where he also confirmed the club had not received any bids for the former arsenal and real madrid striker. the club still owe french club psg £5m from the purchase of anelka in may 2002. he has been linked with a move to barcelona and liverpool  and reds skipper steven gerrard also revealed he is an admirer from his time on loan at anfield. but wardle added:  there s been no bids for nicolas anelka. no-one has come to me and said i would like to buy nicolas anelka.   if a bid comes in for nicolas anelka i will speak to the board and then speak to kevin keegan.  if there was a bid and it was a bid of substance and worth taking then between us we d decide.  we still owe some money on nicolas which we have clear out  so it would have to be above that.  wardle did stress that the club was not inviting any offers for england winger shaun wright-phillips. he added:  i ve no intention of selling shaun wright-phillips.  if someone comes with a silly bid i ll have to discuss it.  but we re not putting him on the shelf to sell. he is the heart and soul of this club and has his heart and sole in this club  and he would be very upset if i put him in the shop window.  he was an academy kid here  he s just signed a new four-year deal  i don t think he d do that unless he wanted to play for manchester city football club.  city recently announced debts of £62m  but wardle confirmed they would try and find funds to bring in players in the january transfer window. he said:  like kevin i d like to see some players come in. we ve got to see what we can do - whether it s a on a bosman or not.  we will try to be creative to generate some funds. but maybe we have to start looking at clubs like everton and bolton to see how they have been dealing in the transfer market and do a similar type of thing.


finnan says irish can win group steve finnan believes the republic of ireland can qualify directly for the world cup finals.  after saturday s superb display in the draw in paris  ireland face minnows the faroe islands in dublin on wednesday. the versatile finnan  who starred against the french  is confident the group is ireland s for the taking.  there is a chance for us now to go on  win our home games and why not win the group  even though it s a tough one   said the liverpool player. switzerland  ireland  france and israel are all now tied on five points from three matches - although the republic look to have a slight edge after claiming away draws in basel and paris.  in basel we did not play great football  but when you to go to these places the other teams are going to have the majority of the game.  in paris  we looked good throughout the team and a point was the least we deserved because we had a number of chances.   looking back  we had an opportunity to get the three points  but we are happy with a point and that will give us confidence going into wednesday s game.  on paper  we have got the toughest matches out of the way and we have set standards for ourselves.  automatic qualification is there. it would certainly be good to avoid a play-off  but on the back of a couple of good results i don t see why we can t win the group.  manager brian kerr was keen to mention the contribution of stephen carr and finnan on ireland s right flank at the stade de france. finnan s normal position is right-back but he looked assured in a more advanced position against the french.  as i play on the right for my club and being a natural right-back  it was something he (kerr) looked at because france play strongly down the left-hand side.  so i was happy to play and stephen carr and i enjoyed the game  particularly as the defence and midfield held together well and nullified their attacks.


moyes u-turn on beattie dismissal everton manager david moyes will discipline striker james beattie after all for his headbutt on chelsea defender william gallas.  the scot initially defended beattie  whose dismissal put everton on the back foot in a game they ultimately lost 1-0  saying gallas overreacted. but he has had a rethink after looking over the video evidence again. he said:  i believe that i should set the record straight by conceding that the dismissal was right and correct.  moyes added:  my comments on saturday came immediately after the final whistle and at a point when i had only had the opportunity to see one  very quick re-run of the incident.   the club website also reported that beattie  who seemed unrepentant after saturday s match  insisting gallas  would have stayed down a lot longer  if he had headbutted him  has now apologised. moyes continued:  although the incident was totally out of character - james has never even been suspended before in his career - his actions were unacceptable and had a detrimental effect on his team-mates.  james did issue a formal apology to myself  his team-mates and to the everton supporters immediately after the game and that was the right thing to have done. he will now be subjected to the normal club discipline.  he is a competitive player but a fair player and i know how upset he is by what has happened. however  i must say that i do still believe the chelsea player in question did go down too easily.  speaking immediately after the game  moyes said:  i don t think it was a sending-off  i have been a centre-half in my time and i would have been ashamed to have gone down as easily as that.   not in a million years would john terry have gone down in the same way. i have never heard of anybody butting somebody from behind while you are running after them.  what has happened to big  strong centre-halves  i thought it was a push initially and i still don t think it was a sending-off.  an angry beattie initially said:  he (gallas) would have stayed down a lot longer if i had headbutted him.  i can tell you it wasn t an intentional headbutt. we were chasing a ball into the corner and william gallas was looking over his shoulder and blocking me off.  he was stopping as we were running and i said to myself  if you re going to stay in my way i ll go straight over you . our heads barely touched and it wasn t an intentional headbutt.


search sites get closer to users search sites want to get to know you better.  not content with providing access to the millions of websites  many now offer ways that do a better job of remembering  cataloguing and managing all the information you come across. some of the latest to update their search systems are ask jeeves and blinkx  which have both released a series of utilities that try to help people get more from the web.  the future is all about developing your own personal web   said tony macklin  spokesman for ask jeeves.  mr macklin said that too often when people use a search engine it was like the first time they ever used it  because there was no memory of what they had searched for before.  each time you go back in you have to start all over again   he said. the series of updates to its service  collected under the my ask jeeves banner  would help people remember where they had been before.  ask jeeves has added the ability to  save  websites of interest so the next time a users visits the site they can search through the sites they have previously found. sites saved in this way can be arranged in folders and have notes attached to them to explain why they were saved. mr macklin said many people wanted to save sites they had seen but did not want to add them to their bookmarks or favourites not least because such lists cannot be easily searched. on average  said mr macklin  users conduct between five and 10 searches per day and the tools in my ask jeeves should stop them having to do searches twice and get to what they want much more easily. under my ask jeeves users can search the web or through the results they have already noted as interesting.  it s about finding again what you found before   he said. the my ask jeeves service lets people store up to a 1000 web links or 5000 if they sign up to the free service. by way of comparison google s desktop search tool catalogues search histories informally and lets people look through the sites they have visited.  at the same time  search start-up blinkx has released a second version of its eponymous software. blinkx is desktop search software that watches what someone is working on  be it a document or e-mail  and suggests websites  video clips  blogs or documents on a pc that are relevant to it.  since blinkx launched it has faced increased competition from firms such as google  copernic  enfish  x1 and apple all of whom now have programs that let people search their pc as well as the web.  the competition has validated the problem we tackle   said suranga chandratillake  co-founder of blinkx. in the latest release of blinkx  the company has added what it calls smart folders. once created the folders act as persistent queries that automatically sweep the web for pages related to their subject and catalogues relevant information  documents or incoming e-mails  on hard drives too. what users do with blinkx and other desktop search engines shows that people tend to be very promiscuous in their use of search engines.  blinkx users do not stop using other web search systems   he said.  they might use google to look up a company  or yahoo for travel because they know they are good at that   he said.  the classic thing we have seen recently  is people using blinkx to look at the things they have searched on   he said. the variety of ways to search data was only helping users  said mr chandratillake and that it was likely that in the future people would use different ones for different tasks.


o sullivan keeps his powder dry when you are gunning for glory and ultimate success keeping the gunpowder dry is essential.  ireland coach eddie o sullivan appears to have done that quite successfully in the run-up to this season s six nations championship. he decreed after the 2003 world cup that players should have a decent conditioning period during the year. that became a reality at the end of last summer with a 10-week period at the start of the this season. it may have annoyed his scottish  and in particularly welsh  cousins who huffed and puffed at the disrespect apparently shown to the celtic league. we will say nothing of mike ruddock   poaching   eight of the dragons side that faced leinster on sunday. but  like o sullivan  he was well within his rights  particularly when you are talking about the national side and pride that goes along with it. the irfu has thrown their weight behind o sullivan  who must be glad that in the main  there is centrally-controlled contracts. bar keith gleeson who is just returning from a broken leg  everyone of o sullivan s squad is fit  fresh and standing at the oche ready to launch this season s campaign.  but i doubt whether o sullivan is going to gloat about the handling of his players. he is not that sort of person. however  he may look at the overworked and injury-hit england  wales and france squads whose players have been overworked  and then pat himself on the back for his foresight. but there is still the question of turning up and transferring that freshness into positive results when the referee signals the start of the game. already ireland are being earmarked as hot favourites in many quarters to go the whole hog this season. a first grand slam since karl mullen s led the team to a clean sweep in 1948. with england and france visiting lansdowne road for the last time before the old darling is pulled down  everything looks perfectly placed. but in the days of yore that frightened the life out of any irishman.  under the burden of great expectations  ireland have crumpled. take the triple crown-winning side of 1985 under mick doyle. they were expected to up the ante further for a grand slam  only the second in ireland s history. what happened in 1986  whitewashed. you see  ireland  in any sport  love to be downsized. then they can go out and prove a point to the contrary. it is the nature of the beast. but o sullivan s side are very capable of proving a salient point this season. after their first triple crown for 19 years  they can live up to their success and take a further step up the ladder. o sullivan has kept faith and displayed loyalty to his players  and they have repaid him in spades ... and there is more to come. he has some old dogs in his squad  but he will come to this season s championship with a different box of tricks  and a new verve to succeed. ireland can indeed succeed  but just whisper it.


a decade of good website design the web looks very different today than it did 10 years ago.  back in 1994  yahoo had only just launched  most websites were text-based and amazon  google and ebay had yet to appear. but  says usability guru dr jakob nielsen  some things have stayed constant in that decade  namely the principles of what makes a site easy to use. dr nielsen has looked back at a decade of work on usability and considered whether the 34 core guidelines drawn up back then are relevant to the web of today.  roughly 80% of the things we found 10 years ago are still an issue today   he said.  some have gone away because users have changed and 10% have changed because technology has changed.   some design crimes  such as splash screens that get between a user and the site they are trying to visit  and web designers indulging their artistic urges have almost disappeared  said dr nielsen.   but there s great stability on usability concerns   he told the bbc news website. dr nielsen said the basic principles of usability  centring around ease of use and clear thinking about a site s total design  were as important as ever.  it s necessary to be aware of these things as issues because they remain as such   he said. they are still important because the net has not changed as much as people thought it would.  a lot of people thought that design and usability was only a temporary problem because broadband was taking off   he said.  but there are a very small number of cases where usability issues go away because you have broadband.   dr nielsen said the success of sites such as google  amazon  ebay and yahoo showed that close attention to design and user needs was important.  those four sites are extremely profitable and extremely successful   said dr nielsen  adding that they have largely defined commercial success on the net.   all are based on user empowerment and make it easy for people to do things on the internet   he said.  they are making simple but powerful tools available to the user.  none of them have a fancy or glamorous look   he added  declaring himself surprised that these sites have not been more widely copied. in the future  dr nielsen believes that search engines will play an even bigger part in helping people get to grips with the huge amount of information online.  they are becoming like the operating system to the internet   he said. but  he said  the fact that they are useful now does not meant that they could not do better. currently  he said  search sites did not do a very good job of describing the information that they return in response to queries. often people had to look at a website just to judge whether it was useful or not. tools that watch the behaviour of people on websites to see what they actually find useful could also help refine results. research by dr nielsen shows that people are getting more sophisticated in their use of search engines. the latest statistics on how many words people use on search engines shows that  on average  they use 2.2 terms. in 1994 only 1.3 words were used.  i think it s amazing that we have seen a doubling in a 10-year period of those search terms   said dr nielsen.  you can hear more from jakob nielsen and web design on the bbc world service programme  go digital


england given tough sevens draw england will have to negotiate their way through a tough draw if they are to win the rugby world cup sevens in hong kong next month.  the second seeds have been drawn against samoa  france  italy  georgia and chinese taipei. the top two sides in each pool qualify but england could face 2001 winners new zealand in the quarter-finals if they stumble against samoa. scotland and ireland are in pool a together with the all blacks. england won the first event of the international rugby board world sevens series in dubai but have slipped to fourth in the table after failing to build on that victory.  however  they beat samoa in the recent los angeles sevens before losing to argentina in the semi-finals.  england have the ability and determination to win this world cup and create sporting history by being the only nation to hold both the 15s and sevens world cups at the same time   said england sevens coach mike friday.  england have a fantastic record in hong kong and have won there the last three years  but the world cup is on a different level.  every pool contains teams who have caused upsets before and we will have to work hard to ensure we progress from our group.  we have not performed consistently to our true potential so far in the irb sevens which has been disappointing - but we can only look forward.  england won the first rugby world cup sevens in 1993 with a side that included the likes of lawrence dallaglio and matt dawson. in 1997 and 2001  england lost in the quarter-finals.  (seeds in brackets)  new zealand (1)  scotland (8)  tonga  ireland  korea  usa.  england (2)  samoa (7)  france  italy  georgia  chinese taipei.  fiji (3)  australia (6)  canada  portugal  japan  hong kong.  argentina (4)  south africa (5)  kenya  tunisia  russia  uruguay.


apple attacked over sources row civil liberties group the electronic frontier foundation (eff) has joined a legal fight between three us online journalists and apple.  apple wants the reporters to reveal 20 sources used for stories which leaked information about forthcoming products  including the mac mini. the eff  representing the reporters  has asked california s superior court to stop apple pursuing the sources. it argues that the journalists are protected by the american constitution. the eff says the case threatens the basic freedoms of the press.  apple is particularly keen to find the source for information about an unreleased product code-named asteroid and has asked the journalists  e-mail providers to hand over communications relevant to that.  rather than confronting the issue of reporter s privilege head-on  apple is going to the journalist s isps for his e-mails   said eff lawyer kurt opsahl.  this undermines a fundamental first amendment right that protects all reporters.  if the court lets apple get away with this  and exposes the confidences gained by these reporters  potential confidential sources will be deterred from providing information to the media and the public will lose a vital outlet for independent news  analysis and commentary   he said. the case began in december 2004 when apple asked a local californian court to get the journalists to reveal their sources for articles published on websites appleinsider.com and powerpage.org.  apple also sent requested information from the nfox.com  the internet service provider of powerpage s publisher jason o-grady. as well as looking at how far corporations can go in preventing information from being published  the case will also examine whether online journalists have the same privileges and protections as those writing for newspapers and magazines. the eff has gained some powerful allies in its legal battle with apple  including professor tom goldstein  former dean of the journalism school at the university of california and dan gillmor  a well-known silicon valley journalist. apple was not immediately available for comment.


moody joins up with england lewis moody has flown to dublin to join england s camp ahead of their rbs six nations game against ireland on sunday.  despite joining the squad  the leicester flanker only has a  slim  chance of playing because of an infection in his finger. a decision will be taken on saturday as to whether the 26-year-old will be declared fit. if he fails to recover in time for the game  his place at the back of the pack will be taken by andy hazell. chris jones will then start the game on the bench.  the chances of him playing are very slim   said coach andy robinson.  the infection is deeper than was thought.   moody had to be put on a drip in an attempt to force antibiotics through his infected finger. he suffered the cut playing against france at twickenham and it became infected during a 10-minute outing as a replacement for leicester against newcastle last saturday.  the mud got into it   robinson added.  he has had a big course of antibiotics but they haven t done the job we hoped they would.  robinson has already been forced to make one change to the starting line-up with bath prop matt stevens coming in for the injured phil vickery.  the 22-year-old has only made 10 starts for his club but has made 49 appearances from the bench.  it can be frustrating but i ve had a lot more game time this season and i m ready for it   stevens said.  i ve been on tour with these boys and i ve been in the england set-up for two years so i know the calls and the way they play.  stevens will be winning his third cap on sunday after coming on twice as a replacement on the tour to new zealand last year.  robinson has confirmed that fly-half charlie hodgson will be the first-choice kicker despite his three missed penalties and a drop goal against france.  charlie s state of mind is very good   said robinson.  obviously  we are all disappointed we lost the french game and the circumstances in which we did.  but he responded well last week in his goalkicking for sale and he will be our first-choice kicker this week.   robinson also admits his side must improve their line-out work against irish duo malcolm o kelly and paul o connell  one of the most effective partnerships in the game.  in each game we ve missed a number of line-outs   he added.  it cost us the game against wales but it has improved.  it was better against france and will have to go up another notch against ireland. it will be a huge battle.  look at the way they tore us apart last year. if it doesn t function  we will be in for a torrid time.


iraqi voters turn to economic issues beyond the desperate security situation in iraq lies an economy in tatters.  a vicious cycle of unemployment  poor social services and poverty has been made worse by a lack of investment. so there is much hope that an elected government will break the deadlock.  first rule of law  then the economy   says radwan hadi  deputy managing director of aberdeen-based oil and gas consultancy blackwatch petroleum services  which entered iraq in 2003. mr hadi s view about what the new government s priorities should be is shared by many iraqis. the economy has become the second-most dominant issue for many political parties ahead of sunday s election  according to bristol university political scientist anne alexander  who is working on a project that looks at governance and security in post-war iraq.  job creation ranks high both on election manifestos and on the iraqi people s wish list. nobody knows exactly how many iraqis are out of work  but it is clear that the situation is dire.  estimates of iraq s unemployment rate vary  but we estimate it to be between 30-40%   the washington-based independent think-tank the brookings institution says in its iraq index. but some progress has been made  largely thanks to the country s oil revenues which have exceeded $22bn since june 2003.  iraq s infrastructure is on the mend  with notable improvements having been made in areas such as electricity supply  irrigation  telephone networks and the re-opening of hospitals. but serious problems remain and the growing divide between haves and have-nots is angering voters. one iraqi woman told ms alexander about her frustration as she watched tv adverts for private hospitals soon after having failed to track down basic medicines from baghdad s pharmacies. observes mr hadi:  the economy at present marks a big divide; the rich get richer  the poor get poorer.  an indication of this can be seen in the world of finance where  in contrast with the daily plight of ordinary people  19 private banks operate  only one of which is run in accordance with islamic banking principles. hopes are high for the future of finance  so foreign banks have been buying into the sector. national bank of kuwait has bought a majority stake in credit bank of iraq  the jordanian investment bank export & finance bank has bought 49% of national bank of iraq.  foreign firms also hope to cash in on the reconstruction effort. bechtel s efforts to rebuild schools and restore power have attracted controversy as well as boosting its bottom line while halliburton has enjoyed a wealth of military contracts. but the involvement of foreign firms in the health and banking sectors and beyond sits uneasily with many iraqis who are accustomed to the state taking responsibility for functions that are essential to making society work  observes ms alexander.  it is seen as a selling off of iraq s assets and bringing in multinationals at the expense of iraqi businesses and iraqi workers   she says. consequently  the transitional government has been forced to backtrack in recent months over its proposal to allow 100% foreign ownership of iraqi assets  she explains. in the west  it is easy to forget that the otherwise brutal baathist regime used to look after the majority of iraq s citizens rather well in terms of job creation  social security and healthcare. opinion polls suggest that  people still want the state to take a leading role in providing these things   ms alexander says.  yet in some areas of the economy  investment from abroad is still warmly welcomed  insists mr hadi  an iraqi who left the country three decades ago.  i think the private sector will evolve incredibly fast   mr hadi says.  iraq s vast natural resources can support any magnitude of economic growth.   many foreign companies say they are keen to get in on the act  yet few are actually entering the country in any meaningful way. but there are exceptions. mr hadi s blackwatch is just one of many small operators preparing for a much bigger future. blackwatch s baghdad-based affiliate falcon group has dozens of people working for it across the country in kirkuk and baghdad  and its engineers and geo-scientists work with the iraqi oil ministry to hammer out technology transfer issues  mr hadi points out.  these guys are trying to work. the iraqi business people will do business at all times.  life goes on in iraq  the people take responsibility  they want to live normal lives.