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"Labour plans maternity pay rise..Maternity pay for new mothers is to rise by £1,400 as part of new proposals announced by the Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt...It would mean paid leave would be increased to nine months by 2007, Ms Hewitt told GMTV's Sunday programme. Other plans include letting maternity pay be given to fathers and extending rights to parents of older children. The Tories dismissed the maternity pay plan as ""desperate"", while the Liberal Democrats said it was misdirected...Ms Hewitt said: ""We have already doubled the length of maternity pay, it was 13 weeks when we were elected, we have already taken it up to 26 weeks. ""We are going to extend the pay to nine months by 2007 and the aim is to get it right up to the full 12 months by the end of the next Parliament."" She said new mothers were already entitled to 12 months leave, but that many women could not take it as only six of those months were paid. ""We have made a firm commitment. We will definitely extend the maternity pay, from the six months where it now is to nine months, that's the extra £1,400."" She said ministers would consult on other proposals that could see fathers being allowed to take some of their partner's maternity pay or leave period, or extending the rights of flexible working to carers or parents of older children. The Shadow Secretary of State for the Family, Theresa May, said: ""These plans were announced by Gordon Brown in his pre-budget review in December and Tony Blair is now recycling it in his desperate bid to win back women voters.""..She said the Conservatives would announce their proposals closer to the General Election. Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for women Sandra Gidley said: ""While mothers would welcome any extra maternity pay the Liberal Democrats feel this money is being misdirected."" She said her party would boost maternity pay in the first six months to allow more women to stay at home in that time...Ms Hewitt also stressed the plans would be paid for by taxpayers, not employers. But David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, warned that many small firms could be ""crippled"" by the move. ""While the majority of any salary costs may be covered by the government's statutory pay, recruitment costs, advertising costs, retraining costs and the strain on the company will not be,"" he said. Further details of the government's plans will be outlined on Monday. New mothers are currently entitled to 90% of average earnings for the first six weeks after giving birth, followed by £102.80 a week until the baby is six months old.",politics
"Watchdog probes e-mail deletions..The information commissioner says he is urgently asking for details of Cabinet Office orders telling staff to delete e-mails more than three months old...Richard Thomas ""totally condemned"" the deletion of e-mails to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information laws coming into force on 1 January. Government guidance said e-mails should only be deleted if they served ""no current purpose"", Mr Thomas said. The Tories and the Lib Dems have questioned the timing of the new rules...Tory leader Michael Howard has written to Tony Blair demanding an explanation of the new rules on e-mail retention. On Monday Lib Dem constitutional affairs committee chairman Alan Beith warned that the deletion of millions of government e-mails could harm the ability of key probes like the Hutton Inquiry. The timing of the new rules just before the Freedom of Information Act comes into forces was ""too unlikely to have been a coincidence"", Mr Beith said. But a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the move was not about the new laws or ""the destruction of important records"". Mr Beith urged the information commissioner to look at how the ""e-mail regime"" could ""support the freedom of information regime""...Mr Thomas said: ""The new Act of Parliament makes it very clear that to destroy records in order to prevent their disclosure becomes a criminal offence."" He said there was already clear guidance on the retention of e-mails contained in a code of practice from the lord chancellor. All e-mails are subject to the freedom of information laws, but the important thing was the content of the e-mail, said Mr Thomas...""If in doubt retain, that has been the long-standing principle of the civil service and public authorities. It's only when you've got no further use for the particular record that it may be legitimate to destroy it. ""But any deliberate destruction to avoid the possibility of later disclosure is to be totally condemned."" The Freedom of Information Act will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year. Similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions. Its implementation will be monitored by the information commissioner.",politics
"Hewitt decries 'career sexism'..Plans to extend paid maternity leave beyond six months should be prominent in Labour's election manifesto, the Trade and Industry Secretary has said...Patricia Hewitt said the cost of the proposals was being evaluated, but it was an ""increasingly high priority"" and a ""shared goal across government"". Ms Hewitt was speaking at a gender and productivity seminar organised by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC). Mothers can currently take up to six months' paid leave - and six unpaid. Ms Hewitt told the seminar: ""Clearly, one of the things we need to do in the future is to extend the period of payment for maternity leave beyond the first six months into the second six months. ""We are looking at how quickly we can do that, because obviously there are cost implications because the taxpayer reimburses the employers for the cost of that.""..Ms Hewitt also announced a new drive to help women who want to work in male dominated sectors, saying sexism at work was still preventing women reaching their full potential. Plans include funding for universities to help female science and engineering graduates find jobs and ""taster courses"" for men and women in non-traditional jobs. Women in full-time work earn 19% less than men, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)...The minister told delegates that getting rid of ""career sexism"" was vital to closing the gender pay gap...""Career sexism limits opportunities for women of all ages and prevents them from achieving their full potential. ""It is simply wrong to assume someone cannot do a job on the grounds of their sex,"" she said. Earlier, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""What we are talking about here is the fact that about six out of 20 women work in jobs that are low-paid and typically dominated by women, so we have got very segregated employment. ""Unfortunately, in some cases, this reflects very old-fashioned and stereotypical ideas about the appropriate jobs for women, or indeed for men. ""Career sexism is about saying that engineering, for instance, where only 10% of employees are women, is really a male-dominated industry. Construction is even worse. ""But it is also about saying childcare jobs are really there for women and not suitable for men. Career sexism goes both ways.""..She added that while progress had been made, there was still a gap in pay figures. ""The average woman working full-time is being paid about 80p for every pound a man is earning. For women working part-time it is 60p."" The Department for Trade and Industry will also provide funding to help a new pay experts panel run by the TUC...It has been set up to advise hundreds of companies on equal wage policies. Research conducted by the EOC last year revealed that many Britons believe the pay gap between men and women is the result of ""natural differences"" between the sexes. Women hold less than 10% of the top positions in FTSE 100 companies, the police, the judiciary and trade unions, according to their figures. And retired women have just over half the income of their male counterparts on average.",politics
"Labour chooses Manchester..The Labour Party will hold its 2006 autumn conference in Manchester and not Blackpool, it has been confirmed...The much trailed decision was ratified by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee in a break with the traditional choice of a seaside venue. It will be the first time since 1917 that the party has chosen Manchester to host the annual event. Blackpool will get the much smaller February spring conference instead in what will be seen as a placatory move...For years the main political parties have rotated between Blackpool, Bournemouth and Brighton. And the news the much larger annual conference is not to gather in Blackpool will be seen as a blow in the coastal resort. In 1998 the party said it would not return to Blackpool but did so in 2002. The following year Bournemouth hosted the event before the party signed a two year deal for Brighton to host the autumn conference...Colin Asplin, Blackpool Hotel Association said: ""We have tried very hard to make sure they come back to Blackpool. ""Obviously we have failed in that. I just hope Manchester can handle the crowds. ""It amazes me that the Labour Party, which is a working class party, doesn't want to come to the main working class resort in the country."" The exact cost to Blackpool in terms of lost revenue for hotel accommodation is not yet known but it is thought that block bookings will be taken at the major Manchester hotels after the official announcement.",politics
"Brown ally rejects Budget spree..Chancellor Gordon Brown's closest ally has denied suggestions there will be a Budget giveaway on 16 March...Ed Balls, ex-chief economic adviser to the Treasury, said there would be no spending spree before polling day. But Mr Balls, a prospective Labour MP, said he was confident the chancellor would meet his fiscal rules. He was speaking as Sir Digby Jones, CBI director general, warned Mr Brown not to be tempted to use any extra cash on pre-election bribes...Mr Balls, who stepped down from his Treasury post to stand as a Labour candidate in the election, had suggested that Mr Brown would meet his golden economic rule - ""with a margin to spare"". He said he hoped more would be done to build on current tax credit rules...He also stressed rise in interest rates ahead of an expected May election would not affect the Labour Party's chances of winning. Expectations of a rate rise have gathered pace after figures showed house prices are still rising. Consumer borrowing rose at a near-record pace in January. ""If the MPC (the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee) were to judge that a rate rise was justified before the election because of the strength of the economy - and I'm not predicting that they will - I do not believe that this will be a big election issue in Britain for Labour,"" he told a Parliamentary lunch. ""This is a big change in our political culture.""..During an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Balls said he was sure Mr Brown's Budget would not put at risk the stability of the economy. ""I don't think we'll see a pre-election spending spree - we certainly did not see that before 2001,"" he said...His assurances came after Sir Digby Jones said stability was all important and any extra cash should be spent on improving workers' skills. His message to the chancellor was: ""Please don't give it away in any form of electioneering."" Sir Digby added: ""I don't think he will. I have to say he has been a prudent chancellor right the way through. Stability is the key word - British business needs boring stability more than anything. ""We would say to him 'don't increase your public spending, don't give it away. But if you are going to anywhere, just add something to the competitiveness of Britain, put it into skilling our people'. ""That would be a good way to spend any excess.""..Mr Balls refused to say whether Mr Brown would remain as chancellor after the election, amid speculation he will be offered the job of Foreign Secretary. ""I think that Gordon Brown wants to be part of the successful Labour government which delivers in the third term for the priorities of the people and sees off a Conservative Party that will take Britain backwards,"" Mr Balls told Today. Prime Minister Tony Blair has yet to name the date of the election, but most pundits are betting on 5 May.",politics
"'Errors' doomed first Dome sale..The initial attempt to sell the Millennium Dome failed due to a catalogue of errors, a report by the government's finance watchdog says...The report said too many parties were involved in decision-making when the attraction first went on sale after the Millennium exhibition ended. The National Audit Office said the Dome cost taxpayers £28.7m to maintain and sell in the four years after it closed. Finally, a deal to turn it into a sport and entertainment venue was struck. More than £550m could now be returned to the public sector in the wake of the deal to regenerate the site in Greenwich, London...The NAO report said that this sale went through because it avoided many of the problems of the previous attempt to sell the Dome. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said a good deal had been secured. ""Delivery of the many benefits secured through this deal will continue the substantial progress already made at the Millennium Village and elsewhere on the peninsula,"" he said. But Edward Leigh, who is chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, warned the government would have to work hard to ensure taxpayers would get full benefit from the Dome deal. He said: ""This report also shows that the first attempt to sell the Dome proved a complete fiasco. Every arm of government seems to have had a finger in the pie. The process was confused and muddled."" He added: ""Four years after the Millennium Exhibition closed, the Government finally has a deal to find a use for what has been a white elephant since it closed in a deal that, incredible as it may seem, should bring in some money and provide a benefit for the local area and the country as whole. However, it was more a question of luck that a strong bid turned up after thefirst abortive attempt."" NAO head Sir John Bourn said: ""In difficult circumstances following the failure of the first competition, English Partnerships and the office of the deputy prime minister have worked hard to get a deal.""",politics
"Fox attacks Blair's Tory 'lies'..Tony Blair lied when he took the UK to war so has no qualms about lying in the election campaign, say the Tories...Tory co-chairman Liam Fox was speaking after Mr Blair told Labour members the Tories offered a ""hard right agenda"". Dr Fox told BBC Radio: ""If you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war, I guess you are going to lie about anything at all."" He would not discuss reports the party repaid £500,000 to Lord Ashcroft after he predicted an election defeat...The prime minister ratcheted up Labour's pre-election campaigning at the weekend with a helicopter tour of the country and his speech at the party's spring conference. He insisted he did not know the poll date, but it is widely expected to be 5 May...In what was seen as a highly personal speech in Gateshead on Sunday, Mr Blair said: ""I have the same passion and hunger as when I first walked through the door of 10 Downing Street."" He described his relationship with the public as starting euphoric, then struggling to live up to the expectations, and reaching the point of raised voices and ""throwing crockery"". He warned his supporters against complacency, saying: ""It's a fight for the future of our country, it's a fight that for Britain and the people of Britain we have to win.""..Mr Blair said that whether the public chose Michael Howard or Mr Kennedy, it would result in ""a Tory government not a Labour government and a country that goes back and does not move forward"". Dr Fox accused Mr Blair and other Cabinet ministers of telling lies about their opponents' policies and then attacking the lies. ""What we learned at the weekend is what Labour tactics are going to be and it's going to be fear and smear,"" he told BBC News. The Tory co-chairman attacked Labour's six new pledges as ""vacuous"" and said Mr Blair was very worried voters would take revenge for his failure to deliver. Dr Fox refused to discuss weekend newspaper reports that the party had repaid £500,000 to former Tory Treasurer Lord Ashcroft after he said the party could not win the election. ""We repay loans when they are due but do not comment to individual financial matters,"" he said, insisting he enjoyed a ""warm and constructive"" relationship to Lord Ashcroft...Meanwhile Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy is expected to attack Mr Blair's words as he begins a nationwide tour on Monday. Mr Kennedy is accelerating Lib Dem election preparations this week as he visits Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Somerset, Basingstoke, Shrewsbury, Dorset and Torbay. He said: ""This is three-party politics. In the northern cities, the contest is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. ""In southern and rural seats - especially in the South West - the principal contenders are the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, who are out of the running in Scotland and Wales."" The Lib Dems accuse Mr Blair of making a ""touchy-feely"" speech to Labour delegates which will not help him regain public trust.",politics
"Women MPs reveal sexist taunts..Women MPs endure ""shocking"" levels of sexist abuse at the hands of their male counterparts, a new study shows...Male MPs pretended to juggle imaginary breasts and jeered ""melons"" as women made Commons speeches, researchers from Birkbeck College were told. Labour's Yvette Cooper said she found it hard to persuade Commons officials she was a minister and not a secretary. Some 83 MPs gave their answers in 100 hours of taped interviews for the study ""Whose Secretary are You, minister""...The research team, under Professor Joni Lovenduski, had set out to look at the achievements and experiences of women at Westminster. But what emerged was complaints from MPs of all parties of sexist barracking in the Chamber, sexist insults and patronising assumptions about their abilities. Barbara Follet, one of the so-called ""Blair Babes"" elected in 1997, told researchers: ""I remember some Conservatives - whenever a Labour woman got up to speak they would take their breasts - imaginary breasts - in their hands and wiggle them and say 'melons' as we spoke."" Former Liberal Democrat MP Jackie Ballard recalled a stream of remarks from a leading MP on topics such as women's legs or their sexual persuasion. And ex-Tory education secretary Gillian Shepherd remembered how one of her male colleagues called all women ""Betty""...""When I said, 'Look you know my name isn't Betty', he said, 'ah but you're all the same, so I call you all Betty'."" Harriet Harman told researchers of the sheer hostility prompted by her advancement to the Cabinet: ""Well, you've only succeeded because you're a woman."" Another current member of the Cabinet says she was told: ""Oh, you've had a very fast rise, who have you been sleeping with?"" Even after the great influx of women MPs at the 1997 general election, and greater numbers of women in the Cabinet, female MPs often say they feel stuck on the edge of a male world...Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather, the most recent female MP to be elected, told researchers: ""Lots of people say it's like an old boys club. ""I've always said to me it feels more like a teenage public school - you know a public school full of teenagers."" Prof Joni Lovenduski, who conducted the study with the help of Margaret Moran MP and a team of journalists, said she was shocked at the findings. ""We expected a bit of this but nothing like this extent. We expected to find a couple of shocking episodes."" But she said there was a difference between the experiences of women before the 1997 intake and afterwards. This was mainly because there were more women present in Parliament who were not prepared to ""put up with"" the sexist attitudes they came across, Prof Lovenduski said. But she added: ""Some women, including the women who came in 1997, received extraordinary treatment and I am not convinced that if the number of women changed back to what it was before 1997 that things would not change back. ""What I think is shocking to the general public is that these things go on in the House of Commons."" The interviews are to be placed in the British Library as a historical record.",politics
"Campbell: E-mail row 'silly fuss'..Ex-No 10 media chief Alastair Campbell is at the centre of a new political row over an e-mail containing a four-letter outburst aimed at BBC journalists...Mr Campbell sent the missive by mistake to BBC2's Newsnight after it sought to question his role in Labour's controversial poster campaign. He later contacted the show saying the original e-mail had been sent in error and that it was all a ""silly fuss"". Mr Campbell has recently re-joined Labour's election campaign...The e-mail was revealed the day after Peter Mandelson, former Labour minister and now a European Commissioner, warned the BBC to steer away from ""demonising"" Mr Campbell. Mr Campbell messaged Newsnight after the programme investigated claims that Labour's advertising agency TBWA was blaming him for controversy over its campaign posters. The images, including one of flying pigs and another of what critics claim depicted Tory leader Michael Howard as Fagin, prompted accusations of anti-Semitism, claims denied by Labour...Mr Campbell's e-mail, which was apparently intended for a party official, suggested they should get Trevor Beattie, TBWA's boss, to issue a statement. In it, he said: ""Just spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. Posters done by by tbwa according to political brief. Now fuck off and cover something important you twats!"" The e-mail was sent by mistake to Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen. Realising his error, Mr Campbell then e-mailed Mr McFadyen pointing out the mistake, but suggesting presenter Jeremy Paxman would have seen the funny side...He said: ""Not very good at this e-mail Blackberry malarkey. Just looked at log of sent messages, have realised e-mail meant for colleagues at TBWA has gone to you. For the record, first three sentences of email spot on. No row between me and trevor. ""Posters done by them according to our brief. I dreamt up flying pigs. Pigs not great but okay in the circs of Tories promising tax cuts and spending rises with the same money. TBWA made production. ""Campbell swears shock. Final sentence of earlier e-mail probably a bit colourful and personal considering we have never actually met but I'm sure you share the same sense of humour as your star presenter Mr P. ""Never known such a silly fuss since the last silly fuss but there we go. Must look forward not back.""..Later the prime minister's spokesman was asked by journalists about his view on Mr Campbell's use of abusive language. The spokesman said: ""The person you are referring to is capable of speaking for himself and he no longer works in government."" Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had always had ""very good and polite relations"" with Mr Campbell, who he described as ""very talented"". But on the former spin doctor's use of language, Mr Straw said: ""I do know the odd journalist who has occasionally used the odd word that would probably be inappropriate in some circumstances. Maybe I mix with the wrong kind of journalists."" Liam Fox, Tory co-chairman, said the return of Mr Campbell was a sign of new ""sinister and underhand tactics"" by Labour.",politics
"Crucial decision on super-casinos..A decision on whether to allow Westminster to legislate on super-casinos is set to be made by the Scottish Parliament...The government has plans for up to eight Las Vegas style resorts in the UK, one of which is likely to be in Glasgow. Scottish ministers insist they will still have the final say on whether a super-casino will be built in Scotland. But opposition parties say that will not happen in practice. The vote is due to be taken on Wednesday and is expected to be close...The Scottish Executive believes that the legislation should be handled by Westminster. The new law will control internet gambling for the first time and is aimed at preventing children from becoming involved. A super-casino in Glasgow could be located at Ibrox or the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. The new gambling bill going through Westminster will allow casino complexes to open to the public, have live entertainment and large numbers of fruit machines with unlimited prizes. But the Scottish National Party and the Tories say the issue of super-casinos should be decided in Scotland and believe the executive is shirking its responsibility.",politics
"Mrs Howard gets key election role..Michael Howard's ex-model wife, Sandra, is to play a leading role in the Conservative election campaign...Mrs Howard will make solo visits to target seats as well as accompanying her husband on his helicopter campaign trail criss-crossing the country. Mr Howard will host a news conference at the party's London HQ every morning, Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said. ""We want Michael to be as accessible as possible,"" Mr Fox said, adding that the party was not afraid of scrutiny...The Tory leader wanted to meet as many ordinary members of the public, Mr Fox said. Tony Blair has also said he is intending to get out and talk to as many people as possible during the election campaign. But Labour campaign chiefs say there are no plans for Mr Blair to hold a daily news conference...Mr Fox responded by accusing the prime minister of ""hiding away from the scrutiny of London's media"". The Liberal Democrats also say they are planning to hold daily news conferences with Charles Kennedy. On Mrs Howard's role, Mr Fox said: ""Sandra has already been campaigning with Michael on a number of visits and has been undertaking short visits herself. ""That pattern will continue. It's worked very well up until now."" Mrs Howard made her debut speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth last October. She used her speech on the fringe to highlight the work of a drugs charity, Addaction, which she supports. Mrs Howard has also appeared along side her husband on TV chat shows. During an interview on ITV1's This Morning she said she often criticised her husband for not showing the side of him that she knows.",politics
"PM apology over jailings..Tony Blair has apologised to two families who suffered one of the UK's biggest miscarriages of justice...The prime minister was commenting on the wrongful jailing of 11 people for IRA bomb attacks on pubs in Guildford and Woolwich in 1974. Mr Blair said: ""I am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice."" He made the apology to members of the Conlon and Maguire families in his private room at Westminster. In a statement recorded for television, Mr Blair said the families deserved ""to be completely and publicly exonerated""...The families had hoped the apology would be made during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. However, one of the so-called Guildford Four, Gerry Conlon - who was wrongly convicted of planting the bombs - said the families were delighted with the apology. He said Mr Blair had spoken with ""such sincerity"", adding: ""He went beyond what we thought he would, he took time to listen to everyone. ""You could see he was moved by what people were saying. ""Tony Blair has healed rifts, he is helping to heal wounds. It's a day I never thought would come."" The move followed a huge campaign in Ireland for a public apology after eleven people were wrongly convicted of making and planting the IRA bombs which killed seven people. Mr Blair's official spokesman said no-one present at the meeting would ""ever forget the strength of feeling of relief that the prime minister's statement brought to them""...Most of those convicted were either members or friends of the two families. All were arrested because of a family connection to Gerry Conlon. Mr Conlon's father Giuseppe was arrested when travelling to London from Belfast to help his son. He died while serving his sentence. Also arrested were Anne Maguire and members of her family. Mrs Maguire was the relative with whom Giuseppe planned to stay in London, as well as two family friends. She said it was a ""wonderful feeling"" to have had the apology and that a weight had been lifted off her shoulders...""The people who were still doubting us should now believe that we were totally innocent,"" she said. They were all jailed for handling explosives, based on scientific evidence which was later entirely discredited. In October 1989 the Court of Appeal quashed the sentences of the Guildford Four, and in June 1991 it overturned the sentences on the Maguire Seven. Mr Conlon's case was highlighted in the Oscar-nominated film In The Name Of The Father, starring Daniel Day-Lewis.",politics
"Howard rebuts asylum criticisms..Tory leader Michael Howard has gone on the offensive in response to people questioning how a son of immigrants can propose asylum quotas...Mr Howard, whose parents fled the Nazi threat to come to the UK, says the claim would mean no-one from an immigrant family could become premier. His comments come in a BBC documentary called 'No More Mr Nasty'. TV presenter Anne Robinson said as home secretary he gave the impression he would ""like to kick your cat"". Ms Robinson, a friend of the Tory leader, also revealed that as a Cambridge student Mr Howard was ""much loved by women and he was a courteous and kind and rather dashing lover"" - although she denied having personal experience. ""I wasn't at Cambridge - and it's not personal experience - but I know people who were.""..Documentary maker Michael Cockerell was given behind-the-scenes access to Mr Howard for his film portrait. The Tory leader was asked about to respond to people who said that if there had there been a quota on immigration and asylum in the 1930s, his parents might not have been allowed into the country...He replies: ""What is the inference of that? ""That if you reach the view that you need to control immigration in the interests of the country you're not allowed to put a view forward if you happen to be descended from immigrants? ""That seems to me an absolutely extraordinary proposition? It would certainly mean no one from immigrant parents could be prime minister.""..Ms Robinson, who presents The Weakest Link tells Cockerell that she despaired at his hardline image when he was home secretary in John Major's government. ""I used to have to sit on my hands because he'd get on television and give a passable impression of someone who'd like to kick your cat or would put your baby in prison if he cried. I mean it was very, very Draconian."" The film shows Mr Howard laughing at Rory Bremner's impression of him as Dracula, which he calls ""good fun"", apart from the serious falsehood of a comment suggesting he wants fewer black people in the UK. The film shows the private side of the Tory leader watching television at home or playing table tennis with his wife, ex-model Sandra. Asked if she enjoys a game of ping pong she confesses: ""Yeah, it would be more enjoyable if I could win occasionally too, but otherwise it's quite fun.""..Former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell, now working on Labour's election campaign, says a ""touchy-feely"" image does not fit Mr Howard. He says Tony Blair was not worried by his opponents' early performance in their Commons clashes because Mr Howard lacked a ""big strategy"", including on issues like Iraq. The Tory leader brands such criticisms as ""absolutely rubbish"", arguing that he has been consistent on his support for the war but critical of Mr Blair's failure to tell the truth on intelligence. Former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke says Mr Howard has a bigger problem changing perceptions of the Tory party than his personal image. Mr Clarke says the party is improving and it is ""conceivable"" it could win the next election. But he adds: ""It has got to change itself a bit and broaden its appeal.""..- Michael Howard: No More Mr Nasty is being shown on BBC2 on Saturday 12 February at 2005 GMT.",politics
"Blair rejects Tory terror offer..Tony Blair has rejected a Conservative compromise offer that could have eased the passage of anti-terror legislation...The Tories wanted a sunset clause inserted in the Anti-Terrorism Bill that would have forced ministers to revisit it in November. Mr Blair said the bill, which brings in house arrest for terror suspects, had time limiting safeguards already. The Tories say they will vote against it unless changes they want are agreed. The Lib Dems also oppose the plans...The government has already given way over the role of judges in house arrest cases...Mr Blair's refusal to accept the Tories' sunset clause proposals means that the government faces concerted opposition from all sides in the Lords. Peers begin three days of detailed deliberation on the bill on Thursday. The bill proposes ""control orders"", which as well as placing terrorism suspects under house arrest could mean curfews, tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. These would replace current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial, which the law lords have ruled against as a breach of human rights...The Tories want judicial oversight of all control orders, not just house arrest. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis told BBC Radio Four's the World at One his primary concern was potential miscarriages of justice. He said if someone was wrongly given a control order it would act as a ""recruiting sergeant"" for terrorists. He went on to say: ""If we don't get the amendments we regard as essential, including the sunset clause, we will vote against the bill."" In the Commons, Mr Howard said it would be ""far better if the whole of the legislation was subject to a sunset clause so Parliament could consider it all in a proper way instead of it being ramrodded through"". Mr Blair said the house arrest powers were already going to be subject to a sunset clause because it was annually renewable...The second, less stringent, type of control orders would be subject to a court appeal within 14 days and there would be a three-monthly report on their use by ""an eminent and independent person"". ""I believe (the new powers) are a proper balance between the civil liberties of the subject and the necessary national security of this country that I will not put at risk,"" said Mr Blair. The Lib Dems plan to oppose the Bill in the Lords on Thursday. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""There's a lot of talking left. I would be uneasy about supporting a very bad bill even if it was just for eight months."" A spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch said it was a ""basic principle"" that people should only be punished after a fair trial. She added: ""Having a judge impose those punishments without a trial does not sanitise them either.""",politics
"Talks held on Gibraltar's future..Two days of talks on the future of Gibraltar begin at Jack Straw's country residence later on Wednesday...Officials at the two-day summit at the foreign secretary's official Kent house, Chevening, will plan a new forum on the Rock's future. In October, Mr Straw and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Moratinos agreed to establish a body that would give Gibraltarians a voice in their future. Most Gibraltarians said in a referendum they wanted to remain British...Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana will represent the British citizens living on the Rock, while Britain's Europe Director Dominick Chilcott will represent the UK. Madrid is being represented by Spain's director general for Europe, Jose Maria Pons. The initiative follows Spain's socialist government's decision to put its long-standing sovereignty ambitions on hold. Gibraltarians rejected plans for the Rock's sovereignty to be shared between Britain and Spain in a referendum organised by Gibraltar government.",politics
"Crisis 'ahead in social sciences'..A national body designed to tackle skills shortages in key subjects should be set up, a committee of MPs has said...There was an ""absolute crisis"" in the recruitment of statisticians and other social science experts, the Commons science and technology committee added. ""Major problems"" are expected over the next 10 years as the social science workforce continues to age, it said. The committee was reporting on the work, strategy and spending plans of the Economic Social Research Council...The council aims to promote and support strategic research for social science postgraduates and provide social scientists to meet the needs of the country. It also liaises with the government and industry over their social science needs. In its report on the council's work the committee said: ""We are deeply concerned by the skills shortages afflicting, in particular, the qualitative branches of social sciences. This mirrored previous concerns the committee had expressed on shortages in the fields of maths and chemistry, it said. ""It is hard to see how significant progress towards rectifying these shortages can be made through the deployment of Economic and Social Research Council's limited resources. ""If the government is serious about addressing skills shortages in key subjects it needs to find a more effective mechanism to achieve this."" A national ""strategic capabilities fund"" to address shortages in key areas should be set up in response, the committee added.",politics
"Tsunami debt deal to be announced..Chancellor Gordon Brown has said he hopes to announce a deal to suspend debt interest repayments by tsunami-hit nations later on Friday...The agreement by the G8 group of wealthy nations would save affected countries £3bn pounds a year, he said. The deal is thought to have been hammered out on Thursday night after Japan, one of the biggest creditor nations, finally signed up to it. Mr Brown first proposed the idea earlier this week...G8 ministers are also believed to have agreed to instruct the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to complete a country by country analysis of the reconstruction problems faced by all states hit by the disaster. Mr Brown has been locked in talks with finance ministers of the G8, which Britain now chairs. Germany also proposed a freeze and Canada has begun its own moratorium. The expected deal comes as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the number of Britons dead or missing in the disaster have reached 440.",politics
"Straw to attend Auschwitz service..Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will visit Auschwitz for the 60th anniversary of the former Nazi concentration camp's liberation, it has been announced...Prince Edward will also join the UK delegation in Poland for National Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January. Between 1.1 and 1.5 million people, mainly Jews, were killed at Auschwitz. The Tories said they were glad Mr Straw had been ""shamed"" into going, having earlier criticised the decision to send a lower-ranking official. Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram said: ""I am glad the foreign secretary has finally been shamed into representing Britain at this important act of commemoration. ""Once again this government has shown crass insensitivity until it has been forced by public opinion into doing what it should have done in the first place.""..In Britain, the Queen and Prince Philip will lead the nation's commemoration at a service in Westminster Hall, London. The Queen will also host a reception for holocaust survivors at St James's Palace. Altogether, some six million people, mainly Jews, perished in the Holocaust. The Queen's grandson, Prince Harry, sparked outrage earlier this week after photographs of him wearing a Nazi uniform at a costume party emerged. The prince, 20, apologised, but critics have called for him to go to Auschwitz for the commemoration of the Soviets' 1945 liberation of the camp. Prince Harry should see for himself ""the results of the hated symbol he so foolishly and brazenly chose to wear"", Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center said.",politics
"Drink remark 'acts as diversion'..The first minister's statement that it was okay to get drunk ""once in a while"" has diverted attention from the real issues, it has been claimed...Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said Jack McConnell's comment was ""ill-advised"". The media attention had helped to move the focus from Scotland's binge drinking problems, Mr Law said. Scotsman journalist Hamish MacDonell said he believed the bigger picture had been ""obscured"" by the remark. Mr McConnell was speaking on Monday to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the Highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions...The one-sentence comment was immediately criticised by the Scottish National Party which accused him of encouraging young people to get drunk. But the Scottish Executive has insisted Mr McConnell was speaking about adults and his comments were ""a recognition that people will get drunk"". Mr MacDonell, political editor of The Scotsman, said: ""I think we have to say right at the outset that this was a very stupid and ill-advised remark by the first minister. ""If you come out with something like this, saying that by all means get drunk, then you will be pilloried for it."" However, he added that ""perhaps Mr McConnell could feel rightly aggrieved about the coverage""...Mr MacDonell said: ""I think the problem here is that he did say a lot more things about binge drinking and under age drinking. ""But that whole side of things has been lost in the furore over one sentence. I understand why, but I think there is a much bigger message here that has been obscured."" Mr Law, from voluntary body Alcohol Focus Scotland, believed damage had been done to Scotland's fight against binge drinking. He said he accepted that young people drank and they did have problems with drink. Mr Law added: ""I think the remark was ill-advised - but these remarks are blown out of all proportion and they so easily misrepresent what we are trying to do in Scotland...""We don't want to preach to young people, but we need to acknowledge that they do drink problematically. ""This diverts us from the real issues which are about promoting responsibility and reducing harm and indeed tackling our drinking culture which is a culture about binge drinking and drunkenness."" He said it was vital that young people were properly informed about the risks incurred to themselves and others when they got drunk. Mr MacDonell said that the first minister should know by now that if he said things which were ""off the mark"", they were bound to ""come back and bite him"". He added: ""Here, Mr McConnell was talking in the Highlands to 100 teenagers and every word he said was put out on a webcast by the Scottish Executive and then looked at by other politicians and reporters. ""I think in this instance he has done a lot of really good things and he will be regretting this remark.""..The Scottish National Party's Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon wrote to Mr McConnell on Tuesday accusing him of an error of judgement and calling for him to apologise for his ""ill-judged comment"" and withdraw it immediately. In a furious response, the first minister said his comments had been distorted and taken out of context. He told Ms Sturgeon: ""It is disappointing that you have contributed to this distortion by saying it is staggering that I 'should encourage young people to get drunk'. ""That is completely untrue. Perhaps it would have been wiser for you to find out what was actually said before you rushed to represent my position, undermine the convener of education at Highland Council and insult the intelligence of the young people I spoke with - all for the sake of a simple soundbite.""",politics
"Concerns at school diploma plan..Final appeals are being made for the government not to ditch the reform plan for England's secondary schools put forward by the Tomlinson report...The government's response to the plan for a four-tier diploma to replace all existing 14-19 qualifications is expected next week. Some are worried it could be scuppered if, as Tony Blair and Ruth Kelly have suggested, GCSEs and A-levels stay. Sir Mike Tomlinson himself was briefed only this week. He is said to be feeling more comfortable about what the government is likely to say than if he had read only what was in newspapers in the earlier part of the week. But the government was said to be still rewriting its response on Friday. ""It will be a tragedy if the government comes through with a half-hearted response,"" said the chairman of the Commons education select committee, Labour MP Barry Sheerman...His main concern was the reports that there would be a diploma - but only to replace existing vocational qualifications. ""We must tackle head-on the structural mess that is our secondary education system,"" he wrote in the Times Educational Supplement. ""It is not the case that the academic stream in secondary is fine while the vocational route is desperately weak."" The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has also told the government not to ""compromise"". The QCA said the potential ""step-change in participation and attainment"" lay in the integrity of the whole diploma. ""Any partial implementation of the proposals would, in our view, compromise that integrity,"" said its chairman, Sir Anthony Greener. It is a sign of the QCA's concern that its advice went to ministers last December but was publicised only recently. But people understand that a White Paper response is government policy and has to command wider ministerial support than if it were coming only from the Department for Education and Skills. They may be content if it does not ""close too many doors"" in writing - whatever spin is put on it...The chief inspector of schools, David Bell, also said recently that GCSEs and A-levels should go. ""One of the reasons why I'm so strongly in favour of these terms disappearing over time is that it's good for the symbols of change to be seen right across the system,"" he said. ""If we don't say this is a sea-change in education, we will miss a great opportunity."" Universities and head teachers in both the independent and state sectors have also backed the Tomlinson proposals, which include having higher grades at advanced level to differentiate between the brightest students. A note of concern has been expressed repeatedly by the employers' organisation, the CBI, which complains of a lack of skills. In an attempt to address this, the Tomlinson plan is for tests in ""functional"" maths and literacy - decidedly not GCSEs. It has been suggested the government will take steps of some sort to meet firms' concerns on this score. Another dissenter is Sir Mike Tomlinson's predecessor as chief schools inspector, Professor Chris Woodhead, who has said there is no need for such a ""massive upheaval"". The Conservative Party has put forward plans to revert to a system of having only the brightest percentage of students each year getting the top A-level grade, no matter how well the others have done.",politics
"Blair backs 'pre-election budget'..Tony Blair has backed Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report amid opposition claims he was too bullish about the state of the UK economy...In a speech in Edinburgh, the prime minister said Thursday's report reinforced stability and opportunity. And that would be central to Labour's next election campaign, planning for which was already well advanced. Mr Brown earlier denied his economic forecasts were too optimistic - but refused to rule out future tax rises...He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""No politician should make the mistake that John Major and his colleagues made in 1992 of saying no matter what the circumstances are, they can make all sorts of guarantees on every individual thing...""That is not what politicians should do, it would not be responsible to do."" Mr Brown insisted his spending plans were ""affordable"" and he could afford to be optimistic because Britain was now a stable, low-inflation economy and house prices were now stabilising. Mr Blair praised his chancellor for his role in creating economic stability, which he said was the ""cornerstone"" of Labour's programme...In a speech at Edinburgh's Napier University, he said Labour would publish over the next few months ""a rich agenda for future policy in any possible third term""...""In every area of work there is a detailed plan for the future, much clearer than those in 1997 or 2001. All of it fits together around common themes of opportunity, security and stability for all,"" Mr Blair said. In his pre-Budget report, Mr Brown surprised some City experts by forecasting UK growth at between 3% and 3.5% for next year. Many believe the figure is more likely to be under 3% - and fear tax rises or spending cuts, saying tax receipts have been overestimated. Carl Emmerson, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told BBC News: ""He thinks everything will come out in the wash and it will, in fact, be OK. We're not so sure."" David Page, of Investec Securities, said: ""His forecast that he will meet the golden rule with a margin of £8bn is way too optimistic. ""It's going to take a significant turnaround in the economy to meet these targets.""..Conservative Shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin said: ""I can't find a single economic forecaster from the IMF to the Institute of Fiscal Studies who believes anything other than the chancellor has got a black hole in his finances. ""In order to deal with that he will have to raise taxes after the next general election."" Mr Letwin accused the chancellor of using ""fancy statistics"" to hide public service failures. Vincent Cable, for the Liberal Democrats, called on Mr Brown to open up the government's books to the National Audit Office, to see if he had met his ""golden rule"". ""It is very clear that there are some serious loose ends in government public spending,"" Mr Cable told MPs.",politics
"Nat Insurance to rise, say Tories..National Insurance will be raised if Labour wins the next election, Tory leader Michael Howard has claimed...Tony Blair has said he does not want higher tax rates for top earners but on Wednesday said other tax promises would be left to Labour's manifesto. Prime minister's questions also saw Mr Blair predict that new plans would probably cut net immigration. He attacked Tory plans to process asylum claims abroad - but Mr Howard said Labour had proposed the idea too...The Commons questions session again saw the leaders of the two biggest parties shape up for the forthcoming election campaign. The Tories have promised £4bn in tax cuts but have yet to say where they will fall. Mr Howard pointed to the Institute for Fiscal Studies' predictions that Labour will need to increase taxes to cover an £11bn gap in its spending plans. He accused ministers of wasting money on unsuccessful attempts to curb bad behaviour and truancy in schools and on slow asylum processing. It was no good Mr Blair claiming tax pledges were being left to the manifesto as he had given one to MPs on Tuesday about the top rate of income tax, argued Mr Howard. Pointing to national insurance, he added: ""Everyone knows tax will go up under Labour: isn't it now clear which tax it would be?""..Mr Blair instead hailed Labour's achievement in using a strong economy to invest in public services. ""When we have money not only going into extra teachers and nurses but equipment in schools and hospitals, that money is not wasted,"" he said. On the tax questions, he added: ""We will make commitments on tax at the time of the manifesto."" Home Secretary Charles Clarke this week published plans for a new points system for economic migrants, with only high-skilled workers allowed into the UK from outside the European Union...Mr Blair said abuses would be weeded out and chain migration, where families automatically get the right to settle with immigrant workers, would end. That would probably create a fall in the migrant numbers, he said. The prime minister ridiculed the Tory plans for asylum quotas and for processing all asylum claims overseas. He challenged the Tories on which country would house their processing centres - what he called a ""fantasy island"". Mr Howard read from a letter about the government's own plans at the European Council of Ministers for processing asylum seekers outside the EU. But Mr Blair said: ""All the other countries could not agree on the way forward, nor could the UN.""",politics
"E-University 'disgraceful waste'..A failed government scheme to offer UK university courses online has been branded a ""disgraceful waste"" by MPs...The e-University was scrapped last year, having attracted only 900 students at a cost of £50m. Chief executive John Beaumont was paid a bonus of £44,914, despite a failure to bring in private sector backers. The Commons education select committee called this ""morally indefensible"" but the government said the e-University project had ""improved understanding""...A Department for Education and Skills spokeswoman said the venture had been ""ambitious and ground-breaking, but take-up had not been ""sufficient to continue with the project"". She added: ""UK e-Universities was not the only organisation to have lost out on private sector investment in the collapse of the dotcom boom."" The select committee found that those responsible for founding the e-University in 2000 had been caught up in the ""general atmosphere of enthusiasm"" surrounding the internet. Initial business plans forecast a quarter of a million students joining within a decade, bringing in at least £110m in profit...But virtually no market research was carried out and just £4.2m was spent on worldwide sales and marketing of courses. Some £14m went on developing the technology to make the e-University work. This was used by just 200 students, the rest preferring to work through existing university websites. With no significant private investors and no direct accountability to a government minister, the e-University had had ""too much freedom to spend public money as it wished"", the report found. Committee chairman Barry Sheerman said: ""UK e-University was a terrible waste of public money. ""The senior executives failed to interest any private investors and showed an extraordinary over-confidence in their ability to attract students to the scheme."" The report warns that the government should not be scared off investment in innovative but potentially risky schemes by the failure of the e-University, but ""should learn the lessons from this disaster"".",politics
"Brown visits slum on Africa trip..Chancellor Gordon Brown has visited Kenya's biggest shantytown as he opened a week-long visit to Africa...Mr Brown's trip is designed to highlight how the UK wants to make Africa's problems a priority of its chairmanship of the G8 this year. He will see an HIV/Aids orphanage in Tanzania and a women's credit union in Mozambique before chairing a meeting of the Commission for Africa in Cape Town. At slums in Narobi on Wednesday, he said education needs had to be tackled...Speaking outside the Olympic Primary School, Mr Brown said: ""It is simply not acceptable in the modern age for the rest of the world to stand by and have hundreds of millions of children not getting the chance at education."" He pointed to international plans to invest $10bn for education in Africa over the next decade. The school is on the edge of Kibera, where 800,000 live often in huts made of mud, scrap metal and cardboard. Mr Brown's aides say he wants to find out more about the Kenyan Government's education policies, which included introducing free primary education in early 2003. The chancellor has already unveiled proposals for a G8 aid package which he has likened to the Marshall Plan used by the United States to rebuild Europe after World War Two. The trip follows claims of infighting between Mr Brown and Tony Blair detailed in a new book. Conservative leader Michael Howard is expected to seize on those reports at prime minister's questions at 1200 GMT on Wednesday.",politics
"UK 'needs true immigration data'..A former Home Office minister has called for an independent body to be set up to monitor UK immigration...Barbara Roche said an organisation should monitor and publish figures and be independent of government. She said this would counter ""so-called independent"" groups like Migration Watch, which she described as an anti-immigration body posing as independent. Migration Watch says it is not against all immigration and the government already publishes accurate figures. Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the organisation, says there is no need for an independent body because Office of National Statistics data are accurate. He says he opposes large-scale immigration ""both on the grounds of overcrowding and culture""...He said: ""For example, over the next 20 years one household in three will be due to immigration. ""We are already more overcrowded than India and we are four times more overcrowded than France."" Ms Roche, Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, believes legal migration is something we should welcome. She said her proposals mean ""we wouldn't have so-called independent experts, like Migration Watch, who come into this debate from an anti-immigration point of view."" She went on: ""What I would like to see is there being a body which actually looked at the figures, published them, and was independent of government. ""I think that would go a long way to allaying some of the fears that are sometimes whipped up during this debate.""",politics
"Blair sets date for Africa report..The Commission for Africa's report will be released on 11 March - Comic Relief day, Tony Blair has said...July's G8 summit in Gleneagles in Perthshire - chaired by the prime minister - will use the report as the basis for talks on Africa. The announcement followed the final meeting of the commission - which includes singer Bob Geldof - in London. As well as more aid, fairer trade and less debt, the commission is likely to demand action on corruption in Africa. Mr Blair told a news conference: ""It will be a report that's brutally frank about the reality, but I hope idealistic about what can be done if the will is there. ""It's an ambitious project we have set ourselves and you will have to judge on its outcome when we publish it.""..Mr Blair has vowed to put Africa at the top of his agenda during his time at the helm of the G8. He acknowledged he would have a ""a job of persuading to do"" on other nations to get the necessary commitment to debt relief. Bob Geldof, in characteristically blunt style, promised that the commission would not just be a talking shop but would deliver radical new thinking to change direction for Africa. The former rock star's presence on the commission has been interpreted as a sign that it will be uncompromising in its demands. The people involved include two African government leaders and a range of other African politicians, as well as experts from some other developed countries.",politics
"Butler launches attack on Blair..Former civil service chief Lord Butler has criticised the way Tony Blair's government operates, accusing it of being obsessed with headlines...He also attacked the way the Iraq war was ""sold"" to the public, with important warnings on the strength of the intelligence left out. Tory leader Michael Howard said Lord Butler had given the ""most damaging testimony"" he could remember. But Downing Street said Mr Blair should be judged by results not his style...Lord Butler said Mr Blair bypassed the Cabinet and relied instead on small, informal groups of advisers to help him make decisions. The prime minister's official spokesman said the Cabinet was still used to achieve a consensus on important issues. But he added: ""You cannot, in a modern government, take every decision in Cabinet. It's just not possible.""..Lord Butler said the government had too much freedom to ""bring in bad Bills"" and ""to do whatever it likes"" and it relied too much on the advice of political appointees. The former cabinet secretary said in an interview with The Spectator magazine: ""I would be critical of the present government in that there is too much emphasis on selling, there is too much central control and there is too little of what I would describe as reasoned deliberation which brings in all the arguments."" Mr Howard described Lord Butler's intervention as ""very important"". ""This is from someone who was an insider at the very heart of the Blair government. ""It is certainly the most damaging testimony I can ever remember from someone in such an eminent position.""..Lord Butler's report earlier this year into Iraq intelligence said the government's September 2002 weapons dossier did not make clear intelligence about claims that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was ""very thin"". The reason for this is that it would have weakened ministers' case for war, Lord Butler said in his Spectator interview, which was conducted by the magazine's editor, Conservative MP Boris Johnson. He said: ""When civil servants give material to ministers, they say these are the conclusions we've drawn, but we've got to tell you the evidence we've got is pretty thin. ""Similarly, if you are giving something to the United Nations and the country you should warn them.""..Asked why he thought the warnings were not there Lord Butler said: ""One has got to remember what the purpose of the dossier was. The purpose of the dossier was to persuade the British why the government thought Iraq was a very serious threat.""..When asked whether he thought the country was well-governed on the whole, he replied: ""Well. I think we are a country where we suffer very badly from Parliament not having sufficient control over the executive, and that is a very grave flaw. ""We should be breaking away from the party whip. The executive is much too free to bring in a huge number of extremely bad Bills, a huge amount of regulation and to do whatever it likes - and whatever it likes is what will get the best headlines tomorrow. ""All that is part of what is bad government in this country."" Lord Butler's assessment was backed by his predecessor as Cabinet Secretary, Lord Armstrong. Lord Armstrong told BBC Two's Newsnight: ""I agree ... there doesn't appear to be the sort of informed collective political judgement brought to bear on decision-making that those affected by decisions are entitled to expect."" Liberal Democrat deputy leader Menzies Campbell said he thought Lord Butler's comments were ""well justified"" and Mr Blair's style of leadership was ""corrosive of the whole system of government"". But Labour former minister Jack Cunningham accused Lord Butler of basing his comments on the first eight months of the incoming Labour administration, when he was cabinet secretary. Mr Cunningham told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""Taken together, Robin Butler's comments are partial, inaccurate and cannot be taken as anything other than politically biased against the Labour government.""",politics
"Lib Dems demand new inquiry..A judge should look into the David Blunkett controversy as key questions remain unanswered, the Lib Dems say...Sir Alan Budd's inquiry linked the ex-home secretary to the speeding up of a visa claim by his ex-lover's nanny. But he could not say whether Mr Blunkett had treated the nanny as a special case or had used her as an example of immigration problems. Lib Dem spokesman Mark Oaten said the number of officials who had forgotten what happened was worrying. He told BBC News: ""I'm extremely concerned that 20 individuals appear to have forgotten what happened or more suspiciously are not prepared to say what happened. ""That must be bad for government, it must be bad for public confidence in the system.""..Mr Oaten said people would be mystified why Sir Alan's inquiry failed to uncover why processing of the visa application was speeded up. He said: ""There is a strong case for a judge-led judicial review of this because, of course, next time it happens it may not be about a nanny and their visa. It may be about something even more important than that. ""So we do need to understand what took place and who was involved."" The Tories criticised the Lib Dem stance, saying Mr Oaten had initially said he accepted Mr Blunkett's word unless further evidence emerged. But Lib Dem officials say Mr Oaten was speaking when an inquiry was under way and was avoiding rushing to judgement.",politics
"UK set to cut back on embassies..Nine overseas embassies and high commissions will close in an effort to save money, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has announced...The Bahamas, East Timor, Madagascar and Swaziland are among the areas affected by the biggest shake-up for the diplomatic service for years. Other diplomatic posts are being turned over to local staff. Mr Straw said the move would save £6m a year to free up cash for priorities such as fighting terrorism...Honorary consuls will be appointed in some of the areas affected by the embassy closures. Nine consulates or consulates general will also be closed, mostly in Europe and America...They include Dallas in the US, Bordeaux in France and Oporto in Portugal, with local staff replacing UK representation in another 11. The changes are due to be put in place before the end of 2006, with most savings made from cutting staff and running costs. Some of the money will have to be used to fund redundancy payments. In a written statement, Mr Straw said: ""The savings made will help to underpin higher priority work in line with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's strategic priorities, including counter- proliferation, counter-terrorism, energy and climate change. ""Some of the savings will also be redeployed to strategic priority work within certain regions where we are closing posts. ""In Africa, for instance, we plan to create new jobs to cover these issues across the region, with a new post in Nairobi to help support our work on climate change, one in Nigeria to cover energy and one in Pretoria to cover regional issues more generally as well as covering Maseru and Mbabane.""..The Foreign Office currently has about 6,100 UK-based staff. It has opened major new missions on Baghdad and Basra in Iraq, Kabul in Afghanistan and Pyongyang in North Korea since 1997 in response to what the government says are changing needs. Since 1997 10 overseas posts have been closed - excluding Wednesday's cuts - but 18 new embassies or consulates have been opened. The shake-up is aimed at helping making £86m in efficiency savings between 2005 and 2008. The chancellor has demanded all government departments make similar savings. Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said there was a constant need to ensure value for money from foreign missions. ""But the government must give a far clearer reason for making the dramatic changes it has announced and must show that British commercial interests and the interests of Britons abroad will not be adversely affected,"" he said.",politics
"Labour targets 'hardcore truants'..A fresh crackdown on persistent truants in England has been launched by Education Secretary Ruth Kelly...Serial truants make up one in 13 pupils. Previous initiatives brought 40,000 pupils back to school since 1997, according to official statistics. Parenting contracts, penalty notices and ""fast track"" prosecution systems have been used to tackle what has been a stubborn problem. It is thought that nearly half a million children skip school each day. Tories say Labour's previous success regarding the issue came because it tackled the easy part of the problem by reducing authorised absence, where parents are permitted to take children out of school. Such absences are often due to family holidays...However, serial truants avoid the classroom despite government schemes costing £885m. Those missing classes are more likely to become involved in crime as well as failing academically. Measures such as parenting contracts and penalty notices were adopted by most local education authorities last term and come into force in the remainder this term. In one local education authority alone 800 parents were warned they would receive a penalty notice unless their child's attendance improved. The tough stance paid off with just 24 issued, while attendance improved in 776 cases. Truancy has been reduced by 5% at the 128 worst hit schools through the government's Behaviour Improvement Programme. This is the equivalent of 200 pupils back in classes since September...The new measures come on top of national truancy sweeps - the sixth of which will take place on Monday. Police and education welfare officers patrol problem hotspots picking up truants and returning them to school. Held twice each year, in addition to routine local patrols, previous country-wide sweeps have apprehended 31,000 pupils dodging school. In almost 14,000 of those cases, the youngsters were accompanied by their parents. A Department for Education and Skills source said: ""Every day in school counts. ""It is clear form these figures that schools and local education authorities are now seizing the tools we have given them to improve school attendance and crack down hard on the very small numbers of pupils which account for almost half of the nation's truancy.""",politics
"Blunkett sorry over murder plan..David Blunkett has apologised to MPs after the Home Office announced ""prematurely"" via press release a review of murder laws...The home secretary confirmed the review was to get under way in the wake of a Law Commission report which branded the current murder law as ""a mess"". He said the review would look at partial defences to murder, including provocation and at mandatory sentences. The Home Office has already said the review will begin next year...On Wednesday, a Home Office spokeswoman said the terms of reference for the review had not been established but it was likely to include only England and Wales. News of the review was released because it was thought Mr Blunkett would make the official announcement in a Commons debate on Wednesday. But the announcement never came, with the home secretary saying the debate had never reached that stage. Amid opposition anger, Mr Blunkett had to answer an emergency question in Parliament on Thursday. He said he had taken steps to ensure the incident was not repeated. Shadow home secretary David Davis welcomed his ""gracious apology"" and the review itself. But he argued the minister should have volunteered a formal statement instead of having to be ""dragged"" to face MPs...In its report, the Law Commission said it had found wide support among criminal justice professionals for an end to the mandatory life sentence for murder. The panel suggested different kinds of murders could be ""graded"" to recognise the seriousness of the offence...But the Home Office said mandatory life sentences would not be abolished and argued courts already had flexibility. The commission, an independent body including two judges, a senior barrister and sentencing experts, had been asked to consider reforms to the defence of provocation in murder cases. But it said its proposals were unlikely to work without a far wider review of the law. Results of a consultation exercise showed 64 respondents out of 146 - among them 21 judges - believed a mandatory life sentence for every murder was ""indefensible and should cease""...A key question was whether one category should continue to cover all types of murder from mercy killings to serial or contract killings. The commission found support for the idea of grading murders so that the sentence reflected the seriousness of the offence. But speaking after the report was published, Home Office minister Baroness Scotland said: ""Murder is the most serious of crimes and we have no intention of abolishing the mandatory life sentence. ""Where an offender is convicted of murder, the court must pass a life sentence."" The commission also recommended tightening the law so that the provocation defence cannot be used in cases where someone has killed for revenge, such as a jealous husband who murders an unfaithful wife.",politics
"Hunt demo at Labour meeting..Pro-hunt supporters are set to protest at Labour's spring conference...The Countryside Alliance says it expects up to 4,000 supporters to demonstrate against the hunting ban. They have agreed to keep to a demonstration site on the other side of the River Tyne from the conference venue in Gateshead. A bid to overturn the law banning hunting with dogs in England and Wales has begun in the Court of Appeal. The ban comes into force on 18 February. The Court of Appeal is expected to rule early next week on whether the alliance's challenge has succeeded. Richard Dodd, regional director of the Countryside Alliance, said he expected between 2,000 and 4,000 supporters in Tyneside to make their protest, with hunt horns and placards...Campaigners have been asked not to bring any animals or alcohol...Mr Dodd said he did not believe there would be any repeat of the trouble which marred the pro-hunt demonstration outside Parliament in September. ""We are holding a static demonstration, just to remind Labour that we are not going away,"" he said. Northumbria Police said the pedestrian Millennium Bridge, by the demonstration site, will be shut if necessary. But Assistant Chief Constable David Warcup has liaised with several protest groups and said all negotiations had gone well. Fathers 4 Justice, pensioners' rights activists and Stop the War campaigners were also expected to demonstrate during the three-day conference which starts on Friday. Pro-hunt campaigners claims the 1949 Parliament Act - which extends the right of the House of Commons to overrule the House of Lords - was itself invalid because it was never passed by peers. The High Court last month ruled the act was valid and the proposed hunting ban was lawful. Pro-hunt supporters formally launched their second legal challenge to the ban in London's High Court on Thursday. The Countryside Alliance has lodged papers seeking a judicial review on human rights grounds. Animal welfare groups have welcomed the ban, many of whom have campaigned for a ban for decades saying hunting is cruel and unnecessary.",politics
"Protesters plan airport challenge..Campaigners against the expansion of Britain's airports have begun challenging the government's plans in the High Court...BAA's expansion of Stansted Airport in Essex by building an extra runway is one of the most fiercely opposed plans. Opponents say the £2bn cost of the new runway could not be met unless cash from Heathrow and Gatwick was used. They said this is illegal under current rules and are trying to block the government from changing legislation. BAA are also owners of the airports at Heathrow and Gatwick. They have said they cannot raise the money needed for the Stansted upgrades from current landing charges. BAA also says it has attempted to involve communities in any future airport plans...Groups challenging the plans include Stop Stansted Expansion, Heathrow anti-noise campaigners HACAN Clearskies and the London boroughs of Hillingdon and Wandsworth. Their opponents are also likely to complain there was no public consultation before an extra runway was built at Luton Airport, or when it changed take-off and landing procedures at Heathrow. If the group wins, the government's future aviation plans outlined in last year's transport White Paper could be left in ruins...The campaigners will say the government did not adequately consider the building of new airports, such as one planned for the Isle of Sheppey east of London. Lord Hanningfield, leader of Essex County Council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""We are going to the High Court because we want a judge to rule there should be a proper inquiry. ""We want a judge to say there has been inadequate preparation, consultation and thought before the government came out with its Green Paper. ""Then there could be a proper debate nationally about where this extra capacity should go."" He added: ""Politicians should not decide where runways should be."" The Stansted expansion, apart from the building of the new runway, would also need to include new terminal buildings to deal with the projected 50m passengers who will use it every year...The airport is the hub of many of the no-frills airlines operating in the UK. But BAA has said it has attempted to involve communities in any future airport plans. At Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, BAA launched a series of consultations on blight to properties from the proposed expansion in September 2004, which will close next week. BAA is also offering to buy noise-hit properties for an index-linked, unblighted price. At Heathrow, BAA said it was working closely with all interested parties to see how the strict environmental, air quality and noise targets for a third runway can be met. At Gatwick, the company has written to homes and business likely to be affected by any extra runway.",politics
"Tories attack burglar 'U-turns'..Tory leader Michael Howard has accused Tony Blair of performing U-turns over rules on using force against burglars...The government has ruled out amending the present law, which allows ""reasonable force"" in self defence. Mr Howard branded the decision unacceptable, saying: ""It is not householders who should be frightened, it's the burglars."" Home Secretary Charles Clarke said ministers had kept to their pledge to review the law...Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens last month backed a Tory attempt to change the law so only householders using ""grossly disproportionate"" force could be prosecuted. The pressure prompted the prime minister to say the police and Crown Prosecution Service would be consulted as part of a review of the law. He told MPs: ""If we get the right response from those people, we will, of course, support a change in the law."" Instead, the government has decided no change is needed but there will be a publicity campaign so people are clear they are entitled to defend themselves. On Thursday, Mr Howard told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Blair had initially refused the law change, then had come round to the idea and was now backtracking again. He said: ""We've had three policy positions in three months and two U-turns. ""It's not surprising Gordon Brown told him: 'There's nothing you could say to me now that I could ever believe.'""..Mr Howard said the ""grossly disproportionate"" test matched the hurdle ministers had introduced for civil cases where burglars where claimed compensation from householders. The issue entered the public spotlight when Norfolk farmer Tony Martin was jailed for shooting dead a 16-year-old burglar in 1999 as he ran away from the farm. But the home secretary said Mr Howard was wrong to say the law was biased in favour of burglars. The barrister who had represented Mr Martin had said the rules were ""weighted overwhelmingly"" in favour of the householder, said Mr Clarke. He said: ""The problem is there has not been enough understanding of it - that was the point Sir John Stevens was making and the prime minister was making."" The new guidance would help ensure clarity on the issue, added Mr Clarke. The director of public prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, says only 11 householders or occupiers of business premises have been prosecuted in the last 15 years. Those cases included a warehouse manager who had waited for a burglar, tied him up, beat him and set him alight, he said. Tory MP Patrick Mercer's private member's bill to change the law received a first reading in Parliament on Wednesday and goes to a full debate next month.",politics
"Leaders meet over Turkish EU bid..Tony Blair has met Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to talk about Turkey entering the EU...The Downing Street talks covered a range of other topics ahead of an EU summit in Brussels later in the week. Mr Blair is an enthusiastic proponent of talks to bring Turkey within the recently-expanded EU. Italy and Germany also favour an early start to talks, but there is scepticism in France and elsewhere. Some are worried that Turkey's large and rapidly growing population and low average income might make integration into the EU difficult...Some are concerned that a change of government could lead to Turkey reneging on key human rights reforms it has recently enacted. And many in France would prefer Turkey to admit that World War I-era killing of Armenians constituted genocide. There are also issues in France and the Netherlands over the possible problems of integrating the first major Muslim nation into the EU. But Mr Blair and the Labour government have been the staunchest backers of Turkish accession, provided it sticks with human rights and economic reform. Mr Blair's official spokesman said: ""The prime minister has regular meetings with both of them and particularly in advance of European Councils. ""The key issue at this week's council will be that of Turkey, but they will also discuss a range of other matters.""",politics
"Choose hope over fear - Kennedy..Voters will have a clear choice between the politics of fear and the politics of hope in the next general election, said Charles Kennedy...In his New Year message the Liberal Democrat leader said Labour and the Conservatives were united in relying on fear and ""populist scares"". He said his party was the one of hope and was ready for a 2005 poll. On the Asian tsunami he said it had been ""very heartening"" to learn of the generosity being shown by Britons. Mr Kennedy said his thoughts were with all those caught up in the disaster, which had dominated the Christmas and New Year period. At home he said many people were turning to the Liberal Democrats as they became disheartened with the politics of the other two main parties...The general election would be a three-party struggle, as the Conservative party ""fades away"" as a national force and the Liberal Democrats challenge Labour in its heartlands, he said. ""A clear division is emerging in British politics - the politics of fear versus the politics of hope. ""Labour is counting on the politics of fear, ratcheting up talk of threats, crime and insecurity. While the Conservatives are re-working their populist scares about asylum and the European 'menace',"" he said. He said the government was using this climate of fear to try to strip away civil liberties...It was already using detention without trial at Belmarsh Prison, ignoring a recent Law Lords judgement that this contravenes basic human rights, he said. He also criticised attempts to bring in trial without jury, plans to lower the burden of proof in some criminal trials, curbing of rights to protest, increased stop and search powers and ID card plans. He said while everyone had the right to be secure they also had the right to be protected against unfair discrimination. ""But at the same time, an overmighty state is a dangerous one,"" he said. His party ""instinctively"" understood the ""new liberal Britain"" which is no longer a nation with one family structure, and one colour, he said. ""We are less deferential; more inclined to think for ourselves; more open about sexuality and equality. ""Our national institutions are changing too. We are no longer a nation of one church; we are a nation of many faiths. In our attitudes and the way we live our lives, this is in many ways a liberal Britain.""",politics
"Profile: David Miliband..David Miliband's rapid rise through the ranks of government continues with his promotion to Cabinet Office minister...Elected in a safe Labour seat in 2001 his previous job was school standards minister - a role he won in May 2002. Prior to the last election he was a key figure in New Labour as the head of the Downing Street policy unit where he was a key member of the manifesto writing team. Seen as one of the more intellectual figures in the government, he was also working for Tony Blair in his policy unit when he was leader of the opposition...A brief glance at Mr Miliband's family background reveals an impressive socialist pedigree in the form of his father Ralph, who died in 1994. He was an eminent and influential leftwing academic. And while David Miliband is seen as a key Blair lieutenant his brother Ed is a special advisor to Chancellor Gordon Brown. Prior to working for Mr Blair, David Miliband spent time at the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research. He then became secretary of the Commission on Social Justice. The 39-year-old was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive before going on to Oxford to study politics, philosophy and economics. He also took an MSc in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.",politics
"Borders rail link campaign rally..Campaigners are to stage a rally calling for a Borders rail link which was closed in 1969 to be reopened...They will mark the 36th anniversary of the line closure, which ran from Edinburgh through the Borders and on to Carlisle, with a walk at Tweedbank. Anne Borthwick, of Campaign for Borders Rail, said reopening the Waverley Line would restore the area's prosperity. MSPs are considering the reintroduction of passenger rail services through Midlothian to the Borders. Campaigners have said that reopening the Waverley Line, which could cost up to £100m, would be a huge economic boost for the Borders...In 2000, Borders Council said the area's economy had suffered since the closure. Ms Borthwick said the lobby group was determined to keep the pressure on the Scottish Executive. ""We are hoping that many people will join us in a march to mark the 36th anniversary of the closure of the Waverley Line,"" she said. ""Campaign for Borders Rail is the biggest independent lobby group in Scotland and we have been lobbying tirelessly for the reinstatement of rail services to the Borders and eventually to Carlisle...""We believe that it is time for the Scottish Executive to commit to the first phase of the project by pledging to fund the line between Edinburgh and Tweedbank in the first instance and then investigate extending the line in the future."" Ms Borthwick said reopening the line would be a prosperous move and protect the character of the Scottish Borders. A study in 2000, which was commissioned by the executive, Scottish Borders Council, Midlothian Council and Scottish Borders Enterprise, found that a half-hourly service from Tweedbank to Edinburgh could cover its operating costs. It also found that a half-hourly service from Gorebridge to Edinburgh could cover operating costs and that a freight railway joining the West Coast Main Line at Longtown could also be reinstated.",politics
"'Hitler' row over Welsh arts cash..An artist critical of Welsh arts funding being brought under assembly government control has denied comparing the idea with dictatorships in Russia and Germany...Shani Rhys James is worried that the Arts Council of Wales may be taken over by the Welsh Assembly Government. Culture Minister Alun Pugh said it would be ""crass and ignorant"" to liken a quango review to Hitler's Germany. But Ms James emphasised she had actually said artists needed freedom. The future of the Arts Council of Wales has been in question since it was announced that most Welsh quangos would eventually be abolished...It was announced last July that three Welsh quangos, education and training body Elwa, the Wales Tourist Board and the Welsh Development Agency, would be brought under assembly government control. The Arts Council of Wales may be among the next to come under the assembly government's umbrella. But Ms James, who won the £30,000 Jerwood painting prize in 2003, said arts funding should be separate from government. Ms James told BBC Radio Wales: ""It's quite dangerous when you involve politicians because it's not like the health service and it's not like the railways. ""Free expression is absolutely vital in a democratic society. You need distance, you do not need government interference because it could be taken the wrong way.""..But she said reports that she had likened the assembly government to totalitarian regimes were inaccurate...She told Good Morning Wales: ""Just to put the record straight, that business in the paper where it said I likened the government to Bolshevik Russia or Hitler's Germany, the actual quote I gave was: 'It is vital to a civilised society that we allow artists to express themselves without government control'. ""As we know from past European history, i.e. Russia and Germany in the early 20th Century, artists will go underground or leave the country or rather than compromise their expression'. ""Artists need a free voice to express themselves - they reflect a truth through their own art forms.'"" She said the assembly government was not best placed to run the arts in Wales...She added: ""It would be a momentous change and devastating to the arts. It would set the arts scene back 60 years, because I really don't think the government has the expertise. ""If you have the National Assembly taking control, I fear you are going to be going back to the dragons and leeks and the choirs...""Wales has moved on. It is international now. It is not set back in How Green Was My Valley?"" Responding to Ms James' criticisms, Mr Pugh said: ""The structure of unelected quangos is under review and we have made it clear that further announcements are due shortly. ""Comparing the Welsh Assembly Government to Hitler's Germany is a crass and ignorant response to a real issue about democratic accountability."" Ms James, whose father was Welsh, was born in Melbourne where her parents worked in the theatre. She moved to Powys nearly 20 years ago where she works from her studio near Llangadfan. She has won a number of arts prizes including the Wales Open in 1989 and the Mostyn Open in 1991.",politics
"Lords wrong on detainees - Straw..Jack Straw has attacked the decision by Britain's highest court that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial breaks human rights laws...The foreign secretary said the right to life was the ""most important liberty"" and the government had a duty to protect people from terrorism. Law lords were ""simply wrong"" to imply the men were being held arbitrarily. New Home Secretary Charles Clarke vowed the nine men would remain in prison while the law was being reviewed...The House of Lords ruled by an eight to one majority in favour of appeals by the men - dealing a major blow to the government's anti-terror policy...But Mr Straw denied it amounted to a ""constitutional crisis"". He said those held had a right of appeal to the special immigration appeal tribunal and the decision to hold the suspects was upheld by that court. ""The law lords are simply wrong to imply that this is a decision to detain these people on the whim or the certificate of the home secretary,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The foreign secretary insisted it was for Parliament, and not judges, to decide how best Britain could be defended against the threat of terrorism. But Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile, the government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism laws, said it was possible some of the detainees could now be released. He said the Law Lords' ruling was an ""embarrassment"" for the government and major changes were needed to the law...The ruling came on Charles Clarke's first day as home secretary following David Blunkett's resignation. In a statement to MPs, Mr Clarke said: ""I will be asking Parliament to renew this legislation in the New Year...""In the meantime, we will be studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords."" The detainees took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal backed the Home Office's powers to hold them without limit or charge. The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US. Any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. But those detained cannot be deported if this would mean persecution in their homeland. On Thursday, Lord Bingham - a senior law lord - said the rules were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights as they allowed detentions ""in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status"" by justifying detention without trial for foreign suspects, but not Britons. Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, in his ruling, said: ""Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law...In a statement, detainee 'A' in Woodhill Prison said: ""I hope now that the government will act upon this decision, scrap this illegal 'law' and release me and the other internees to return to our families and loved ones."" The case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case. Solicitor Gareth Pierce, who represents eight of the detainees, claimed the detention had driven four of the detainees to ""madness"", saying two were being held in Broadmoor hospital.",politics
"Profile: David Blunkett..Before he resigned the position of home secretary on Wednesday, David Blunkett had been in charge of a substantial body of government portfolios including race, policing and immigration...His responsibilities in running the Home Office included civil emergencies, security, terrorism and expenditure. Named home secretary after the 2001 general election, Mr Blunkett had seen the focus on his office intensify. The attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 heightened concern for security and immigration in particular. A Labour loyalist from a working class background Mr Blunkett, 57, had been unafraid of pushing for tough changes to Labour policy...Recently the issue of identity cards had provoked controversy with questions raised over cost and invasions of civil liberties. Mr Blunkett was also at the centre of a humiliating scandal involving the former immigration minister Beverly Hughes. Having received his full backing, Ms Hughes was forced to resign in April over abuses in the visa processing system, which she claimed to be unaware of. Mr Blunkett's own comments on immigration had prompted censure - he told refugees from Afghanistan and Kosovo to ""get back home"" to start rebuilding their countries. And he also urged people from ethnic minorities to develop a ""sense of belonging"" in Britain, telling them to speak English at home. Avoiding political correctness is second nature to the former home secretary, who spurns a metropolitan elite and ""airy fairy libertarians"" and earlier in the year coined the phrase ""liberati"", as an amalgam of ""glitterati"" and ""liberal"". Yet in January of this year he courted further controversy over his seemingly liberal reclassification of cannabis, from a Grade B to Grade C status drug ...Before the recent furore, Mr Blunkett had always appeared more interested in politics than his personal life. Mr Blunkett told the Daily Telegraph in 2001 that he continued to wear his wedding ring, in spite of being a divorcee, as ""a useful way of ensuring that people don't casually think I am available"". He added: ""I am not available because I am just getting on with the job."" Mr Blunkett entered Parliament for Sheffield Brightside in 1987, after first contesting the Sheffield Hallam seat in 1974. He is one of very few blind MPs, and was the first to reach the front bench and the Cabinet. His relaxed performances - with his guide dog by his side - at the despatch box, in the Labour Party's National Executive, and on the conference platform made it easy to forget his disability. Mr Blunkett himself described not being able to see as simply ""an inconvenience"". Using Braille for speeches, and briefed by his officials on tape, he also has a sharp tongue at times, and a pragmatic approach to politics...Mr Blunkett was schooled in Sheffield where he led the city council for seven years before entering the Commons. He chaired the Labour Party nationally, and was a unifying force in the 80s and 90s, shadowing health and education. In Tony Blair's first government Mr Blunkett was put in charge of education and employment, where he won big increases in funds for schools, while insisting on improved standards of literacy and numeracy. He was prepared to stand up to the teaching unions - which sometimes heckled his speeches - and his policy of charging university students for tuition fees was not popular. In the Labour Party he has been regarded as a loyal colleague, a conciliator who avoids factions, and a man whose humour and determination make him widely popular. There have been wry smiles as well. In 1999, his then guide dog Lucy threw up in the Chamber during the speech of his Tory opponent. Lucy was replaced by her half-sister, Sadie, a black Labrador-curly-coated retriever cross, in 2003 after nearly a decade by Mr Blunkett's side.",politics
"Strike threat over pension plans..Millions of public service workers could strike if ministers scrap their final salary pension scheme and make them work longer, warn union leaders...The Cabinet Office has confirmed it is reviewing the current pension system, prompting unions representing 4.5m workers to threaten united action. They believe the plans include raising the mandatory retirement age for public service workers from 60 to 65. The government says unions will be consulted before any changes are made...It is thought the proposed overhaul, due on Thursday, could mean pensions could be based on a ""career average"" salary. For each year served, staff currently get one eightieth of their highest salary in the final three years. Ministers will be anxious to avoid mass strike action in the lead-up to the next general election, which is widely expected next May. In a statement on Sunday, the Cabinet Office said it was reviewing the Civil Service Pension Scheme, and hoped to announce proposals soon. ""Unions will of course be consulted about any proposed changes. ""Public sector pension schemes need to remain affordable and sustainable. People are living longer and pensions are getting more expensive. ""To maintain the long-term affordability of our pension scheme, the government announced in its Green Paper on pensions that pension age would rise from 60 to 65."" On Monday, Tony Blair's official spokesman declined to say whether the prime minister backed the plans. He said: ""What's important is that there's a process going on, it's out for consultation at the moment, let's wait for that process to complete itself.""..There is already widespread anger over the chancellor's plans to get rid of more than 100,000 civil servants. Now public service unions are united against the plans and the Trades Union Congress is discussing the issue next Monday. Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said changes to pension provisions for workers in the public sector would mean they had to pay in more but would still face a raw deal. ""Members working in the NHS or for local government have never had high pay or city bonuses, but they could look forward to a decent pension - now all that is being taken away,"" he said. ""What really riles me is the breathtaking hypocrisy of MPs who recently voted themselves the best pension scheme in Europe, but say they can't afford it for anyone else. ""This is a position that Unison cannot accept and will oppose. It will lead to conflict between Unison and the government, if not this year then next.""..Mr Prentis said workers did not want to go on strike and called for talks between unions and the highest level of government. Mark Serwotka, from the Public and Commercial Services union said there should be a co-ordinated one day strike unless there was a government rethink. The Fire Brigades Union said the government was planning to cut ill health retirement benefits for firefighters and other measures to chip away at pensions. Pensions officer Paul Woolstenholmes said: ""The pensions of millions of public sector workers are under threat - apart from MPs and judges who have the most generous pensions arrangements in the country.""",politics
"Parties warned over 'grey vote'..Political parties cannot afford to take older UK voters for granted in the coming election, says Age Concern...A survey for the charity suggests 69% of over-55s say they always vote in a general election compared with just 17% of 18 to 24 year olds. Charity boss Gordon Lishman said if a ""decisive blow"" was struck at the election it would be by older voters who could be relied on to turn out. A total of 3,028 adults aged 18 or over were interviewed for the study. Mr Lishman urged the next government to boost state pension...He also called for measures to combat ageism and build effective public services to ""support us all in an ageing society"". ""Older people want to see manifesto commitments that will make a difference to their lives,"" Mr Lishman said. ""Political parties must wake up to the fact that unless they address the demands and concerns of older people they will not keep or attract their vote."" In the survey carried out by ICM Research, 14% of people aged between 18 and 34 said they never voted in general elections. Among the over-65s, 70% said they would be certain to vote in an immediate election, compared with 39% of people under 55. Age Concern says the over-55s are ""united around"" key areas of policy they want the government to focus on. For 57%, pensions and the NHS were key issues, while the economy was important for a third, and tax was a crucial area for 25%.",politics
"MPs quiz aides over royal income..Senior officials at the two bodies generating private income for the Queen and Prince of Wales are to be questioned by MPs...Aides from the Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall will appear before the Commons Public Accounts Committee. It has been reported they could be questioned about Prince Charles' spending on Camilla Parker Bowles. But BBC correspondent Peter Hunt said they are not responsible for how money is spent and may be unable to answer. Duchy officials, who will appear before the committee on Monday, are only responsible for generating money. The Duchy of Lancaster provides the Queen's private income, while the Duchy of Cornwall provides Prince Charles' annual income. The Duchy of Cornwall is a 140,000-acre estate across 25 counties, and also includes residential properties, shops, offices, stocks and shares. It was set up in 1337 by King Edward III to provide income for successive heirs to the throne. It covers the cost of the prince's public and private life - neither Charles, nor William and Harry, receive taxpayers' money from the Civil List. However, the Prince of Wales did receive over £4m from government departments and grants-in-aid in 2003-4. The duchy last year generated almost £12m. The prince has voluntarily paid income tax - currently 40% - since 1993.",politics
"Tory leader 'cleared' over work..Scottish Conservative Party leader David McLetchie claims he has been cleared over a potential conflict of interest...The Edinburgh MSP earns up to £30,000 a year from the law firm Tods Murray, where he is a partner. Mr McLetchie said he has taken advice from Holyrood officials about what details he needs to declare. He was advised to exercise judgement to avoid the perception of a conflict and said he had done nothing wrong. As an MSP, Mr McLetchie signed a parliamentary motion questioning expansion plans for Edinburgh Airport...It then emerged Tods Murray has a client which opposes the development. Mr McLetchie then sought guidance from the standards committee to clarify his position. BBC Scotland's political correspondent Glenn Campbell said no complaint had been made against Mr McLetchie, but questions were raised about his dual role. Glenn said MSPs are advised to guard against a conflict of interests and a perception of a conflict...Mr McLetchie said: ""I'm quite clear that no conflicts of interest arise in my case, that the judgement I took has effectively been vindicated when you look at the advice that has been given to me and that these allegations are unfounded."" He said nothing had changed in respect of his work with the law firm and it was a matter he would have to discuss with the other partners at Tods Murray. ""The firm and I have a very good working relationship and we have done for the last six years,"" said Mr McLetchie. ""I don't suppose I'll be working forever as a lawyer or a politician. I deserve to retire from both, but I'm not willing to put time limits on them.""",politics
"Blair and Blunkett Sheffield trip..Tony Blair is to join Home Secretary David Blunkett in a visit to Sheffield on Thursday...Mr Blunkett's conduct is being looked at to establish whether he abused his position in relation to his ex-lover. The Parliamentary standards watchdog is looking at his decision to give Kimberly Quinn free rail tickets. He is also being investigated over the visa application of Mrs Quinn's ex-nanny. The visit to Sheffield will be seen as a show of unity by Mr Blair...On Wednesday during Prime Minister's Questions, Tory leader Michael Howard went on the offensive over comments Mr Blunkett is alleged to have made in a new biography. He is understood to have made a series of criticisms about his Cabinet colleagues from the prime minister down. Mr Howard said Mr Blunkett had complained he had inherited a ""giant mess"" when he took over at the Home Office from Jack Straw, now foreign secretary. The Tory leader went on: ""He doesn't stop there: he thinks the culture secretary's weak; he thinks the trade secretary doesn't think strategically and he thinks the education secretary hasn't developed as expected. ""He says the prime minister doesn't like being told the truth and the chancellor - no doubt the prime minister will agree with this - is a bully."" Mr Blair retorted voters remembered the record of a government and no comments by politicians...The home secretary has already admitted he was wrong to give the two first class tickets, given to him as an MP, to Mrs Quinn and has since paid the £180 back. He has apologised for ""a genuine mistake"" and says he will write to the watchdog to answer further questions. The rail tickets are meant to help MPs' spouses get between Westminster and their constituencies. After his inquiry, Parliamentary watchdog Sir Philip Mawer will report to the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, the group of MPs who will recommend to the full House of Commons what action - if any - should be taken against Mr Blunkett...The separate inquiry by ex-senior civil servant Sir Alan Budd is investigating whether the home secretary helped fast-track a bid by Mrs Quinn's nanny, Leoncia Casalme, to stay in the UK. Last week, Mr Blunkett won the first round of a High Court battle with Mrs Quinn for access to her son. Mr Blunkett declined to comment about his own position, saying the inquiry was under way and the High Court had stressed his right to privacy did not affect his job in improving security and stability. Downing Street has stressed Mr Blair's support for the home secretary.",politics
"Student 'fee factor' played down..A rise has been recorded in the number of students from south of the border applying to universities in Scotland...However, Lifelong Learning Minister Jim Wallace said that this would not result in Scottish students missing out. Applications from England and Wales rose by 17% between January 2005 and the previous year, up 23,600 to 27,700. Fears had been expressed that a flood of ""fee refugees"" would try to avoid top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year being introduced in England. In June last year, Mr Wallace announced proposals to increase tuition fees for English students studying in Scotland by £2,000 in an attempt to prevent a cross-border flood, although no figure has yet been agreed. Legislation to introduce the top-up fees in England is not due to take effect until autumn 2006 and students who start before then will not have to pay additional fees at all...The figures were made public on Thursday by admissions service Ucas. Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, claimed that an increase in applications did not amount to Scottish students being squeezed out. Director, David Caldwell, said some students could be applying in an attempt to avoid the possible increase in annual fees at English universities, but this was not a major factor. He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: ""The reason people are opting for Scottish universities is that they are perceived as being of very high quality, they offer very attractive courses and Scotland is seen as a very attractive place to study...""They know that when they take up their studies in 2006 they will be hit by top-up fees if they are going to a university in England and that may be part of the reason why the numbers coming to Scotland are so inflated. ""However, it does not mean that we will see thousands of additional students from England studying here."" Mr Wallace agreed and said the figures had to be looked at in context. He explained that when applications were translated into acceptances, the number was not huge - an additional figure of about 200...Also, the picture was further blurred by the fact that applications from Wales, where there are no plans for top-up fees, have also risen, by 19%. Mr Wallace said: ""Accepting students from all parts of the world does show the high regard in which Scottish higher education is held, not just in Britain. ""We want to make sure that when students are making their choice, they do so on the nature of the course and not because they are under some sort of financial pressure to go to Scotland. ""We do not want to have a situation where it becomes impossible for Scottish students to get places at Scottish universities because we are seen as the cheap option. ""Very often the quality of the university experience is enhanced by the fact there are students coming from a wide range of backgrounds so it would be wrong to go the other way and start excluding students.""",politics
"Anglers 'could face prosecution'..Anglers and fishermen could find themselves prosecuted under plans to crack down on animal cruelty, a committee of MPs has warned...Sloppy wording of the draft animal welfare bill could leave anglers facing court even though it was not intended, the environment select committee said. The MPs said they were ""concerned"" the government had not consulted directly on its plans to improve animal welfare. They raised complex and emotive issues which needed to be resolved, MPs said...They called for a ""cast-iron guarantee"" that the government consults on any plans to regulate animal industries like pet fairs and game bird rearing. The draft bill seeks to modernise and improve animal welfare legislation, and intends to protect ""kept animals"" and ""companion"" animals by setting up a ""duty of care"". In addition to maintaining existing cruelty offences, it creates an offence of neglect by keepers who fail to protect the animals for whom they are responsible. The bill would allow animal welfare officers to intervene to prevent harm to an animal as well as outlawing ""mutilation"" of animals - unless it can be demonstrated to be in the animal's best interest...The environment select committee made 101 recommendations after hearing evidence from 51 organisations and individuals. One was a call to amend the bill so that prosecutions against those engaged in fishing were not inadvertently encouraged - even if they were to later fail. ""We accept that neither commercial fishing nor recreational angling should fall within the remit of the of the draft bill and we therefore support the government's intention to exempt fishing as an activity.""..But the committee said an amendment was needed to ensure cases were not brought. ""However, in exempting fishing, the government should be careful to ensure that those persons who catch fish are not given 'carte blanche' to inflict unnecessary suffering in the course of pursuing this activity,"" the committee added. The committee also said some legal protections for animals were downgraded by the bill, such as the law on abandonment of animals which ""would be significantly weakened"". MPs urged the government to redraft clauses relating to the prosecution of cruelty offences. This was because as it stood the draft bill would allow certain acts that should be prosecuted - such as unnecessary suffering caused to an animal through neglect, or unnecessary mental suffering - to go unpunished...Committee chairman Michael Jack said: ""Any change in the law as it affects animals always arouses powerful emotions and great public interest. ""This draft bill is no exception. My committee welcomes the development of an approach to animal welfare which doesn't just wait for a problem to occur but enables action to be taken to protect animals before irreversible suffering takes place."" But Mr Jack said the bill ""very much had the feel of a 'work in progress', and urged the government to guarantee that ""an obligation to consult will be enshrined in law"" before it extended legislative plans to areas such as pet fairs, circuses and game bird farms. ""The government must work hard to take the rough edges of its initial proposals before the bill is introduced to Parliament,"" he added.",politics
"Clarke to press on with ID cards..New Home Secretary Charles Clarke has vowed to plough on with plans for ID cards despite a call for him to ""pause for thought"" from Charles Kennedy...The Lib Dem leader said David Blunkett's resignation was a ""good opportunity"" to question whether the legislation was necessary. But Mr Clarke said he had supported the plans when Mr Blunkett argued for them in Cabinet and he supported them now. ""ID cards are a means to creating a more secure society,"" he said. Mr Clarke acknowledged how the measure was introduced remained a matter for debate but he said legislation had already been ""significantly influenced"" by the recommendations of the Commons' home affairs committee...The issue would be debated in Parliament next Monday as scheduled he insisted. Earlier Mr Kennedy, whose party opposes the ID cards plan as ""deeply flawed"" said with Christmas coming up the new home secretary had time to think again. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mr Clarke had been reported to be less enthusiastic about ID cards than his predecessors. ""Wouldn't this be a good opportunity for a new home secretary, a new broom, to sweep clean in this respect and why do we need this legislation in the first place?"" he asked. Earlier this week the Tories announced they would back the government's plans although Michael Howard was forced to deny the shadow cabinet was split over its decision...They had decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror, crime and illegal immigration. Among those reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members David Davis, Oliver Letwin and Tim Yeo. The chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC has warned there is a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained.""..The Home Office says people will pay £85 for a passport and ID card together or a undecided fee for a separate ID card. The first cards would be issued in 2008 and when he was introducing the bill, Mr Blunkett suggested Parliament could decide in 2011 or 2012 whether to make it compulsory for everybody to own the cards, although not to carry them. The new bill will also create new criminal offences on the possession of false identity documents. And there will be civil penalties including a fine of up to £1,000 fine for people who fail to say they have moved house or changed other details and of up to £2,500 for failing to sign up if the cards become compulsory. The scheme will be overseen by a new independent watchdog.",politics
"Scots smoking ban details set out..Smoke-free areas will save lives and improve Scotland's health, First Minister Jack McConnell has insisted...He told the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday that a ""comprehensive ban"" on smoking in public places would be introduced by the spring of 2006. Mr McConnell said the country's health rates were ""lamentable"" not least because of smoking. He said fines of up to £2,500 would be levied on employers and licences would be removed for non-compliance. Earlier, the Scottish Executive considered a range of options but agreed unanimously to introduce an all-out ban on smoking in public places. In a statement to parliament, Mr McConnell said that the licensed trade would be asked to join an expert committee prior to the ban coming into force...The health arguments far outweighed lingering public disquiet about a complete ban and claims by the licensed trade that jobs would be lost, he told MSPs. He said there would be an international marketing campaign whereby ""tourists can enjoy smoke free environment and the sick man of Europe image becomes a thing of the past"". ""There are still national habits which hold us back - the time has come for this parliament to accelerate improvements in health,"" he declared. ""Health rates are lamentable because of a lack of exercise, drugs abuse, excessive drinking and over-eating. ""They all make us one of the most unhealthy countries in Europe, and too many smoke. ""It is clear that Scotland must not be held back by poor public health - the single biggest contribution devolved government can make is to reduce the toll of preventable death caused by smoking."" The legislation will be introduced as part of the Health Service (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which will be considered by parliament before Christmas. Main points of the plan:... - A comprehensive ban on smoking in all enclosed public places in Scotland. - The legislation will be enforced by environmental health and local licensing officers. - Licensees or employers who fail to enforce the law will face fines up to a maximum of £2,500. - Licensees who persistently refuse to comply with the law will face the ultimate sanction of losing their liquor licence. - A system of issuing fixed penalty notices for those individuals who break the law will be examined. - Individuals who persistently break the law will face a maximum fine of £1,000....Mr McConnell claimed there was evidence that smoking bans had helped smokers to either give up quicker or smoke less. He said there had been falling cigarette sales of 13% in New York and 16% in Ireland. Mr McConnell added that there had been a near nine per cent rise in tax revenues from New York bars and restaurants and, in Ireland, only a one point three per cent volume sales fall, where they were declining before the ban. The afternoon announcement, following a cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning, won broad support from opposition parties...The Scottish National Party's Holyrood leader, Nicola Sturgeon, welcomed the move but added that the public should be consulted as the clock ticked towards the ban date. She said: ""The time has come for a ban on smoking in public places. ""There is evidence a ban can cut deaths from passive smoking and makes it easier for the 70% of smokers who desperately want to give up the habit. ""But we must also recognise that some people have concerns and reservations - there are people who are yet to be persuaded."" The Scottish Conservative Party leader, David McLetchie, questioned what would be exempted from the ban. He was keen to know if inmates in Scottish prisons would continue to be allowed to smoke. Mr McLetchie asked: ""Would it not be ironic and perhaps entirely typical of the first minister's brave new Scotland that the criminals can be smokers but the smokers will become criminals?"" The Scottish Green Party's health spokeswoman, Eleanor Scott, said she was pleased Scotland would be following the ""success stories of New York and Ireland"". She believed the majority of people in Scotland wanted to go out without having to breathe in harmful tobacco smoke.",politics
"MPs criticise child access system..Divorced parents seeking access to their children are often disadvantaged by the legal system, MPs have said...The Constitutional Affairs Select Committee said parents with custody could exploit delays in the system to stop former partners gaining access. Courts should be used as a last resort, but where they are, their orders should be enforced more rigorously, MPs said. But they rejected the claim made by some campaign groups that there should be a legal presumption of equal access...Currently the presumption is that the interests of the child are paramount. ""An arbitrary 'template' imposed on all families, whatever the needs of the child, would relegate the welfare of individual children to a secondary position,"" the MPs said...They said the law should be changed to require family courts specifically to take account of the importance of sustaining the relationship between the child and the non-resident parent in contested cases. This would ""reassert the rights of non-resident parents to contact with their children, as well as the rights of children to contact with both their parents, while maintaining sufficient flexibility to cope with issues of safety"", they said. Delays in court hearings and the inability to effectively enforce court orders allowed ""a new 'status quo' arrangement for the children to become established by default"", they said...""Although the courts rigorously avoid conscious bias, there are considerable grounds for accepting that non-resident parents are frequently disadvantaged by the system as it is administered at present. ""Given the strong animosity between the parties which is common in contested family cases, we find it hard to believe that tactical delay is not sometimes used to the advantage of resident parents."" Committee chairman Alan Beith said the five-month inquiry had been a ""complex and emotive"" one. ""At the moment, far too many contact and residency cases are being dealt with by the courts when they could be better resolved through professional mediation and negotiation,"" he said. ""This situation has to change. The court system should only be used as a last resort, where mediation and negotiation have completely broken down or where issues of abuse or domestic violence need to be dealt with. ""This will help to reduce delays and improve the lives of many children across the country.""",politics
"Nuclear strike 'key terror risk'..The UK and US must realise they cannot prevent all terror attacks and should focus on making sure they are not nuclear strikes, says a top academic...Amitai Etzioni, a key influence on New Labour thinking, says the US emphasis on an ""Axis of Evil"" is misplaced. The priority should instead be on ""failing states"", including Russia and Pakistan, who cannot properly control their nuclear material, he argues. His report demands a major overhaul of world rules on nuclear technology...Professor Etzioni was a senior adviser to President Carter's White House and is the guru behind communitarian ideas which influenced the development of Blairite Third Way politics. In a report for the Foreign Policy Centre think tank, he says a nuclear terrorist attack is the main danger faced by many nations...""Attempts to defend against it by hardening domestic targets cannot work, nor can one rely on pre-emption by taking the war to the terrorists before they attack,"" he says. That means there is an urgent need to curb terrorists' access to nuclear arms and the materials used to make them. ""We must recognise that we will be unable to stop all attacks and thus ensure terrorists will not be able to strike with weapons of mass destruction,"" Prof Etzioni continues...He suggests so-called rogue states such as Iran and North Korea are less of a problem than ""failed and failing states"", which are more likely to be a source of nuclear materials. He names Russia as the ""failing state"" of gravest concern as it has an estimated 90% of all fissile material outside America. And he is also worried about Pakistan after one of its top nuclear scientists, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted leaking nuclear secrets. Prof Etzioni criticises the US for overlooking those reports, suggesting it was done in return for Pakistani help in hunting Osama Bin Laden. ""This is like letting a serial killer go because he promised to catch some jay-walkers,"" he says.... - Upgrading security at nuclear arms stores as a temporary measure. - Creating a new Global Safety Authority to tackle nuclear terrorism, using the intelligence links established in the wake of 11 September - backed by the United Nations' authority. - Encouraging, pressuring and using ""all available means"" to persuade countries to switch their highly-enriched uranium for less dangerous less-enriched uranium. - When possible, taking fissile material away from failing states to safe havens where it can be blended down or converted. - Compelling ""failing and rogue states"", and eventually all states, to destroy their nuclear bombs.",politics
"Russian ex-spy on hunger strike..An ex-Russian intelligence officer who risked his life spying for MI6 is entering the seventh week of a hunger strike near 10 Downing Street...Viktor Makarov, 50, claims he has been betrayed by the British authorities, who promised he would live like an ""average British citizen"". But despite a £65,000 settlement four years ago, he says he has been denied defector status and a decent pension. Other ex-Russian spies have been given civil service pensions. ""Hunger strike is a weapon of last resort. It can work only with determination and of course the realisation of the righteousness of your case - without that it will not work,"" Mr Makarov told the BBC's Newsnight programme. ""Since I came to this country two batches of promises have been made and broken one after the other.""..Oleg Gordievsky, a senior KGB officer who became a secret agent for the British, said he was ""very happy"" with the way the government have treated him since him since he defected in 1985. Commenting on Mr Makarov's case, he said: ""The British state is not a fat cow - it is impossible to come here and demand give me more money every week."" But Mr Makarov's case has been backed by David Kahn - a former Yale historian, and a leading expert on code-breaking, who has confirmed his information was valuable to the Western allies. ""I believe the government of the United Kingdom, which in that respect was probably the same as most other power authorities - took the information that Victor Makarov had, wrung him dry and left him to hang out in the cold,"" Mr Kahn said...Mr Makarov joined the KGB in 1970s Russia, as an idealistic 20 year-old. One of his fellow pupils at intelligence school was Vladimir Putin. At KGB headquarters in Moscow, he was posted to the secret 16th directorate - which decoded intercepted diplomatic traffic from the West. By the 1980s he had risen to the rank of senior lieutenant - and was privy to the thoughts of Western powers. But he had became deeply disenchanted with the Soviet regime - fuelled by its repression both at home and in Poland...Through his English teacher, he made an approach to M16 - and then began passing secrets to the British intelligence service. He spied for MI6 for two years before being betrayed by a friend and sent to Perm 35 - a Soviet hard labour camp in the Artic circle. Within a week of his release in 1992, he made contact with the British authorities he'd been spying for, who arranged a meeting between him and an MI6 agent in Latvia. He was given a false passport, and he says, promised that he would be given the chance to live like an average UK citizen. But after arriving in London 13 years ago, he feels this promise has not been fulfilled. After long periods of living in bedsits, with deteriorating health, four years ago he took legal action against the government - and settled for £65,000 to buy a small house. But he says he will remain on hunger strike until he receives a decent pension and the right to work, something he feels he has been denied because the authorities do not trust him. Government sources told the BBC they had reached a final settlement with the former spy, which he has been able to appeal to security and intelligence tribunals.",politics
"Lib Dems 'to target stamp duty'..The Liberal Democrats are promising to raise the stamp duty threshold if they win the general election, in a bid to court first-time house buyers...Vince Cable, the party's Treasury spokesman, said raising the threshold to £150,000 would prevent over 400,000 home-buyers from paying the tax. He said first-time buyers were being ""squeezed out"" of the housing market. The Labour party said the Liberal Democrats needed to explain how they would pay for the plan. The plan forms part of a wider Lib Dems policy to encourage first time buyers and those on lower incomes into the market...Under the proposals, the average saving for a new buyer would be more than £1,000, according to Mr Cable. ""First time buyers are being squeezed out of the housing market not only by higher house prices but also by being swept into the stamp duty net,"" he said. ""By failing to uprate the stamp duty threshold Gordon Brown has hit first time buyers and those on low incomes the hardest. ""By pledging to increase the threshold to £150,000, the Liberal Democrats will make it possible for many first time buyers to buy a property without facing this tax."" Paul Boateng MP, Labour's Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: ""The Lib Dems' sums don't add up. ""They can have no credibility until they can say how they would fund their ever growing list of tax and spending commitments."" Mr Cable will publish his ""Alternative Budget"" on Monday.",politics
"Kelly trails new discipline power..Teachers could get more powers to remove unruly pupils from classes under a ""zero tolerance"" drive, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has suggested...Ms Kelly told the BBC progress had been made against severely disruptive children but parents were still worried about lower level problems. The minister also confirmed she received ""spiritual support"" from the Catholic movement Opus Dei. But she denied her faith meant she would refuse key government jobs...The Conservatives have made school discipline one of their five priority areas in the run-up to the next general election. Ms Kelly is expected to announce her plans on the issue in the next fortnight. She told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost: ""It is really important to support head teachers and teachers in tackling disruption in the classroom. ""We have made huge progress on the really difficult cases, the pupils who have severely disruptive behaviour...""But quite rightly what teachers are concerned about and what parents are concerned about is that this lower level disruption that goes on in the classroom now is tackled. ""I would like to see the teacher being able to remove disruptive children from the classroom completely and have either alternative provision within the school or indeed off the school and may be working together with other schools in a particular area to provide that provision."" It is thought the plans may distinguish between excluding pupils from schools and taking them out of mainstream classes. Head teachers can currently exclude pupils who commit or threaten violence in school, who sexually abuse pupils or other people, who sell illegal drugs or who have persistent and malicious disruptive behaviour. Ms Kelly entered the Cabinet last month in the reshuffle forced by the resignation of the then Home Secretary David Blunkett. Her links to Opus Dei, which means ""Work of God"" in Latin, have provoked controversy...Critics say the organisation, which adheres strictly to Catholic teachings, is secretive and elitist but its members reject such claims. Asked if she was a member of the group, Ms Kelly said: ""I do have spiritual support from Opus Dei and that is right. ""But those are private spiritual matters and I'm sure you'll respect that politicians are entitled to a private life."" She categorically denied reports that her beliefs on issues such as contraception would make her refuse to serve as a health or international development minister. Her collective responsibility as a Cabinet minister meant she also took responsibility for policies in those areas, she argued...The government has yet to issue its official response to the Tomlinson review, which recommended absorbing existing exam qualifications into a diploma. Ms Kelly said reforms should build on GCSEs and A-levels. Her comments did not impress Tory shadow education secretary Tim Collins. ""Ruth Kelly wants to ditch the Tomlinson report on exam structures but has absolutely no idea what to put in its place,"" he said. ""She also talks of improving discipline but cannot make her mind up how. This is an all talk agenda that lets down children, teachers and parents.""",politics
"Citizenship event for 18s touted..Citizenship ceremonies could be introduced for people celebrating their 18th birthday, Charles Clarke has said...The idea will be tried as part of an overhaul of the way government approaches ""inclusive citizenship"" particularly for ethnic minorities. A pilot scheme based on ceremonies in Australia will start in October. Mr Clarke said it would be a way of recognising young people reaching their voting age when they also gain greater independence from parents. Britain's young black and Asian people are to be encouraged to learn about the nation's heritage as part of the government's new race strategy which will also target specific issues within different ethnic minority groups. Officials say the home secretary wants young people to feel they belong and to understand their ""other cultural identities"" alongside being British. The launch follows a row about the role of faith schools in Britain. On Monday school inspection chief David Bell, accused some Islamic schools of failing to teach pupils about their obligations to British society...The Muslim Council of Britain said Ofsted boss Mr Bell's comments were ""highly irresponsible"". The Home Office started work on its Community Cohesion and Race Equality Strategy last year and the outcome, launched on Wednesday, is called 'Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society'. It is aimed at tackling racism, exclusion, segregation and the rise in political and religious extremism. ""It represents a move away from the one-size-fits-all approach to focus on specifics within cultural groups,"" said a Home Office spokesman. ""It is not right to say that if you are from a black or ethnic minority group you must be disadvantaged."" The spokesman highlighted specific issues that affect particular communities - for example people of south Asian origin tend to suffer from a high incidence of heart disease...""It is about drilling down and focusing on these sorts of problems,"" the spokesman added. Launching the initiative Mr Clarke said enormous progress had been made on race issues in recent years. He added: ""But while many members of black and minority ethnic communities are thriving, some may still find it harder to succeed in employment or gain access to healthcare, education or housing. ""This strategy sets out the government's commitment to doing more to identify and respond to the specific needs of minorities in our society."" Some 8% of the UK population described themselves as coming from a non-white ethnic minority in the 2001 Census...The Downing Street Strategy Unit in 2003 said people from Indian and Chinese backgrounds were doing well on average, often outperforming white people in education and earnings. But those of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean origin were significantly more likely to be unemployed and earn less than whites, it said. The Home Office wants more initiatives which try to promote a sense of belonging by encouraging young people to take part in voluntary work. The programmes are designed to support the citizenship lessons already taking place in schools.",politics
"England children's tsar appointed..The first children's commissioner for England has been appointed...Great Ormond Street Hospital professor of child health, Al Aynsley-Green, was chosen by the government and will start the £100,000-a-year job immediately. He will oversee a £2.5m annual budget and have the power to look into ""any matter relating to the interests and well-being of children"". Prof Aynsley-Green has also been the national clinical director for children in the Department of Health. He promised to make sure that children's opinions ""count""...""I will be drawing on my experience of working with children and young people to help ensure that those with the power to improve children's lives do live up to their responsibilities. ""I want all children and young people to know that they can approach me to discuss any matter that affects them, knowing that I will value their opinion."" Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said Prof Aynsley-Green would ""strengthen the voice of children and young people"". Prof Aynsley-Green was a lecturer at Oxford University, trained at Guy's Hospital Medical School, University of London; Oriel College, Oxford; and in Switzerland. He is described as ""a proud grandfather"" of four. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have children's commissioners.",politics
"EU China arms ban 'to be lifted'..The EU embargo on arms exports to China is likely to be lifted in the next six months despite US objections, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said...The 15-year-old ban was imposed in the aftermath of China's crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square. Mr Straw told a Commons select committee human rights concerns over China remained. But he said it was wrong to put China under the same embargo as countries such as Zimbabwe and Burma...In December, the EU pledged to work towards lifting the ban but said it was not ready to do so yet. The EU's move was welcomed at the time by Beijing, which described the embargo as a ""product of the Cold War"". German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac have repeatedly called for the embargo to be lifted. Britain has been more cautious on the issue, but on Wednesday Mr Straw said he also wanted it to end. ""I have long understood China's argument, that to lump them in with, say, Burma and Zimbabwe is not appropriate and I don't think it is,"" he told the joint committee on Strategic Export Controls. He said ""it is more likely than not"" that the ban would be lifted before Britain takes over the presidency of the EU from Luxembourg in July. But he said an EU code of conduct would prevent an increase in the number of arms being exported to the country. ""If it is lifted we will end up with as effective arms controls in relation to China as we have now.""..Mr Straw said the US government was suspicious of ""the motives of some other countries within the EU"" in wanting the ban lifted. But he said many of Washington's objections were based on a ""lack of information and understanding"" of how export control guidelines worked in EU countries. And ""intense discussions"" were taking place with US officials to convince them it was the right thing to do. Washington is thought to fear it would lead to a buying spree for arms that could be used by China to threaten its diplomatic rival Taiwan. US officials say they are not satisfied the mechanisms in the EU code of conduct are robust enough to prevent abuses. US Undersecretary of State John Bolton is meeting British officials this week to press the case for keeping the embargo.",politics
"'Debate needed' on donations cap..A cap on donations to political parties should not be introduced yet, the elections watchdog has said...Fears that big donors can buy political favours have sparked calls for a limit. In a new report, the Electoral Commission says it is worth debating a £10,000 cap for the future but now is not the right time to introduce it. It also says there should be more state funding for political parties and candidates should be able to spend more on election campaigning...There were almost £68m in reported donations to political parties in 2001, 2002 and 2003, with nearly £12m of them from individual gifts worth more than £1m. The rules have already been changed so the public can see who gives how much to the parties but the report says there are still public suspicions. The commission says capping donations would mean taxpayers giving parties more cash - something which would first have to be acceptable to the public and shown to work. ""While we are not in principle opposed to the introduction of a donation cap, we do not believe that such a major departure from the existing system now would be sensible,"" says its report. If there was to be a cap, it should be £10,000 - a small enough amount to make a difference but which would have banned £56m in donations between 2001 and 2003...Even without changes the commission does urge political parties to seek out more small-scale donations and suggests there should be income tax relief for gifts under £200. It also suggests increasing state funding for parties to £3m so help can be extended to all parties with at least two members in the House of Commons, European Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly. And it suggests new ways of boosting election campaigning, seen as a way of improving voter turnout. All local election candidates should be entitled to a free mailshot for campaign leaflets, says the watchdog. And there should be a shift in the amount of money allowed to be spent at elections from a national level to a local level to help politicians engage better with voters...The report suggests doubling the money which can be spent by candidates, while cutting national spending limits from £20m to £15m. The commission also says the spending limits for general elections should cover the four months before the poll - as happens with other elections. Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger said: ""There is no doubt that political parties have a vital role to play in maintaining the health of our democracy and for this they need to be adequately resourced. ""Our research has shown that people want to be more informed about party politics and that they want politicians to be more visible and accessible. ""The public are reluctant for the state to fund parties but at the same time are unhappy with large private donations."" He called for a wider public debate on party funding to find the consensus needed for radical changes to the current system.",politics
"Cardinal criticises Iraq war cost..Billions of pounds spent on conflict in Iraq and in the Middle East should have been used to reduce poverty, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has said...The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales made the comments on BBC Radio 4 and will re-iterate his stance in his Christmas Midnight Mass. The cardinal used a Christmas message to denounce the war in Iraq as a ""terrible"" waste of money. He and the Archbishop of Canterbury have both spoken out about the war...Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day slot, he criticised the fact that ""billions"" have been spent on war, instead of being used to bring people ""out of dire poverty and malnourishment and disease"". The cardinal said 2005 should be the year for campaigning to ""make history poverty"". He added: ""If the governments of the rich countries were as ready to devote to peace the resources they are willing to commit to war, that would be to see with new eyes and speak with a new voice and perhaps then others would listen to us with new ears."" The cardinal will touch on this theme again on Friday night when he will tell the congregation of 2,000 at Westminster Cathedral that peace is ""worth, always, striving for""...""How is it that peace has not arrived?,"" the cardinal will ask. ""How is it that there is war in Iraq, violence in the Holy Land, and the horror of pain and death amongst the poor and deprived who suffer from injustice and thus do not find peace?"" ""How can one wish a happy Christmas for our fellow Christians in Iraq or in the Holy Land or those who suffer in Africa unless you and I, in whatever way is open to us, say and do what makes for peace?"" Both the Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams appealed for the weapons inspectors to be given more time in Iraq before the war started. Dr Williams has since criticised the government over its case for war, saying the failure to find weapons of mass destruction had damaged faith in the political system...On Friday, the Cardinal will ask the congregation to search for peace. ""It is possible, it is real, it is worth, always, striving for, because of the promise of Our Saviour,"" he will say. ""I also wish you peace in your homes because peace in your home is the beginning of peace in the homes of the community. "" A spokesman said Downing Street had no comment to make. But Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he will put Africa at the top of the agenda when Britain chairs the G8 summit next year.",politics
"Assembly ballot papers 'missing'..Hundreds of ballot papers for the regional assembly referendum in the North East have ""disappeared""...Royal Mail says it is investigating the situation, which has meant about 300 homes in County Durham are not receiving voting packs. Officials at Darlington Council are now in a race against time to try and rectify the situation. The all-postal votes of about two million electors are due to be handed in by 4 November. A spokesman for Darlington Council said: ""We have sent out the ballot papers, the problem is with Royal Mail. ""Somewhere along the line, something has gone wrong and these ballot papers have not been delivered. ""The Royal Mail is investigating to see if they can find out what the problem is.""..A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: ""We are investigating a problem with the delivery route in the Mowden area of Darlington. ""This is affecting several hundred properties, which have failed to receive ballot papers. ""We are working closely with the council and will do all we can to help rectify the problem. ""No-one will not receive their ballot paper as special hand deliveries will take place where necessary. ""We are unaware of any other problems of this kind to do with the regional assembly vote.""..The Darlington Council spokesman added: ""Initially we had complaints from a couple of residents in Mowden to say they thought they should have had their ballot papers by now. ""We then made further investigations and it became clear this was a bigger issue."" A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission told BBC News Online that letters were being sent out to those homes affected. She said the commission was satisfied that measures had been put in place to ensure all voters received ballot papers in time. So far a total of 569,072 ballot envelopes have been scanned by bar code at counting offices across the North East.",politics
"Muslims discuss election concerns..Issues that Muslims should be considering before voting in the next general election are to be debated by UK community representatives...The event is being held by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), which believes Muslim voters could influence the result in up to 50 constituencies. Last year MAB, which opposed the war in Iraq, urged Muslims not to vote for Labour in the European elections. But a spokesman stressed the meeting was ""not necessarily anti-Labour"". ""This meeting is not anti-party in particular, it's anti-policy, it's on the issues we are going to ask Muslims to vote on,"" MAB spokesman Dr Azzam Tamimi said of Tuesday's event...""There are issues of concern to Muslims, and Muslims generally agree on them but have not in the past been aware of how a vote can serve these issues."" Dr Tamimi said the main issues Muslims should consider were what he referred to as the war on Iraq, the Palestinian situation, the erosion of civil liberties for Muslims in the UK and economic, social and education problems...Approximately 1.1m of the UK's 1.6m Muslims are of voting age. Previous election research has shown the overwhelming majority have traditionally voted Labour, but more recent studies have suggested Labour support has been falling away significantly among some Muslim voters...Anger over the war in Iraq has appeared to be the main reason, with many saying it was ""unjustified"". Representatives from a number of Muslim organisations will attend Tuesday's event. Among them will be the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). The chairman of the MCB's public affairs committee, Sher Khan, said the war in Iraq would be a ""significant factor"" affecting Muslims' voting intentions. ""I think it's going to be quite significant because of the number of seats in which they could have an impact,"" Mr Khan said...However, Professor John Curtice, of the University of Strathclyde, is sceptical about how much difference tactical voting by Muslims could make. ""For the most part the Labour constituencies where there's a large Muslim community are relatively safe, but there are one or two that are not quite so safe,"" Professor Curtice said...The constituencies where Labour was most at risk from a Muslim tactical vote were Bethnal Green, in east London, and Rochdale in Lancashire, he added. In Bethnal Green, former Labour MP George Galloway, who founded the anti-war party Respect, is standing against sitting MP Oona King, who had a 10,000-vote majority in 2001. In Rochdale, the Liberal Democrats - the mainstream party a 2004 ICM survey showed was benefiting most from Muslim disaffection with Labour - secured second place in the 2001 election, securing just under 6,000 votes fewer than Labour's Lorna Fitzsimons. But Professor Curtice said the Muslim anti-war vote could be split between the Liberal Democrats and Respect, meaning neither would benefit much at the ballot box. ""Ironically the Tories might be the beneficiaries if Labour does lose seats, which is generally the case,"" he said. But Dr Tamimi said MAB's intention was not to ""empower"" the Tories. ""We know the next government will be Labour, but we are aiming to send a message that it will make a difference if the Muslims use their vote properly. ""If the next Labour government has a reduced majority that's a great achievement because having a very big majority has been very harmful for politics in this country,"" Dr Tamimi said.",politics
"Drive to 'save' festive holidays..Efforts are being made to 'protect' workers' days off on Christmas Day and New Year's Day...Support is being sought for a bill which would ensure that large retailers in Scotland remain closed on Christmas Day and 1 January. The Usdaw trade union said shop workers should be able to enjoy a break with their families. MSP Karen Whitefield wants to ensure only those whose roles are essential are at work over the festive season. In recent years, more stores have been opening on traditional holidays, with some starting their end-of-year sale on Christmas Day or New Year's Day. Ms Whitefield said: ""I have found members of the public to be very supportive when I have been campaigning on the streets...""The early evidence shows quite clearly that the vast majority of people believe that shop workers should be given these two special days to spend with friends and family."" Usdaw general secretary John Hannett added: ""Christmas Day and New Year's Day are special days for everyone in Scotland and the fact that shops do not open is an important part of making them special. They are largely collective days of rest. ""We want people to tell Karen, through her consultation, whether they want the special nature of these days to remain, or whether they want them to become like any other trading day, with shops open for business as usual."" The consultation on a Christmas & New Year's Day Trading Bill has so far attracted almost 500 responses and closes on 7 February.",politics
"Blair hails Turkey-EU talks deal..Tony Blair has hailed a deal bringing Turkey a step closer to EU membership as important for the world's future ""peace and prosperity""...Mr Blair has been a leading advocate of Turkish membership despite controversy surrounding the idea. Leaving a Brussels summit Mr Blair said ""the fact Turkey is a Muslim country does not mean it should be barred"". The deal to open formal talks with Ankara came despite an EU demand for Turkey to recognise Cyprus. It was agreed the issue can be tackled at a later date but Turkish premier Recep Erdogan had to accept negotiations did not guarantee his country full EU membership...If it joins, Turkey may have to accept restrictions to limit migration by its citizens. Mr Blair said having Turkey in the EU was of ""importance to the future peace and prosperity of my country, Britain, and the wider world""...""We are stating a fundamental principle that the fact Turkey is a Muslim country does not mean it should be barred from Europe. ""On the contrary, if it fulfils the same principles of human rights, then Muslim and Christian can work together."" Under the agreement, Turkey must issue a written statement promising to sign an accord effectively recognising the Greek Cypriot government, but gives Turkey more time to sell the idea to its people...The internationally recognised southern part of Cyprus is an EU member, but Turkey, which occupies northern Cyprus, had previously insisted it would not bow to demands to recognise the country, calling the issue a ""red line"". It could take up to 15 years before Turkey is able to join, and entry cannot be guaranteed. The EU has also announced that it will start accession talks with Croatia in April 2005. However, talks will begin only if the country co-operates fully with the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.",politics
"Guantanamo pair's passport ban..The government has written to two of the British men freed from Guantanamo Bay telling them they will not be allowed passports...A letter sent to Martin Mubanga said his British passport would not be issued in the light of evidence gathered against him by the US. This suggested he was likely to take part in action against UK or allied targets if he left Britain, it said. An identical letter has been sent to Feroz Abbasi, the men's solicitor says...It is not known whether the other two men released from the Cuba detention camp in January - Richard Belmar and Moazzam Begg - have also received letters. The government is implementing the rarely used Royal Prerogative in order to withdraw the men's passports. It is only the 13th time the power has been used since 1947 - the last time was in 1976. The letter, from the Home Office, says: ""I am writing to inform you that on the basis of the information which has come to light during your detention by the United States, the home secretary considered that there are strong grounds for believing that, on leaving the United Kingdom, you would take part in activities against the United Kingdom, or allied targets.""..The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases...The Liberal Democrats say they suspect the move is part of a package of security measures agreed with the US in order for the men to be allowed home from Guantanamo Bay...Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten also demanded assurances that the evidence against the men was not gained under torture. He added: ""The power should only be used in absolute extreme circumstances and I find it hard to believe that these conditions have been met this time."" He said the move also raised complex questions about the use of the Royal Prerogative. The Liberal Democrats have promised to raise the issue in Parliament...Amnesty International UK also questioned whether the decisions had been based on ""torture evidence"" obtained at Guantanamo Bay. ""Furthermore, we believe there should be an investigation into the role played by the UK in the detention of UK residents and nationals and possibly many others at Guantanamo Bay,"" said director Kate Allen. The men's solicitor, Louise Christian, has raised questions about whether the evidence was gathered through torture. But the Pentagon told BBC News US policy ""condemns and prohibits"" torture and said there was no evidence that any British detainee was tortured or abused. Mr Abbasi, 23, from Croydon, south London, was taken to Guantanamo Bay after being captured in Afghanistan in 2001. Mr Mubanga, 29, from north London, was originally detained in Zambia.",politics
"Commons hunt protest charges..Eight protesters who stormed the House of Commons chamber during a debate on the Hunting Bill have been charged with disorderly conduct...The men were arrested in September after bursting into the chamber causing a hunting ban debate to be halted. Those charged included Otis Ferry, the 22-year-old son of rock star Bryan Ferry and Luke Tomlinson, 27, a close friend of princes William and Harry. They were charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, police said...Five of the eight men held an impromptu news conference outside Charing Cross Police Station on Monday evening, after the charges were formerly put to them. The men's solicitor Matthew Knight, said that at no time had it occurred to the men that they were committing a criminal offence...""There is no offence of trespassing in the House of Commons - it is not a criminal offence,"" he said. ""If Parliament wanted to make entering the House of Commons chamber on foot a criminal offence it should have done so, but it can't do so retrospectively. ""We are not prosecuted for that. We are prosecuted for a Public Order Act offence. We are not guilty of it."" They will appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court on 21 December, a police spokesman said. Otis Ferry, a former Eton pupil and joint leader of the South Shropshire Hunt, said: ""I have no regrets. ""We have done nothing wrong beyond the obvious which was to stand up for our rights and not act like a sheep like the rest of the country."" One of the men, David Redvers, 34, from Hartpury, Gloucestershire, said he and the other seven protesters would plead not guilty to the charges...The other protesters are John Holliday, 37, a huntsman from Ledbury, Herefordshire, Robert Thame, 34, who plays polo with Princes Charles in Team Highgrove, auctioneer Andrew Elliot, 42, from Bromesberrow, near Ledbury, point-to-point jockey Richard Wakeham, 34, from York, and former royal chef Nick Wood, 41. The 15 September protest came on the same day as a huge pro-hunting demonstration in Parliament Square. Four of the men ran out from behind the speaker's chair while another wrestled past a doorkeeper from a different entrance. The five tried to confront MPs before they were bundled out of the chamber and later led away handcuffed by police. Three others had been intercepted by security staff as they tried to join the five in the chamber...Speaker Michael Martin later said the men had used a forged letter to gain access to the House of Commons and had been helped to get close to the chamber by a parliamentary pass holder. In November, the use of the Parliament Act meant a total ban on hunting with dogs in England and Wales. However, many pro-hunt activists remained defiant after the law was passed, saying they would ignore the ban and continue to hunt. Last week, the Countryside Alliance said more than 250 hunts would meet legally the day after the ban on hunting with dogs comes into force. The alliance said the 19 February meets would show the new law was ""impossibly difficult to determine"" and open to different interpretations.",politics
"Child access laws shake-up..Parents who refuse to allow former partners contact with their children could be electronically tagged under plans being considered by ministers. Curfews and community service orders were other options which could be used if court orders to allow parental access were defied, Lord Falconer said. The constitutional affairs secretary outlined some of the plans on Tuesday. He denied fathers' activists had forced the changes, telling the BBC ""there is a recognition that something is wrong"". Between 15,000 and 20,000 couples go to court to resolve access disputes each year, although in nine out of 10 separations there is no court intervention...Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he hoped voluntary mediation could help solve disputes before they reached court. But he opposed compulsory mediation, saying that it would lead to many people taking part with the wrong attitude. Other plans include:... - Parenting plans to give advice on access arrangements, based on real-life examples that have worked in the past. - Extending in-court conciliation - more informal hearings before contested court cases. - Better access to legal, emotional and practical advice by telephone and internet. - Legal aid changes to give incentives for early resolution of disputes....Judges can already jail parents who breach contact orders but that was a ""nuclear option"" which was rarely used as it was not seen as being in the child's interests, a spokesman said. The aim of the new legislation was to provide a ""medium range"" of penalties, such as fines, community service orders, compulsory anger management or parenting classes or curfews...Failure to comply with these measures could result in offenders being electronically tagged. On the possibility of tagging uncooperative parents, Lord Falconer said: ""Tagging may be going too far, but let's have a debate about that."" Full details of the new powers will not be revealed until a bill is published ""in the next two weeks,"" a spokesman said...The government's proposals have met with disapproval from fathers' rights groups. John Ison, from the controversial group Fathers 4 Justice, said: ""It is very disappointing. What we have got is a cynical case of recycling existing legislation."" Jim Parton, from Families Need Fathers, said the new proposals ""lacked compulsion""...""We would like to see couples develop a plan and then have it as a source of a court order - then you know where you stand, you know what the minimum access is. ""Otherwise, you see people make agreements which then fall apart."" Mr Parton said he had been told by Children's Minister Margaret Hodge there was not enough time to pass the bill through parliament before the general election, which is likely to take place in May...The Conservatives have called for an equal split between parents on access to be made law. Theresa May, shadow secretary for the family, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the government's plans were ""inadequate"" and were ""papering over the cracks of the current system"". She said a Conservative government would bring a ""radical reform"" of the family courts, as well as enforcing a ""legal presumption of co-parenting and compulsory mediation"". ""We want to make courts the last resort, rather than the first resort,"" she added. The government says children cannot simply be divided up ""like property"" when a marriage collapses. The Liberal Democrats have argued for flexibility in deciding access rules, rather than having ""rigid targets"".",politics
"MPs to debate 'euthanasia laws'..MPs are preparing to debate a bill which critics claim would legalise euthanasia ""by the back door""...The bill would give legal force to ""living wills"", where people say they want medical treatment withheld if they become severely incapacitated. The Mental Capacity Bill has broad support from charities who say it would give better safeguards over treatment. But Christian groups say it could mean doctors withholding food and fluids even if they think it inappropriate...Ministers insist the Mental Capacity Bill - for England and Wales - would not change laws on assisted suicide and contains a presumption in favour of preserving life...The bill would establish a legal presumption that everybody can make decisions about their own treatment unless proved otherwise. It would allow people to give somebody the power of attorney to make decisions on their behalf, which could be challenged by doctors. Critics fear it could allow ""killing by omission"" through withdrawing treatment. An amendment to the bill - specifically preventing decisions that would bring about death - has been tabled by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith. Ninety one MPs have signed a petition backing the amendment. MPs could vote on it later on Tuesday, during the bill's report stage debate. The Bill will then go to a third reading and be debated in the Lords, before becoming law...The Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) and Lawyers' Christian Fellowship (LCF) said the Mental Capacity Bill would allow euthanasia by the ""back door"". Peter Saunders of the CMF said it believed advance refusals should be only advisory, not legally binding. ""CMF is concerned that patients will make unwise and hasty advance decisions to refuse food and fluids without being properly informed about the diagnosis and the expected course their illness will take,"" he said...The LCF's Andrea Williams said there were ""too many loopholes that could be abused by unscrupulous doctors"". Ex-Labour minister Frank Field told BBC Two's Newsnight programme there was a danger people would feel under pressure to ""do away"" with themselves so relatives could inherit their assets...Constitutional Affairs Minister David Lammy said laws affecting 750,000 people with dementia needed updating. Mr Lammy told BBC News Labour MPs would not get a free vote as the law was being strengthened, not changed. ""We are against euthanasia, we are against assisted suicide but we are in a situation now where people can make living wills and that has the force of the common law,"" he said. ""Doctors are saying they want more clarity. Patients are saying they want more clarity."" The Making Decisions Alliance, which includes the Alzheimer's Society, Age Concern, Mencap and the National Autistic Society, said misunderstandings over the bill had to be cleared up. ""It will not change the current law on euthanasia and will actually provide a series of better safeguards when decisions are made for people who lack capacity,"" the alliance said in a statement. The British Medical Association also backs the bill, saying it just gives incapacitated people the same rights as others. Debate on legalising euthanasia has intensified in the UK because of cases like that of motor neurone patient Diane Pretty. She died two years ago after losing a legal battle to allow her husband to help her commit suicide.",politics
"Talks aim to avert pension strike..Talks aimed at averting a series of national strikes over pensions reforms will take place this weekend...Five public sector unions will hold private talks with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at Labour's spring conference in Gateshead. They want the government to withdraw regulations - due to be introduced in weeks - which would raise the pension age for council workers from 60 to 65. Up to 1.4m workers could take part in a strike already earmarked for 23 March. However, all sides are anxious to avoid a major confrontation in the run up to the general election, said BBC labour affairs correspondent Stephen Cape. In four days, Britain's biggest union Unison will start balloting 800,000 local government workers on strikes. Other public sector unions have pledged to follow. It is just weeks before new regulations are introduced to raise the pension age of local government workers...The five unions meeting Mr Prescott want the government to withdraw these regulations. This would allow months of tough negotiations to follow, said our correspondent. But a spokesman for Mr Prescott warned that the changes to the local government pension scheme would have to go ahead in April. Privately ministers believe this will be the ""less painful"" option, our correspondent added. The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will co-ordinate any industrial action with up to six other public sector unions. PCS leader Mark Serwotka warned last week that there could be further walkouts unless there was a government rethink. ""For a government that lectures everyone on choice - choice on public service, choice on this and choice on that - isn't it ironic that they're saying to public sector workers there is no choice,"" he said. ""If you want the pension you were promised when you started you must work for an extra five years - that is working until people drop. ""In the 20th century, it's completely unacceptable.""..Unison's 800,000 workers, the Transport and General Workers' Union's 70,000 and Amicus' 20,000 are among those being balloted about a 23 March walkout. Mr Prescott held a private meeting with senior union figures last week. It is understood no deal was offered in that meeting but there was room for further negotiations.",politics
"Opposition grows to house arrests..The Conservatives have expressed ""serious misgivings"" about government plans for keeping UK and foreign terror suspects under house arrest...Michael Howard said he would not back the Home Secretary's plans for ""control orders"" which include home detention. ""I do not believe that anyone should be deprived of their liberty on the say so of a politician,"" he said. The Lib Dems also oppose the proposals, but ministers insist they are proportionate to the terror threat...The government proposed the idea and a range of other new powers after the laws lords said current detentions without trial broke human rights laws. New Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has backed the control orders, saying: ""I'm sorry. It is a dilemma, but there is only one choice."" But Mr Howard said: ""We have serious misgivings about both their effectiveness in protecting life and their consequences for the British way of life.""..He argued that people accused of terrorist offences should be brought to trial and be held in prison - not at home - while they await trial. Mr Howard said he feared ""internment without trial creates martyrs"" and could be ""a very effective recruiting sergeant"" for terrorists"". His party plans to move an amendment to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill next week that would give a judge responsibility for assessing evidence and ensuring a balanced case is presented to the court. He called on the prime minister to ""enter into constructive discussions"" with his party to find a ""better way forward"". Controversy over the issue continues after a foreign terror suspect held in the UK without trial or charge since December 2001 was freed from jail...Home Secretary Charles Clarke said there was not enough evidence to keep the Egyptian man, known only as C, certified as a terrorist suspect. On Monday, the legal team for two Algerian suspects being held without trial told a court the men did not want bail if it meant being put under house arrest. Most of the terror suspects are detained at Belmarsh Prison in London. The Liberal Democrats say they also oppose house arrests and questioned the human rights implications of the measure. Home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""It's a matter of principle for us that we can't have a situation where the Home Secretary is able to impose house detention now on UK nationals as well as foreign nationals.""..The Lib Dems believe the Home Secretary should allow phone tapping evidence in prosecutions. ""We think there could be a role for some form of control order - tagging, surveillance, limitation on use of mobile phones - but not with the Home Secretary's say so. That must be done with a proper judicial process, a judge involved in making those decisions,"" said Mr Oaten. Mr Clarke has rejected that idea saying intercept evidence is only a small part of the case against terror suspects and could put the lives of intelligence sources at risk. He said prosecutions were the government's first preference and promised the powers would only be used in ""serious"" cases, with independent scrutiny from judges.",politics
"Visa decision 'every 11 minutes'..Visa processing staff are sometimes expected to rule on an application every 11 minutes, MPs have said...Pressure was placed on staff to be efficient, rather than to do a thorough examination of an application, the Public Accounts Committee found. Every officer had an annual target of 8,000 applications - equivalent to 40 a day or one every 11 minutes. MPs want research into whether UK visa holders leave at the end of their stays, or vanish into the black market. Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: ""There is a worrying tension between quick processing and proper control over the visas issued. ""Entry clearance staff are expected to deal with a visa application in about 11 minutes which is surely too little time to look closely at the supporting documents. ""..The committee's report also discussed the Romanian and Bulgarian visas scandal which led to the resignation of immigration minister Beverley Hughes last year. Committee members said the Home Office had been wrong to dismiss concerns from visa staff abroad who feared the system was being abused. Investigations carried out in the wake of Ms Hughes' resignation found more than 7,000 people had entered the UK under the business visa scheme for Romanian and Bulgarian ""entrepreneurs"". Mr Leigh said the Home Office should now consider removing those who had not set up a valid business. A Home Office spokesman said the system had been toughened and tightened since the investigation. He added ""that the traditional system of a dual decision making process for all pre-entry applications will be replaced by a single pre-entry check at post, which will be simpler and more robust against abuse than the current system"".",politics
"'No more concessions' on terror..Charles Clarke says he has ""no desire"" to offer more concessions on his controversial anti-terror plans to get them on to the statute book...MPs voted in favour of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill after Mr Clarke agreed to key changes - but Labour's majority was reduced to 14. The Bill now faces opposition from peers angry at house arrest proposals. Lord Strathclyde, Tory leader in the Lords, said ministers should expect it to be ""substantially re-written""...The Bill proposes ""control orders"", which as well as house arrest could impose curfews, tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. They would replace current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial, which the law lords have ruled against...On Monday, MPs voted 272-219 in favour of the Bill after key concessions from Mr Clarke. The government earlier saw its 161-strong majority cut to just 14 as a cross-party amendment was narrowly rejected by the Commons despite the support of 62 Labour rebels. Mr Clarke won over critics by announcing he would introduce an amendment in the Lords to ensure the most controversial control order, amounting to house arrest, would be imposed by judges and not politicians. Lord Strathclyde warned ministers that they should ""prepare themselves for substantial rewriting of various aspects of the Bill"". ""They should consider far more seriously the use of intercept evidence in any trial and I think they should drop the most objectionable proposals, which are for house arrest.""..But Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he believed the changes he had made to the Bill to win over critics in the Commons should be sufficient to satisfy colleagues in the Lords. ""No Bill goes through Parliament without detailed consideration being made, but I believe that what I announced yesterday will be sufficient to secure the agreement of the House of Lords,"" he said...""I have no desire to make further so-called concessions on the Bill."" Mr Clarke's proposed amendment will be debated by the Lords on Tuesday without having been considered by MPs. The debate is unlikely to result in a vote. Speaking after the Commons debate, shadow home secretary David Davies said the bill had been ""clearly very badly drawn-up"" and that the government was trying to rush it through too quickly. He said it would be possible to ""rescue"" the government and make the law ""tolerable"" by amending it in the Lords. ""The scope for miscarriages of justice is enormous,"" he told BBC News...Mark Oaten, for the Liberal Democrats, said Monday night's vote showed the government had ""lost the confidence of all sides of the House"". He said: ""They need to rethink the bill, and extend the power of a judge to decide on all control orders, build safeguards on evidence and create charges against suspects. ""Unless there is a major movement, this bill is doomed to fail.""..BBC News political editor Andrew Marr said: ""I think that this is a bill in deep trouble. It's been unravelling in the House of Commons - it may unravel further."" The government wants the new bill to pass into law by 14 March, when the current powers expire.",politics
"No to Royal succession shake-up..A Labour peer has withdrawn proposals to give female members of the Royal Family the same rights as males...The legislation would have ended the right of male heirs with older sisters to succeed to the Crown. It would also have torn up ancient legislation banning heirs to the throne marrying Roman Catholics. But the government refused to back Lord Dubs' Succession to the Crown Bill, saying it was too complex and raised too many constitutional issues...The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, agreed the 1701 Act of Settlement, which governs the succession, was discriminatory but added that ""for all practical purposes its effects are limited""...The changes proposed by Lord Dubs were a ""complex and controversial undertaking raising major constitutional issues"", he said. Lord Falconer said there were 22 members of the Royal Family in the line of succession after the Prince of Wales - all of who were eligible to succeed and had been unaffected by the act. ""It is not a simple matter that can be tinkered with lightly. While we wish to remove all forms of discrimination... this isn't the proper form,"" he added...He did not rule out change in the future but said if Lord Dubs' private member's bill was passed by peers, he would urge MPs to oppose it in the Commons. Lord Dubs agreed to withdraw his bill after its second reading in the House of Lords, but urged the government to think again at a later stage. ""We cannot forever say we don't want to change things because it is too difficult,"" he told peers. During the debate, the Labour peer and former minister said: ""The monarchy should symbolise the values of this country. ""What we don't want is a situation where the values of the country have moved on and the monarchy is centuries behind the times. ""We are surely all opposed to discrimination on the grounds of gender and we are surely also opposed to discrimination against Catholics."" But opponents of the bill, including Tory Lord Campbell of Alloway and the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, said it would separate the state from both the Church of England and the Christian faith. Such a ""secular"" state would be markedly ""less tolerant"", Rt Rev Scott-Joynt argued.",politics
"BNP leader Nick Griffin arrested..The leader of the British National Party has been arrested as part of a police inquiry following the screening of a BBC documentary...A party spokesman said Nick Griffin was arrested on Tuesday morning on suspicion of incitement to commit racial hatred. West Yorkshire police confirmed they had arrested a 45-year-old man from outside their area. BNP founding chairman John Tyndall was arrested on Sunday on the same charge...In July, the BBC documentary Secret Agent featured covertly-filmed footage of BNP activists. Mr Griffin is the twelfth man to be arrested following the documentary. Nine men from West Yorkshire and another man from Leicester have been arrested and freed on bail. Seven of the men had been held variously in connection with suspected racially aggravated public order offences, conspiracy to commit criminal damage and possession of a firearm. Two men, both from Keighley, were arrested in September on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage. A 24-year-old man from Leicester was detained on Monday on suspicion of incitement to commit racial hatred. A BNP spokesperson said Mr Tyndall, from Brighton, was arrested following a speech he made in Burnley, Lancashire, and was released on police bail.",politics
"Boris opposes mayor apology..Ken Livingstone should ""stick to his guns"" and not apologise for his ""Nazi"" comment to a Jewish reporter, Tory MP Boris Johnson has insisted...Mr Johnson also claimed Tony Blair's intervention in the row was ""an attempt to reassure Jewish voters"". London mayor Mr Livingstone says he is ""standing by"" his remarks which likened an Evening Standard journalist to a ""concentration camp guard"". But the prime minister says it is time for Mr Livingstone to say sorry...Labour's Mr Livingstone has said his comments may have been offensive but were not racist, and said earlier this week he would not apologise even if Mr Blair asked. Later the prime minister said: ""A lot of us in politics get angry with journalists from time to time, but in the circumstances, and to the journalist because he was a Jewish journalist, yes, he should apologise.""..However, Mr Johnson, who was forced to apologise last year for an article in the magazine he edits about Liverpudlians grieving over the death of British hostage Ken Bigley, said Mr Blair ""should butt out of"" the row. ""I don't see why the prime minister has to get involved in this,"" The Spectator editor told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. ""It's a dispute between Ken Livingstone and a reporter on the Evening Standard."" Mr Johnson, MP for Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, said he suspected Labour was now trying to reassure Jewish voters ""because of this curious way in which Labour seems to be trying to curry favour with disillusioned Muslim voters who may be disillusioned about the war""...""Ken doesn't think he's got anything to say sorry for and if that's really his feeling, then I think that he should stick to his guns,"" he said. Mr Johnson apologised last October for perpetuating an ""outdated stereotype"" of Liverpool in the leader article on the death of Mr Bigley. The article in the magazine suggested grieving Liverpudlians were wallowing in their victim status. It also attributed blame to drunken Liverpool football fans for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in which 96 died. Mr Johnson told Today: ""It's perfectly true that I got into the grovelling game myself and when I apologised there were some things that I felt I ought to say sorry for ... there were also other things I didn't think I should apologise for,"" he said. ""But here's old Ken - he's been crass, he's been insensitive and thuggish and brutal in his language - but I don't think actually if you read what he said, although it was extraordinary and rude, I don't think he was actually anti-Semitic.""",politics
"Report attacks defence spending..The Ministry of Defence has been criticised over the soaring spending costs and growing delays of its top equipment projects...A National Audit Office report on the 20 biggest projects says costs have risen by £1.7bn in the past year. It says there is ""little evidence"" the MoD's performance had improved, despite the introduction of a ""smart acquisition"" policy six years ago. A senior defence official told the BBC lessons were being learned. The NAO's annual report showed the total cost of the 20 projects covered was expected to reach £50bn - 14% higher than originally planned. The total delays amounted to 62 months, with average individual delays rising by three months...Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said the problems showed the principles of the scheme known as smart acquisition had not been consistently applied. ""Many problems can be traced to the fact that the MoD has not spent enough time and resources in the assessment phase,"" the report says. The NAO found that projects launched since the start of the scheme were showing the same worrying tendencies as the older ""legacy projects"", such as the Eurofighter. A senior defence official, speaking to the BBC's defence correspondent Paul Adams, said that although the figures were still not good enough, the report reflected unrealistic expectations early on in the project cycle. This year's overspend was significantly less than last year's £3.1bn total, and the Defence Procurement Agency - which is responsible for buying defence equipment - was improving...Lord Bach, Minister for Defence Procurement, said he was ""obviously still disappointed with the cost and time increases shown"", but insisted that the Defence Procurement Agency had ""undertaken a huge amount of work to expose any underlying problems on projects"". The latest findings follow a string of critical reports issued within the last 12 months, and, according to our correspondent, contain few new surprises. Turning around the Defence Procurement Agency ""was a little like trying to turn around a super tanker - it takes a very long time indeed"", he said. Our correspondent said it was the same projects, including the Joint Strike Fighter, the Nimrod and A400M aircraft and the Type 45 Destroyer, which were resonsible for the bulk of the cost over-runs and delay. But he added some projects, such as the C-17 heavy lift aircraft and Successor Identification Friend or Foe (SIFF), were showing good performances.",politics
"Brown names 16 March for Budget..Chancellor Gordon Brown will deliver his Budget to the House of Commons on 16 March, the Treasury has announced...The Budget, likely to be the last before the General Election, will be at 1230 GMT on that Wednesday, just after Prime Minister's question time. The annual event is when the chancellor outlines the government's taxation and broader economic predictions. It is likely to set out much of the tax and spending battleground for the election, widely expected on 5 May...Next month's Budget will be Mr Brown's eighth since Labour came to power in 1997. If a May election is called, there could be as little as 18 days between the Budget and the announcement of a date for the election. A shortened Finance Bill would have to be rushed through Parliament with all-party support to allow the Government to continue collecting revenue. The full Finance Bill, with the Budget measures in it, would then be returned to the Commons after the election, if Labour secures another term in office. As Mr Brown announced the Budget date in a short ministerial statement, accountancy firm Ernst & Young urged him to put politics aside and focus on the long-term requirements of the economy. ""In the Budgets that were given immediately before the last six elections, taxes were cut by the incumbent chancellor and, in many cases, taxes were increased soon after the election result,"" said Aidan O'Carroll, E&Y's UK head of tax.",politics
"Asylum children to face returns..The UK government is planning to return asylum seeker children without parents to Albania...The trial scheme, which could start in weeks, may be extended to apply to children from other countries. Children's charities have reacted with alarm, saying the policy amounts to forcible removal and may not guarantee the safety of those affected. But the Home Office says it may be in the children's best interests if it reunites them with their communities...The pilot, included in the government's five-year immigration plan, aims to return unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from Albania who have failed in their asylum claims...Since 2002, at least 9,000 under-18s have arrived in the UK to seek asylum without other family members. These children automatically become the responsibility of social services. Up to now, ministers have held back from final removal orders against unaccompanied children until after they are legally adults at 18. At least a dozen Albanian-born teenagers are thought to have been identified for return, according to sources, although there is no public confirmation of numbers. Those selected could either be returned to their families, should they be traced, or placed in the care of other Albanian authorities. Separate negotiations to establish a family tracing and returns scheme are believed to be underway with another country...Under the 1989 Children Act, public bodies have a duty to act in the ""best interest"" of a child in their care. Laura Brownlees of Save the Children said there were grave concerns, not least because of the well-documented trafficking of children into crime and prostitution in Albania...""If children are going to be returned then there should be proper assessments and decisions on a case by case basis,"" she said. ""We do not think there are structures in place [to receive returning children in Albania]. 'If these decisions are not in the best interests of the child, then that is a forced removal because the child will not have any choice in the final decision."" In its five-year immigration plan, announced on Tuesday, the government said it was addressing ""the difficult issue"" of returning unaccompanied asylum seeking children. A spokesman for the Home Office said it was wholly wrong to suggest that the plan was to return children ""and leave them to rot"". ""We are developing a returns programme for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children whose asylum and humanitarian protection claims have been refused,"" said the spokesman. ""We have been exploring how we can establish reception and longer-term care arrangements in countries of origin and believe that it's possible to return children in a way that is in their best interests and is safe and sustainable...""We do not believe that it is right, or in keeping with children's legislation, that children who can return should remain in the UK indefinitely separated from their families and communities."" The spokesman stressed the UK would abide by its international human rights obligations. Only those children who could be provided with a carefully planned reintegration package would be returned, he said. But Andrew Hogg, spokesman for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, said ministers had so far failed to reassure agencies. ""From what is so far known, we strongly oppose the scheme because the welfare and best interests of the child will not properly be taken into account,"" said Mr Hogg. ""In Albania particularly there is no statutory child care or protection structure. ""The Medical Foundation has many serious concerns, including the assessment process for suitability for return, the degrading of best interests of the child principles and of child welfare, and the lack of safeguards in the chosen countries."" A spokesman for the Albanian embassy in London said it was the first it had heard of a scheme, but did not rule out that there had been an agreement between the two countries.",politics
"'Fido' to be taken off vote lists..The risk of pets and children being given votes could be cut by changing how people register to vote, the UK elections watchdog has said...Those are some of the mistakes found under the current system, where one person in each household applies for voting forms for the other occupants. The Electoral Commission says enabling people to register individually could cut some errors and combat fraud. Voters need to register by 11 March if the next poll is on 5 May as expected. But any individual registration scheme would not be introduced in Britain before that general election...The proposed scheme would mean voters using individual ""identifiers"" when they vote - such as their own voting number, date of birth and signature. The Electoral Commission says having voters register individually rather than the head of household do it for them fits better with human rights laws. Chairman Sam Younger told MPs on Tuesday care was needed to ensure that people were not lost off the register in the process - which happened when Northern Ireland switched to a similar system. There have been rare cases when household pets have been put on the electoral roll, the MPs heard. And some people have registered all their family, regardless of their age - birth dates are not included on the forms so election officers cannot easily check. Non-British citizens who are not entitled to vote have also been registered in some cases...Mr Younger said there was anecdotal evidence of inaccuracies in the register, the vast majority of which were caused by genuine mistakes. He argued local councils could look harder at promoting targeted campaigns at ""hard to reach"" voters, for example. Some authorities already run such programmes but in others councillors worry about the party political impact of encouraging particular areas to turn out. Mr Younger said using the Royal Mail's postal redirection service had already helped election officers retrace about 50,000 voters...He argued individual registration would also increase security for postal ballots and other new ways of voting. There have been fears there are too few checks to ensure current postal votes are cast by the person on the voting form. He said it might also help register students in halls of residences, where the hall warden often has to do the job for everybody. The MPs on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Constitutional Affairs select committees pressed Mr Younger on how to avoid losing voters in any changeover. He said the Northern Ireland example illustrated real difficulties to be confronted. Currently, British voters have to re-register to vote every year or face being removed from the electoral rolls if they fail to do so two years running. Mr Younger suggested the re-registration could happen less frequently but argued efforts were needed to check the electoral rolls were up-to-date.",politics
"'More to do' on adult literacy..The government will only hit its target for improving adult maths and literacy skills if courses are made more attractive, a report says...The National Audit Office praised ministers for reaching the benchmark of 750,000 adults in England gaining basic qualifications by this year. But a target of 1.5 million more by 2010 needed ""creative"" ideas. Some 26 million adults lack maths or English skill levels expected of school-leavers...According to the report, ""more than half"" the qualifications achieved were by learners aged 16 to 18. These are defined as ""adults"" by the government for the purpose of compiling these figures. Normally adults are defined as being aged over 19. The number of these people gaining qualifications was ""rising slowly"". Auditor General Sir John Bourn said: ""Higher levels of literacy and numeracy will benefit England both socially and economically. ""More people will have the opportunity to live richer lives."" In 2001, the government launched the Get On scheme - aimed at reducing illiteracy and innumeracy. Sir John said ""substantial progress"" had been made since, adding that this was ""only the beginning"". The government and its partners would ""need to be creative and responsive"". Some £3.7bn will be spent on implementing the programme by 2006. The report recommends gathering more details on the educational needs of areas, so courses can be set to meet local demand. Existing adult learners could use their ""enthusiasm, commitment and local knowledge"" to attract other people. The Department for Education and Skills could also use more ""personalised learning"" and work with voluntary groups, councils and employers...It should also assess adult learners' progress ""at frequent intervals"", the report adds. When the government announced it had reached its 2004 target earlier this month, Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was ""only the start of the journey"". An estimated 5.2 million adults have worse literacy than that expected of 11 year olds, while 14.9 million have numeracy skills below this level. This is thought to cost the UK economy hundreds of millions of pounds each year. The qualifications achieved by those taking part in the government's scheme range up to GCSE equivalents. Get On's participation target has been set at 2.25 million by 2010, with an interim figure of 1.5 million by 2007. Education minister Ivan Lewis said: ""We will continue to use creative ways of involving people with the lowest skill levels and the report shows that our efforts are gathering pace."" Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins said: ""This is the third report in two days to highlight Labour's failure to ensure young people acquire the necessary levels of literacy and numeracy for their working life. ""Employers and business leaders have repeatedly voiced concern over the number of school-leavers without these basic skills, but all the government have offered is more talk."" Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis added: ""Far too little has been done to enable adult learners to fit learning into their busy lives.""",politics
"Tory backing for ID cards..The Tories are to back controversial government plans to introduce ID cards...The shadow cabinet revealed its support ahead of next week's Commons vote on a bill to introduce compulsory ID. The decision follows a ""tough meeting"" where some senior Tories argued vociferously against the move, party sources told the BBC. The bill, which ministers claim will tackle crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, is expected to be opposed by the Liberal Democrats...They have said the scheme is ""deeply flawed"" and a waste of money. Sources within the Conservative Party told the BBC Michael Howard has always been in favour of ID cards, and tried to introduce them when he was Home Secretary. The party has been ""agnostic"" on the issue until now but had now decided to come off the fence, the Tory source said. Despite giving their backing to ID cards, the Conservatives insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme...They said they would also press Labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the Home Office would deliver them. And they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of ID cards and whether people's privacy would be properly protected. ""It is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect,"" a spokesman said. ""It will do nothing to solve the immediate problems of rising crime and uncontrolled immigration.""..Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""This has all the signs of Michael Howard overruling colleagues' concerns over ID cards. ""The Tories should have the courage to try and change public opinion not follow it."" The new chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC warned there was a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained.""",politics
"Labour's 'EU propaganda'..A ""taxpayer subsidised propaganda exercise"" on the EU is being used to lull the British public into a false sense of security, say the Tories...Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram told MPs a new White Paper was part of trying to soften up opinion ahead of the referendum on the EU constitution. His claims were denied by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who accused the Tories of ""running scared"" of debate. EU cooperation would help get better UK immigration controls, he argued...Mr Straw used Thursday's Commons debate to launch the new White Paper on the prospects for the EU in 2005. Security, stability and prosperity would be the key themes when the UK took over the chairmanship of the EU in July, said Mr Straw. Africa and climate change would also feature highly. He said the UK was trying to ensure future EU budgets were limited to 1% of Europe's economic output and were spent ""where it adds most value"". Mr Straw promised to continue to ensure the UK's budget rebate, secured in 1984 by Margaret Thatcher, was ""fully justified"". ""We, like all other countries, have a veto on any changes proposed in this area,"" he said...Mr Ancram condemned the document, which the Foreign Office says has cost about £2,500 to design, print and deliver. ""Isn't the reason that the government is now involved in a taxpayer subsidised propaganda exercise to try to sell the new EU to the country in advance of the forthcoming referendum and general election?,"" he asked. The Tory spokesman also criticised the government for claiming the EU constitution would make Europe easier to understand. ""The government, last week, had to publish a commentary of 500 pages to try and explain this 'easy and simple' constitution to the British people,"" he said. ""Who are they trying to kid?"" The proposed question for the constitution referendum is: ""Should the United Kingdom approve the Treaty establishing a Constitution for the European Union?"" The Electoral Commission on Thursday said it was satisfied the question was easy to understand. The government has suggested the referendum on the constitution could take place in spring 2006, with the Tories set to campaign for a ""no"" vote...Mr Ancram said ministers were prolonging uncertainty by putting the vote off until the latest date possible. The foreign secretary hit back by saying Tory attitudes to Europe had helped keep the party out of power for more than a decade. Mr Straw argued cooperation with European partners could bring a ""level playing field"" on immigration and asylum controls. ""You are setting your face against all of these things,"" he added. For the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell said the UK should not ignore the need to reform the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Change was particularly important for developing countries wanting access to markets, he argued. Sir Menzies was among those worried about plans, backed by the UK, to lift the arms embargo imposed on China after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Mr Straw said no decisions had been taken - Chinese human rights had improved but not by enough.",politics
"Hague 'given up' his PM ambition..Former Conservative leader William Hague says he will not stand for the leadership again, having given up his ambition to be prime minister...Mr Hague, 43, told the Daily Telegraph he would now find a life dominated by politics too ""boring"" and unfulfilling. Mr Hague, who stepped down after his party's 2001 election defeat, does not rule out a return to the front bench. He also told the paper he hopes to remain MP for Richmond, North Yorks, and start a family with wife Ffion. Mr Hague, who recently had published the biography of William Pitt the Younger, also said he wanted to continue writing books and speech-writing...He told the newspaper: ""I don't know whether I will ever go back on to the front, but don't rush me."" Asked if he would stand for the leadership again, Mr Hague replied: ""No. Definitely not."" His determination to stay away from a central role will disappoint some senior Conservative members, who say the party needs him. Tim Collins, the shadow education secretary, said last week it would be a ""huge boost"" to the party if Mr Hague returned to the front bench. Mr Hague became an MP at 27 and Leader of the Opposition at 36. He said: ""I feel fortunate that, by the age of 40, I had crammed in an entire political career. ""I had been in the Cabinet and been leader of the party, so now I can branch out into other things...it is a very liberating feeling."" Mr Hague added that he may have misjudged his own ambition to be prime minister. ""Maybe I wasn't as driven by politics as I thought I was,"" he said.",politics
"Job cuts 'false economy'  - TUC..Plans to shed 71,000 civil service jobs will prove to be a ""false economy"" that could hamper public sector reforms, according to a TUC report...Public and Commercial Services union members have already voted to strike over cuts for one day on 5 November. The TUC said cuts would deliver less than 6% of the £22bn ministers hope to save through efficiency reforms. General secretary Brendan Barber warned the ""costs could easily outweigh the benefits"". ""The government's big boost to public spending is now showing results,"" said Mr Barber. ""Public services are improving but looking for simple savings through job cuts at this stage could be a false economy...""They may shoot a Tory fox, but cutting thousands of civil service jobs will hit the morale and capabilities of the public servants expected to implement government reforms. The costs could easily outweigh the benefits."" Next Friday's strike action by the PCS is the biggest in the civil service since 1993, hitting Jobcentres, benefit agencies, pensions offices, customs and driving tests. The union says it is concerned about pensions, sick pay and forced relocation as well as the cut in jobs. Last month it was announced that a total of 37 social security offices and Jobcentres across the UK would close in the first wave of plans to shed civil service jobs. The number of civil servants in Britain rose to more than 520,000 in April. Other areas the strike will affect include passports, museums and galleries, libraries and health and safety inspections.",politics
"UK's 'useless' quangos under fire..The UK has 529 quangos financed with billions of pounds of taxpayers' cash - many of which are useless or duplicate each other's efforts, a report claims...Essential Guide to British Quangos 2005 author Dan Lewis said at least 111 of the appointed bodies had been set up since Labour won power in 1997. He urged a limit on the number of quangos that could be set up by any individual government department. Tories and Lib Dems welcomed the report and called for a ""slimming down""...Conservative deregulation spokesman John Redwood said: ""The research endorses our policy of destroying unwanted and unnecessary quangos, and slimming down the rest...""A Conservative government will axe 162 quangos, as part of its drive for more efficient and more accountable government."" Lib Dem spokesman Ed Davey meanwhile said instead of the ""bonfire of quangos"" New Labour had promised, there had been an ""explosion"" of them. ""For over two decades, under both Tory and Labour governments, these unaccountable agencies have mushroomed. ""Liberal Democrats would abolish many, merge others, and make any that remain properly accountable."" Labour representatives were unavailable for comment. The quango guide follows last year's government-commissioned Gershon Report which recommended significant cuts in bureaucracy across the public sector...Mr Lewis wants a public inquiry into regional development agencies which cost £1.8bn a year - cash he says which ""appears to be almost entirely wasted"". As well as a departmental limit on quangos he also wants a statutory five-year limit on any such body with executive powers. He also listed what he dubbed the nine ""most useless quangos"". They were the British Potato Council, the Milk Development Council, the Energy Savings Trust, Agricultural Wages Committees, the Wine Standards Board, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the Football Licensing Authority, Investors in People UK and the Economic and Social Research Council. Mr Lewis branded the existence of the 60-employee Potato Council, set up in 1997 to research and promote overseas potato markets, ""surprising"". He said the £80m spent annually on the Energy Savings Trust, which promotes renewable energy, would be better spent on eight million boiler jackets for British homes...And he argued it was ""absurd"" to charge farmers for Agricultural Wages Committees, which set working and wage standards in the industry, when many were prepared to take advantage of immigrant labour prepared to work for £1 an hour. ""If a football team can afford to pay £27m for Wayne Rooney, why should the taxpayer - not all of whom like football - be forced to fund the Football Licensing Authority to the tune of over £1.1m a year?"" Mr Lewis asked. The report is published by the Efficiency in Government Unit - a joint effort by right of centre think tanks the Economic Research Council and the Centre for Policy Studies. It says before a new public body is set up, an assessment should be made whether its proposed role is already carried out by an existing charity or other private organisation.",politics
"Howard backs stem cell research..Michael Howard has backed stem cell research, saying it is important people are not frightened of the future...The controversial issue was a feature of the recent US presidential election, where George Bush opposed extending it. But the Tory leader argued there was a moral case for embracing science which could help victims of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Motor Neurone disease. ""I believe we have a duty to offer hope to the millions of people who suffer devastating illnesses,"" he said. The use of embryonic stem cells in the UK is already allowed. Stem cells are master cells that have the ability to develop into any of the body's tissue types. Scientists hope that by growing such cells in the laboratory they can programme them to form specific tissue such as kidney, heart or even brain tissue...Mr Howard acknowledged there were genuine concerns about stem cell research. But he argued: ""We mustn't be frightened of change or nostalgic about the past - we must be optimistic about the future. ""Politicians must create the right framework so that the great potential of science can be harnessed for the benefit of mankind. ""With the life expectancy of the average Briton now around the mid-70s, society has a responsibility to enhance the quality of people's lives as they grow older. ""I know many people are concerned about stem-cell research. They are fearful of meddling with what they see as the stuff of souls. ""I respect those concerns. But I also believe we have a duty to offer hope to the millions of people who suffer devastating illnesses like Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neurone Disease, Alzheimer's and - as we saw in the papers today - now possibly heart problems.""..Mr Howard acknowledged there were ""no easy answers"" over such an issue but it was necessary to ""have the courage to do what we know to be morally right"". He added: ""Of course, stem cells are still a recent discovery. More research needs to be done. But we must look at their potential in a responsible and grown-up way. The hopes of millions of people rest on what could be achieved."" Former Superman actor the late Christopher Reeve was an advocate for the research after he was paralysed in a horse riding accident. Mr Howard made his remarks during a speech in Westminster to the Conservative National Women's Committee on ambitions and values.",politics
"Howard unveils Tory asylum plans..Tory plans to cut immigration to the UK are not racist and will make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees, Michael Howard has said...As his party set out detailed asylum reform plans, Mr Howard said they would help smash people smuggling gangs. There would be an annual limit on asylum and all claims would be processed overseas. Some charities say the plans would put refugees' lives at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled...Tony Blair said Labour would set out workable plans for tackling immigration abuse in the next few weeks and attacked the Tory plans. ""By cutting the number of front-line immigration staff at our borders, they will actually make the problem worse,"" said Mr Blair. Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said there needed to be a quick, fair and firm asylum system. But he said it was ""absolutely disgusting"" to propose a system which could turn away genuine refugees. The Conservatives say there is little risk of this happening as demand for asylum will be considered when quotas are set...In a speech in London on Monday, Mr Howard said: ""It's not racist, as some people to claim, to talk about controlling immigration far from it."" He said that coming from an immigrant family himself he recognised that ""firm but fair"" immigration controls were essential for good community relations.... - Withdrawing from the 1951 United Nations Convention on refugees, which obliges countries to accept people being persecuted on the basis of need, not numbers. - Introduce laws to allow the immediate removal of asylum seekers whose claims were clearly unfounded because they came from safe countries or had destroyed documents. - Detain asylum seekers without documents so people whose identity was not known were not able to move freely around the UK - a worry for ""national security"". - Stop considering asylum applications inside the UK and instead take people from United Nations refugee agency camps. Anyone applying for asylum would be taken to new centres close to their countries of origin....The Tories also want quotas for those seeking work permits through an Australian-style points system and those wanting to join families in the UK...Mr Howard said nearly 160,000 people were settling in the UK every year - the size of a city like Peterborough. The plans would help achieve a ""substantial reduction"" in immigration, he said, although he could not predict a figure. He said that only two out of 10 asylum seekers had their claims accepted under the current ""unfair and inhumane"" system...""We need to break the link between arriving in Britain and claiming asylum,"" Mr Howard said. ""By breaking that link we can smash the criminal gangs at the heart of the trade in people smuggling.""..But the UN refugees agency is worried the policy sends the wrong message to poorer countries which receive the bulk of refugees. And a spokesman for European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the plans would contravene EU asylum policy, which meant the UK could not simply refuse to hear an asylum case. Refugee Council Chief Executive Maeve Sherlock called the plans ""dangerous, ill thought-out and hugely irresponsible"". Lives could be put at risk if refugees were turned away once the quotas were filled, she warned. Commission for Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips said asylum applications were down 40% and economic migration down about 10%...He did not think Mr Howard intended to centre the debate about race. But he warned that some campaigners could use his words to hint the policy was about keeping out people of a different colour or culture. Mr Howard called that suggestion ""disgraceful"".",politics
"Campaign 'cold calls' questioned..Labour and the Conservatives are still telephoning the millions of people who have signed up to make sure they do not get marketing ""cold calls""...The parties say they can stick to the rules by ensuring that their calls are not marketing - for instance by asking about people's voting intentions. The Lib Dems are asking the watchdog overseeing the rules to stop the calls. The information commissioner's office says surveys are allowed but there is a ""grey"" area if personal data is kept. Telephone call centres are expected to be used as never before by all the three major parties in the run-up to the general election...But seven million telephone numbers are on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) lists, which ban unsolicited sales and marketing calls. Both schemes are run by the Direct Marketing Association and backed by EU directives on privacy and electronic communications...The rules on marketing calls apply as much to politicians as to private sector companies. But that does not mean Labour and the Tories are not calling people signed up to the TPS. A Labour Party spokesman told the BBC News website the party avoided those on TPS lists when telephoning people about membership or fundraising. But that did not happen for ""voter identification"" calls. ""When we ask which party they will vote for, that is not marketing and we have very clear legal advice that it is not,"" he said. ""So it is not covered by the Telephone Preference Service.""..He said the party always asked people if they would be happy to be contacted again and if they said no, they were not rung again. A Conservative spokeswoman said the party stuck to the rules when it rang TPS subscribers. She said: ""We do apply TPS but in line with the law. We would not do things that are not allowed in the law."" A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office said it would be classed as marketing if political parties telephoned people to encourage them to vote for them. But the rules did allow polling organisations to telephone people about their voting intentions if they recorded them only as part of a bigger set of statistics, not person by person. ""If a political party was doing that than it may be that also would not be marketing,"" he said...The spokesman said it might be considered unsolicited marketing if a party recorded voting preferences with a view to marketing information in the future. The spokesman said there was ""no yes or no"" answer and the area was ""pretty grey"". He added: ""If someone complained, then we would investigate that. Political parties are aware of the regulations. At the last by-elections, we reminded them."" Lib Dem chairman Matthew Taylor has now written to the watchdog saying: ""The advice we have received on several previous occasions is that such phone calls are illegal."" He says evidence from local Lib Dem parties around the country suggests there are ""significant"" numbers of such calls. ""I hope you can therefore take swift and efficient action to ensure that this ceases,"" he tells the commissioner. Mr Taylor argues there should be new guidelines so all parties can act in the same way if the watchdog believes the rules allow parties to ring TPS numbers about voting intentions and later urge those people to vote for them.",politics
"Tory leader quits legal position..David McLetchie has resigned from his post as a partner in a legal firm following criticism over his dual role...The Scottish Conservative leader had insisted that his legal work with Tods Murray did not influence the causes he supports. But on Friday he said: ""I have tendered my resignation as a partner with immediate effect."" Mr McLetchie had received advice from Holyrood officials about what details he needed to declare. Labour said he had ""cleverly"" not asked about paid advocacy. A Tory spokesman ""totally refuted"" any wrongdoing...Mr McLetchie received advice from the clerk to the standards committee after concern over him signing a parliamentary motion questioning expansion plans for Edinburgh Airport. The MSP had been a partner for Tods Murray which has a client opposing the development. Mr McLetchie did not have a complaint made against him, but when concerns were raised he sought guidance from the standards committee to clarify his position. He was advised to exercise judgement to avoid the perception of a conflict and said he had done nothing wrong...Explaining his reason for quitting the post, Mr McLetchie said: ""I have been greatly concerned by the recent publicity surrounding my association with Tods Murray. ""However, I have no wish to see a similar situation arise again. ""To avoid any misconceptions in the future and be mindful of the good name of Tods Murray and the confidentiality to which its clients are entitled, I have brought forward the date of my retirement from the firm which would otherwise have happened later this year. ""I am proud to have been a part of Tods Murray for the last 29 years and wish it well in the future.""..Labour MSP Christine May had said Mr McLetchie was ""very clever"" to ask the clerk to consider his conduct in respect of section 5 of the code. ""He was almost bound to get the answer he wanted from this enquiry since he stands accused of breaching section 6, the section on paid advocacy,"" she said. Section 5 of the members interest order legally obliges MSPs to declare registrable interests before taking part in related parliamentary proceedings ""where the interest would prejudice or give the appearance of prejudicing their ability to participate in a disinterested manner"". However, MSPs' Code of Conduct ""recognises a wider definition"" of parliamentary proceedings, including a non-statutory requirement to make a declaration in relation to written notices, such as motions...But a letter from Holyrood's Chamber Office chief Ken Hughes also made clear that Mr McLetchie did not need to list any of the clients for whom he worked as a solicitor. Commenting on Mr McLetchie's decision to stand down, a Scottish Labour Party spokesman said: ""This should mean Mr McLetchie doesn't breach the paid advocacy rules in future. ""However it doesn't change the fact that there should be a full investigation into whether he has done this in the past.""..Scottish National Party Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon accused Mr McLetchie of failing to properly serve his constituents. Ms Sturgeon said: ""I think this whole episode has been very damaging for Mr McLetchie and I'm sure he will be reflecting on it."" She added that she thought that the Tories were an irrelevant party so she would not ""lose any sleep over it"". Peter Misselbrook, executive partner of Tods Murray said Mr McLetchie had been considering retirement later in the year. He added: ""David has decided that this announcement should be made now and we fully understand and appreciate his reasons for doing so.""",politics
"MSPs hear renewed climate warning..Climate change could be completely out of control within several decades, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency is warning a committee of MSPs...Experts are giving evidence on the subject to the Scottish Parliament's environment committee. Officials believe nuclear energy and wind farms may be better options than trying to tackle global warming. Solutions suggested by conservationists include reducing internal UK air travel and boosting electric trains. The evidence is part of the committee's inquiry into the impact of climate change in Scotland. Sepa is attempting to curb global warming gases, as pollution from transport emissions increases...Ecologists are warning MSPs that Scotland may have to accept ""significant intrusion"" from wind farms. It is likely also that nuclear power will be needed for possibly several decades. Sepa predict that the two methods will remain as energy sources until climate change is under control. Experts studying the seas off Scotland's west coast have already forecast more devastating weather of the type which caused havoc across the country last month...They predicted that damaging storms will become more frequent. Researchers from the University of the Highlands and Islands and Southampton have been looking at wave heights in the Atlantic over the last nine years. The project was conducted jointly by the Environmental Research Institute in Thurso, which is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Millennium Institute network, and the Southampton Oceanography Centre. Scientists carried out a series of studies, including the use of satellites to assess wave heights in the seas around the west coast and the Hebrides.",politics
"Vouchers 'to cut winter deaths'..Pensioners are being promised energy savings by the Liberal Democrats, as snow and cold temperatures continue...The party says the plans could save the average pensioner £100 every year and cut winter deaths. The government gives £200 for winter fuel to households with people over 60, or £300 where people are over 80. The Tories promise to keep the payments. The Lib Dems would allow people to swap these winter fuel payments for discounts on home insulation. Shadow local government secretary Ed Davey said: ""The current scheme has helped some older people, but this new Liberal Democrat approach will go much further to end the scandal of tens of thousands of old people dying from the winter cold every year."" The vouchers are designed to let pensioners choose from a list of approved energy supplies who would compete for business by offering discounts on home insulation schemes. The plan would boost energy conservation, says the party - and insulation could save £100 every year for pensioner households, so using the money more ""intelligently"" than at present.",politics
"New 'yob' targets to be unveiled..Fifty new areas getting special help to fight anti-social behaviour in England and Wales will be named on Thursday...Ten areas have already had access to special prosecutors and local experts and the government is now expanding the crackdown to more towns and cities. Details of how many anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) were used in the last year are also being published. Labour sees nuisance behaviour as a key election issue but critics claim the record is at best patchy. A year ago, ministers launched their anti-social behaviour plan and Thursday's figures offer a progress check. They will say that in the past year more than 2,600 anti-social behaviour orders were issued by the courts - more than double the total used in the previous four years...Police have also closed 150 crack houses and issued more than 400 dispersal orders, breaking up groups of youths in public places. The 50 new pilot areas to get special attention will also receive extra government funding. Exeter and Cardiff are among cities who have voiced interest in being involved...Prime Minister Tony Blair is also expected to announce new measures to strengthen the use of Asbos and fixed penalty notices. There are still concerns that some areas of the country are not using the powers properly...He is expected to say that the new figures were heartening but he would not rest until similar action was taken in all areas of the country where it was needed. ""We have not defeated this problem by any means, but shown together what can be done,"" he will say. Mr Blair this week defended the shake-up of the licensing laws, saying it was right to focus on troublemakers rather than treating everybody as a potential drunken nuisance...Ministers also boast of record police numbers and are speeding up plans to put in place 25,000 community support officers (CSOs). But researchers from Leeds University warned that CSOs could undermine traditional bonds between police officers and communities. More work needed to be done on clarifying the role of different agencies and how they linked together before CSOs, they argued in a the study. Critics of the government say it has announced more than 20 initiatives to tackle nuisance behaviour when the real focus should be on good policing. Home Office Minister Hazel Blears also revealed this week that ""about a third"" of Asbos were breached - with some people jailed and others not.",politics
"Kennedy calls for Iraq exit plans..Tony Blair should set out a proper exit strategy from Iraq in the wake of next Sunday's elections in the country, Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy has said...In a speech focusing on issues arising from the re-election of George W Bush, Mr Kennedy said Iraq had become a ""crucible of militant terrorism"". He wants to see a phased withdrawal of UK troops ""as soon as the situation allows"", he said in London. Any exit strategy must ""augment and support"" the democratic process...""There are some who are of the opinion that the mere presence of British and American troops in Iraq feeds the insurgency,"" he said. ""There is some truth in that, especially after the initial mistakes that were made - the heavy-handedness of operations like Fallujah, and the well-publicised instances of abuse at the hands of coalition forces."" Mr Kennedy pointed out that the Netherlands, Portugal and the Czech Republic, which all have troops operating in the southern sector of Iraq, have announced their imminent withdrawal ""regardless of the situation on the ground""...He accused Mr Blair's government of ""being less than straightforward"" over its plans. ""Next week the prime minister should make a statement regarding the elections in Iraq,"" Mr Kennedy said during his City of London speech. ""He should set out a proper exit strategy, including the phased withdrawal of British troops, as the security situation allows."" Mr Kennedy also argued that British troops deployed in Iraq should be replaced with forces from other countries - ""especially Islamic countries"".",politics
"McConnell in 'drunk' remark row..Scotland's first minister has told a group of high school pupils that it is okay to get drunk ""once in a while""...Jack McConnell was speaking to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the Highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions. He has been criticised by the SNP for encouraging young people to get drunk. But the Scottish Executive has insisted Mr McConnell was speaking about adults and his comments were ""a recognition that people will get drunk"". The first minister's comments came in a question and answer session at Glenurquhart High School in Inverness, attended by pupils from a number of secondary schools. A Highland councillor who was at the event has also defended Mr McConnell. Margaret Davidson, the independent member for the Loch Ness West, said the first minister was speaking in a very general way and she was sure he was speaking about adults at the time...When one pupil asked Mr McConnell how the executive proposed to tackle under-age drinking, began his response with the quip: ""I'm sure there's no under-age drinking in the Highlands."" He went on to speak about the evils of binge drinking and railed against irresponsible drinks promotions. He said: ""I hope I'm not going to be seen as preaching to anybody here but the really serious problem at the moment is binge drinking and the impact it has on people's health and their ability to control what's happening round about them."" Mr McConnell said he regularly saw reports on the effects of binge drinking sprees which ended in assaults or even rapes, and on the health consequences of binge drinking. ""The one thing we are going to do something really serious about is binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions that can help lead to that,"" he said. ""Far too many pub chains in particular are selling far too much booze far too cheaply and encouraging people to drink it far too quickly. ""We are go to clamp down on that and make those promotions illegal in the hope that people can enjoy a drink sensibly over the course of an evening.""..He added: ""By all means get drunk once in a while - but do not get into a situation where people are being encouraged to get completely incapable just to save some money and drink more quickly."" SNP Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon said: ""This is an incredible gaffe by Jack McConnell. ""We all know that under-age drinking is an issue in Scotland but it is quite staggering that any politician, particularly the First Minister, should encourage young people to get drunk. ""The first minister should withdraw these remarks immediately."" But an executive spokeswoman insisted Mr McConnell had made the remark with adults, not youngsters, in mind. ""He was talking in the context of adults binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions - which are for the over-18s,"" she said. ""It was just a recognition that people will get drunk, but that binge drinking and drinks promotions that encourage it are not acceptable.""",politics
"Brown hits back in Blair rift row..Gordon Brown has criticised a union leader who said conflict between himself and Tony Blair was harming the workings of government...Jonathan Baume, of the top civil servants' union, spoke of ""competing agendas"" between Mr Brown and Mr Blair. But the chancellor said Mr Baume was never at meetings between himself and the prime minister so could not judge. He said the union leader was trying to block civil service reform which threatened his members' jobs. It suited the purpose of Mr Baume's union, the First Division Association, to suggest there were two agendas battling against each other because the union was trying to resist the planned reforms, Mr Brown told BBC Radio 4's Today programme...Under the plans, unveiled in the Gershon report, some 84,000 civil servants jobs will be axed or changed and the savings ploughed back into frontline services. Mr Brown said: ""To be honest I don't think you can rely on his [Mr Baume's] judgement on this matter when it comes to the decisions that the government are making. ""Mr Blair and I are making exactly the same decisions on civil service reforms. We are determined to go on with the Gershon reforms."" He also said that as Mr Baume was never present at meetings between himself and the prime minister, he was not in a position to judge. On Wednesday, ahead of the Chancellor's pre-Budget report, Mr Baume told BBC News there were sometimes ""conflicting and competing agendas for government"" between Number 10 and the Treasury...What the chancellor wanted was ""not by any means what Alan Milburn and the prime minister want to see"", Mr Baume said. ""Government departments get their money from the Treasury on the basis of public service agreements they sign up to, but at the same time the prime minister also has an agenda and that's not necessarily the same as the Treasury's and the prime minister is of course a very powerful figure in any government. ""He also sends instructions and messages and directions to departments about how he would like each secretary of state and each department to implement a policy agenda. ""The problem is that on many occasions these two don't add up and individual cabinet ministers as well as departments have to make sense of this battle."" Number 10 said ministers were interested in governing and not a ""soap opera"" about Mr Blair and Mr Brown. Tory shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin said: ""The battle Royal that the top civil servants are now reporting on between the chancellor and Tony Blair is preventing them both from getting on with the business of getting taxpayers value for money.""",politics
"Tories 'would cut number of MPs'..The Conservative Party would cut the number of MPs by about one-fifth if they were elected, Tory leader Michael Howard has said...The plan forms part of the party's ""smaller government bill"", to be unveiled later this week. Mr Howard told the Sunday Times the party would also reduce the number of government special advisers. And he said a referendum would be held in Wales to decide whether or not to scrap the Welsh Assembly...The changes would all take place within five years of the Conservatives winning a general election, Mr Howard told the paper...The precise number of MPs to go would depend on the result of the Welsh referendum, but it would probably mean a reduction of around 120 from the current total of 659. If Wales decided to keep its assembly it would stand to lose more MPs. Mr Howard said as both parties planned to cut the number of civil servants at Whitehall - Labour by more than 80,000 and the Tories by almost 100,000 - they should accept a similar drop in their own numbers. ""It is all very well saying government departments should be reduced, but what about ministers, Parliament and special advisers?"" he said. Shadow leader of the Commons Oliver Heald said: ""This will be part of our aim to reduce unnecessary and costly interference in people's lives by reducing the size and role of the State""...Mr Howard said the plan would also even out the ""great unfairness"" of there being proportionately more Scottish and Welsh MPs at Westminster than those from England. The average size of an English constituency was 70,000 people, Mr Howard said. In Northern Ireland it was just over 66,000, in Wales just over 59,000 and in Scotland 53,000. The number of Welsh MPs would be set at an amount that was ""consistent and fair in terms of representation with the rest of the United Kingdom"" if the assembly was scrapped. Mr Howard said the changes should be carried out quickly and could even be implemented by the election after next. ""You have got to have a big bang. We don't want this like the House of Lords reform, getting to one stage and then not having the next stage.""",politics
"UK plan to deport terror suspects..Deals are being sought to allow the UK to deport terror suspects to their home countries without risk of them being tortured or sentenced to death...Home Secretary Charles Clarke told the Times he hoped agreement with several countries could be reached. The move follows a Law Lords judgement that the detention of 12 men at Belmarsh prison, London, and Woodhill, Milton Keynes, was unlawful. The 12 affected by the ruling are from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. The government was told that using anti-terror legislation brought in after 11 September to hold the men indefinitely without charge broke human rights laws...Mr Clarke told The Times: ""I think we should be prosecuting much more energetically our ability to deport the individuals concerned to the countries from which they come."" He said it was a route that was being pursued in collaboration with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw ""in a very positive way"". Mr Clarke said that he was seeking ""memorandums of understanding"" between overseas governments and Britain to ensure suspects would not be subjected to the death penalty on their return. However, he added: ""I do not think the solution to the Law Lords' judgement for this government is in deportations, but they will help. ""There are other strands that we have to do."" But the Liberal Democrat's shadow home secretary, Mark Oaten, accused Mr Clarke of avoiding the main issue with the Belmarsh detainees...""The critical issue that the home secretary is dodging at this stage is to deal with the very principle, to deal with how we tackle this problem in the future,"" he told BBC News. ""And I do want him to grasp those issues and that means looking at how we can actually secure convictions in this country allowing, for example, intercept communications, telephone tapping to be included,"" Mr Oaten said. ""Deportation may tackle this initial problem but I want to see a wider debate urgently about how we can actually get trials and convictions in this country."" ""Unless we get that, the Liberal Democrats will vote against this measure when it comes for renewal in March.""..The BBC's home affairs correspondent, Daniel Sandford, said it appeared Mr Clarke was putting more emphasis on the possibility of deportation than his predecessor, David Blunkett. But he said reaching an understanding with some of the detainees' home countries could be difficult. ""Some of these people are accused of very, very serious crimes in their home countries so it's not an easy agreement to get and I think for some of these suspects it won't be the solution."" Daniel Sandford said ministers may try to put forward other solutions - such as allowing more secret evidence to be put into normal criminal trials or developing a more secret trials process - in the next few weeks. ""The government may try and deport some of them and then those that are left see if they can work out some way of putting them on trial,"" he said.",politics
"Ministers deny care sums 'wrong'..Ministers have insisted they are committed to free personal care for the elderly despite research suggesting the cost of the policy was under-estimated...A report by the Fraser of Allander Institute says the decision to push ahead with the flagship policy was based on flawed research. Deputy Health Minister Rhona Brankin has pledged to study the research. SNP Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon said the public needed reassurance that the care programme was secure...The rise in costs stems from a series of mistakes in the research used by the ""care development group"" of Scottish Executive experts who prepared the original costings, according to findings published in the Quarterly Economic Commentary of Strathclyde University's Fraser of Allander Institute. ""Dubious"" assumptions about improving health expectancy could drive the cost of the policy up by another £130m by 2022, the report warned...It was carried out by husband and wife economist team Jim and Margaret Cuthbert. But Ms Brankin told BBC Radio Scotland: ""We don't think we got our sums wrong. ""Obviously we will examine the findings of this new report, along with figures from our own research that we have already commissioned. ""We will look in great detail at any contribution to this, because we need to be sure we can provide free personal care and nursing care for our older people into the future. ""And we are absolutely committed to doing that.""..But the Scottish National Party called on ministers to reassure people that enough funding is in place to support the free personal care policy. Ms Sturgeon said that while she had no reason to doubt the executive's support for the policy, there were questions which needed to be answered and, if necessary, sums redone. She said: ""Serious concerns have been raised and there are questions which need to be answered by the Scottish Executive. ""We need to know that the money is there, not just for this year or next year, but into the future so that older people, and those who are looking forward to older age, can rest assured that their personal care needs will be met.""",politics
"Blair stresses prosperity goals..Tony Blair says his party's next manifesto will be ""unremittingly New Labour"" and aimed at producing ""personal prosperity for all""...The prime minister is trying to draw a line under speculation over the state of his relationship with Gordon Brown with the speech in Chatham, Kent. He is saying that prosperity means both individual wealth and ensuring ""radically improved"" public services. He is also claiming Labour is more ideologically united than ever. Mr Brown is currently touring Africa after a week of facing questions about reports of his splits with Downing Street...With the election widely predicted for May, angry Labour MPs this week warned Mr Blair and Mr Brown about the dangers of disunity. Now Mr Blair is trying to put the focus on the substance of Labour's platform for a third term in government. Labour made low inflation, unemployment and mortgage rates the centrepiece of a new poster campaign this week...And on Thursday Mr Blair is saying: ""I want to talk about the central purpose ofNew Labour - which is to increase personal prosperity and well-being, not justfor a few but for all. ""By prosperity I mean both the income and wealth of individuals and theirfamilies, and the opportunity and security available to them through radicallyimproved public services and a reformed welfare state.""..The Tories are trying to capitalise on the apparent feud at the top of government. On Wednesday they unveiled a poster which pictured the prime minister and Mr Brown under the words ""How can they fight crime when they are fighting each other?"" Michael Howard and frontbencher John Redwood on Thursday launched new plans to abolish hundreds of quangos. They say government is spending too much and lower taxes are needed to make Britain more competitive...The Liberal Democrats have also claimed infighting its obstructing good government. The latest speculation about relations between New Labour's two most powerful figures came after the publication of a new book, Brown's Britain by Robert Preston. In it he alleges that Mr Blair told Mr Brown in 2003 he would step down as prime minister before the coming general election. The book claims the premier went back on his pledge after support from Cabinet allies and suspicion that Mr Brown was manoeuvring against him. Mr Peston's book claimed that Mr Brown told Mr Blair: ""There is nothing you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe."" On Wednesday Mr Blair directly denied Mr Brown made that quote, and before he left for Africa on Tuesday the chancellor told reporters: ""Of course I trust the prime minister.""",politics
"Guantanamo man 'suing government'..A British terror suspect held in Guantanamo Bay for 33 months plans to sue the government, it is reported...Martin Mubanga claimed in the Observer that an MI6 officer played a key role in consigning him to the US camp in Cuba, following his arrest in Zambia. Mr Mubanga, 32, from Wembley, London, said he was brutally interrogated and daubed with urine at the camp. The home secretary said he would not be launching an investigation and that the media reports were not ""well informed"". Mr Mubanga, who has dual British and Zambian nationality, was one of four Britons who were released from the US camp in January...He said he was sent there after being interrogated by a British man who said he was from MI6, shortly after his arrest in Zambia in March 2002. Mr Mubanga said he had been in Afghanistan and Pakistan to study Islam. But he said he was unable to return to the UK because he had lost his British passport, and was travelling on his Zambian passport instead. Mr Mubanga said the ""MI6 agent"" told him the passport had been found in a cave in Afghanistan along with documents listing Jewish groups in New York and suggested he had been on an al-Qaeda reconnaissance mission. Mr Mubanga said the man, and an American female defence official, tried to recruit him as an agent, but he refused and within three weeks was told he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay...His lawyer Louise Christian said: ""'We are hoping to issue proceedings for the misfeasance of officials who colluded with the Americans in effectively kidnapping him and taking him to Guantanamo."" And Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, said it was vital to establish whether ministers approved Mr Mubanga's transfer to Guantanamo. But a Foreign Office spokesman said he could not comment on the activities of British intelligence or security agencies. And Home Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost: ""I'm not organising a specific investigation into it."" Mr Mubanga is the first of the four detainees freed last month to give a media interview. He told the Observer his worst moment was when he was told he would be released last March, only to be confined and told he would be there for many more years...He claimed he was stripped of his clothes and mattress and forced to remain in an empty metal box, naked except for boxer shorts. And he said an interrogator used a mop to daub him with his own urine while he was chained hand and foot. Mr Mubanga, who insists he does not feel bitter, said: ""I've lost three years of my life, because I was a Muslim. He added: ""The authorities wanted to break me but they strengthened me. They've made me what I am - even if I'm not quite sure yet who that person is."" The US government denied the claims, saying it condemned and prohibited torture. In a statement, it said: ""The Department of Defense has no doubt that Mr Mubanga was properly detained as an enemy combatant under the laws of war. ""He was detained to prevent him from fighting against the US and our allies in the war on terror."" But Fair Trials Abroad director Stephen Jakobi said there were similarities between Mr Mubanga's account and those of other Guantanamo detainees. He said: ""The pattern is the same. The real problem is the concentration camp conditions in Guantanamo. ""Is [Charles Clarke] really pretending this is all made up?"" Mr Mubanga and the three other freed British detainees were released without charge by UK police on their return from Cuba.",politics
"Council tax rise 'reasonable'..Welsh councils should set their taxes at ""reasonable levels"" after being given an average funding increase of 6%, says the assembly government...Finance Minister Sue Essex said it was a ""good deal"" for local government. The £3.2bn settlement includes the ""full"" £7.4m from the UK Treasury announced by Chancellor Gordon Brown. But opposition parties said rebanding of council taxes would mean steep rises. In addition, £13.4m will come from the business support grant - a scheme which enables local authorities to keep part of business rates. She said where spending rises were kept to around 5% she was ""confident that councils will be able to set council taxes at reasonable levels."" The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) had said on the eve of the announcement said that ""significant"" cuts to services may still be unavoidable. After the announcement WLGA finance spokesman Bob Wellington, of Torfaen, said it was vital that rises were minimsed. ""A limited amount of money has come available but this is not the answer to our problems,"" said Mr Wellington. ""It is vital that we start now to plan for future years and accept that resources will continue to reduce while pressures on services increase."" On Monday, a delegation of north Wales councils visited Ms Essex to lobby for increased funds. Ms Essex said: ""I have listened to the views of local government and council tax payers and recognise the funding pressures and the concerns they have about council tax rises. ""I have met a large number of local authorities in recent weeks and I am aware of the pressures on them to provide local services and keep down the level of council tax, particularly for those people to are moving up a band due to the revaluation of domestic properties."" She said council taxes could be kept at reasonable levels, ""even for those people who have moved up a band""...The settlement includes a rise in the grant to help councils with the most deprived communities and a 16.4% rise in capital expenditure support. Ms Essex said: ""This is a good deal for local government, which will allow the well-managed councils of Wales to develop their services and charge reasonable levels of council tax. It is now a matter for council leaders to manage their budgets at a local level."" Plaid Cymru's local government spokesman Dai Lloyd called the announcement ""hugely disappointing"". He said: ""Wales and its local authorities have been short changed yet again. This is not whinging as the Labour Assembly Government so often claims - it is anger."" ""This will mean either a massive hike in council tax, massive cuts in services provided by councils, or both."" Mike German, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the assembly, claimed that one in three homes were still likely to face council tax rises due to rebanding. Mr German said: ""I know from my discussions with Welsh Liberal Democrat council leaders that they are doing their utmost to keep council tax to a minimum. But the random redistribution effect of rebanding...will create a great deal of difficulty."" Conservative local government spokesman Glyn Davies said that for the minister to claim that the majority of council tax payers in Wales should see very little change ""is taking spin to the very verge of deception"". He added: ""Around a third of Welsh households have been re-valued upwards by at least one band and inevitably face increases into double figures.""",politics
"Blunkett row should end - Blair..Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was time to draw a line under the controversy surrounding David Blunkett...The Tories and the Lib Dems have called for a second inquiry into the fast-tracking of a visa application for Mr Blunkett's ex-lover's nanny. Sir Alan Budd found a ""chain of events"" linked Mr Blunkett to Leoncia Casalme's indefinite leave to remain application. At the end of his Middle East trip, Mr Blair said he still admired Mr Blunkett and thought his integrity was intact...On Tuesday Sir Alan said the application for leave to remain in the UK made by Kimberly Quinn's nanny was processed in 52 days, 120 days faster than the average. But he could not find evidence to show whether Mr Blunkett's intervention was intended to give special help for his then lover's nanny - or if he was raising the case as an example of poor departmental performance. In his first comments since Sir Alan's announcement, Mr Blair told BBC News he had not yet read the report in detail. But told BBC News: ""As far as I'm concerned, we have drawn a line under that.""..Asked if Mr Blunkett could return to frontline politics at some point, he replied: ""I have made my admiration for David very clear and it remains. ""He's been a tremendous colleague, he's done a great job for us, first as home secretary then as education secretary. The future is something we will have to approach in the future."" The prime minister shrugged off claims from Conservative leader Michael Howard that he led a ""grubby government"". He said Mr Blunkett's integrity remained intact: ""He was the person first of all who asked for this inquiry to be set up. He accepted that what he originally thought had happened had not happened, he said. ""But I think Sir Alan Budd also accepted there wasn't some conspiracy or cover-up and I just think a line should be drawn under now and we should move on.""..Earlier, Mr Howard said: ""There does need to be another inquiry, a judge-led inquiry. There were so many questions that weren't answered."" There was ""deceit at the heart of government"" which was not limited to the visa affair, he argued. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten also said there was ""a strong case for a judge-led judicial review""...He said: ""Next time it happens it may not be about a nanny and their visa. It may be about something even more important than that."" Mr Blunkett quit as home secretary last week after being told in advance of Sir Alan's findings. In a statement, the ex-home secretary said he accepted the inquiry's findings. He said he had told the truth throughout and had raised the nanny case as an example of unacceptable backlogs in the system.",politics
"Minimum rate for foster parents..Foster carers are to be guaranteed a minimum allowance to help cover their costs, the government has announced...Payment levels vary from area to area, with some carers getting just £50 a week for clothes, food and other costs. Minister for Children, Young People and Families Margaret Hodge said new plans will ensure fosterers' allowances would be as fair as possible. However local authorities, which set and pay the allowances, are concerned about how the extra cash will be found. About 50,000 children live with foster families in the UK and carers have said they need more money to make ends meet...Ms Hodge said: ""Foster carers must not be out of pocket when meeting the costs of caring for a looked after child - a crucial role in society. ""We need to make sure that arrangements for paying foster carers are as fair and transparent as possible. ""Our proposal for a national minimum rate shows we are serious about creating a better deal for foster carers and about encouraging more people to come forward and consider fostering as a worthwhile and rewarding opportunity."" The government is seeking to amend the Children Bill, which passes through the Commons next week, to establish a national minimum payment...Fostering Network executive director Robert Tapsfield criticised the existing system. ""There is just no logic to a system which values children differently depending on where they live. ""And with a shortage of over 8,000 foster carers in England, it's not a sustainable situation to expect carers to fund foster care from their own pockets."" The charity recommends a weekly payment of £108.49 for looking after a baby. In a survey, it discovered that rates paid by neighbouring authorities could vary by as much as £100 per week...The Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) said it agreed in principle with the government's plans. Tony Hunter, the organisation's president, said: ""There are many devils and lots of details hidden within the Government's proposals. ""But ADSS fully supports proper remuneration for valued foster carers and looks forward to working with ministers, local government and the fostering organisations themselves in order to make sure a sensible and practicable policy emerges.""",politics
"Royal couple watch nation's mood..Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are awaiting the nation's reaction after announcing they are to be married on 8 April...Mrs Parker Bowles will take the title HRH Duchess of Cornwall after a civil ceremony to be held at Windsor Castle. A Daily Telegraph poll of 1,313 people suggests two-thirds of Britons support the couple's decision to marry. But only 40% think Mrs Parker Bowles should become Princess Consort as planned after Charles becomes king. Some 47% believe she should have no title, while 7% think she should become queen...The poll also found that the majority of Britons would prefer the monarchy to miss a generation, with the Queen handing the throne to her grandson Prince William, 22, on her death or abdication. On Thursday night, Prince Charles, 56, and Mrs Parker Bowles, 57, hosted a dinner at Windsor Castle, their first public appearance since announcing their engagement. Mrs Parker Bowles said the prince went down on one knee to propose and added: ""I'm just coming down to earth."" She displayed her diamond engagement ring - a Royal Family heirloom - to reporters. Charles said he and his wife-to-be were ""absolutely delighted"". Their marriage will end years of speculation on a relationship which dates back to 1970...The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh said the news had made them ""very happy"". Princes William and Harry said they are ""very happy"" and wish the couple ""all the luck in the future"". The wedding will be a civil ceremony followed by a service of prayer and dedication in St George's Chapel at which the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will preside...The marriage is likely to be a sensitive issue because Mrs Parker Bowles is divorced and her former husband is still alive. If he became king, Charles would be the supreme governor of the Church of England and some Anglicans remain opposed to the remarriage of divorcees. ""His divorce from Diana and the disappointment the country felt over how Diana had been treated... opened up a sense of disillusionment with [Prince Charles],"" said Ros Coward, who wrote the authorised biography of Diana, princess of Wales. The Archbishop of Canterbury said: ""I am pleased that Prince Charles and Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles have decided to take this important step."" Tony Blair said he was ""delighted"" for the couple and offered his congratulations, as did Conservative leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy. Australia's Prime Minister John Howard also offered his congratulations, adding that their decision to marry was a ""sensible and a good thing"". Mrs Parker Bowles has joined the prince at numerous engagements in recent years - mostly at evening events for The Prince's Trust. Clarence House staff were at pains to point out that she attended these events in a private capacity.",politics
"Muslim police stops 'more likely'..UK Muslims should accept that people of Islamic appearance are more likely to be stopped and searched by police, a Home Office minister has said...Hazel Blears said innocent Muslims would be targeted because of the search for Islamic extremists. Qualifications for religious leaders to enter the UK could also be made tougher, she told a Commons inquiry. Her comments have been described as ""irresponsible"" and ""outrageous"" by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC)...""The threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam, or who are falsely hiding behind Islam,"" the Salford MP told the Commons home affairs committee...""It means that some of our counter-terrorism powers will be disproportionately experienced by the Muslim community."" It was a reality that should be recognised, she said. ""If a threat is from a particular place then our action is going to be targeted at that area,"" she added. On ministers of religions, such as imams, she said faith groups would be asked what other qualifications and skills, such as civic knowledge and ability to engage the community, should be demanded. Last year, ministers introduced a requirement that ministers should speak English to a certain level...IHRC chairman Massoud Shadjareh accused Ms Blears of ""playing an Islamophobia card"" in the run-up to a general election...""She is demonising and alienating our community,"" he said. ""It is a legitimisation for a backlash and for racists to have an onslaught on our community. ""This sort of comment is just music to the ears of racists."" Later, the prime minister's official spokesman urged people to put Ms Blears' comments into context. The minister had been saying she understood there was a perception that stop and search was aimed at one community, but that was not what was happening, the spokesman said...""What is happening is that those powers are aimed at those who are suspected of carrying out or planning certain activity who happen to come from one community. ""It is not aimed at a particular community, it is not police policy to aim these powers at a particular community,"" he added. Statistics showed that of the 17 people found guilty of terrorist acts in the UK since the 11 September attacks, only four of the 12 whose ethnic backgrounds were known were Muslim, he added Figures published last week showed that people from ethnic minorities were increasingly likely to be targeted by police stop and search tactics...Figures showed that, for 2003/2004, Asians were 1.9 times more likely to be stopped and searched, compared with 1.7 times more likely in the previous year. Separate figures on police searches in England and Wales carried out under the Terrorism Act 2000 showed that ethnic minorities were more likely to be targeted. Muslim groups have repeatedly claimed that their communities are being victimised under terror laws. In 2003/2004, 12.5% searches under the laws were on Asian people, even though they make up 4.7% of the population. Last July, the police were accused of Islamophobia by Muslim groups after stop and search figures showed the numbers of Asians targeted had risen by 300% since the introduction of anti-terror laws.",politics
"Howard attacks cost of asylum..Michael Howard has launched an attack on the cost of Britain's ""chaotic"" asylum system under Tony Blair...The Tory leader said English local authorities have spent more than £3bn - or £140 per household - on asylum since Labour won power in 1997. Mr Howard is expected to tell activists in Kent that voters' tolerance and desire to help others are being abused. Other parties and refugee agencies have already attacked Tory plans for annual limits on numbers...Mr Howard said Britain should take its fair share of the world's ""genuine refugees""...""The anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz - where my grandmother was murdered along with over a million others - has reminded all of us that we have a moral responsibility to those fleeing persecution,"" he was due to say. ""But if we are to fulfil responsibility, we have to get a grip of the system. ""Fair play matters. People want a government that upholds the rules - not one that turns a blind eye when they are bent and abused,"" he said. ""And let's be clear. Our asylum system is being abused - and with it Britain's generosity."" Earlier this week, Mr Howard said his party's plans to cut immigration were not racist, arguing they would make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees. If elected, his party would institute an annual limit on asylum and all claims would be processed overseas...That prompted some charities to say the plans would put refugees' lives at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled. ""If we have a moral responsibility towards people fleeing persecution, then these policies will not provide a safe haven,"" said Hannah Ward of the Refugee Council. ""If people turn up in the UK asking for help they will be turned away. Michael Howard's policy effectively means there is no safe haven in the UK. ""When it comes to costs, then perhaps we should start with how decisions are made on asylum seekers. So many of them are shown to be wrong - one in five decisions that are appealed are successfully overturned, rising to half for some nationalities. ""We need good quality decision-making on asylum applications because it is delays in the system which cost so much.""..Tony Blair said Labour would set out workable plans for tackling immigration abuse in the next few weeks and attacked the Tory plans. ""By cutting the number of front-line immigration staff at our borders, they will actually make the problem worse,"" said Mr Blair. Liberal Democrat chairman Matthew Taylor said there needed to be a quick, fair and firm asylum system. But he said it was ""absolutely disgusting"" to propose a system which could turn away genuine refugees. The Conservatives say there is little risk of this happening as demand for asylum will be considered when quotas are set. On Monday, Mr Howard said: ""It's not racist, as some people to claim, to talk about controlling immigration far from it.""",politics
"Brown outlines third term vision..Gordon Brown has outlined what he thinks should be the key themes of New Labour's next general election bid...He said ensuring every child in Britain had the best start in life could be a legacy to match the NHS's creation. The chancellor has previously planned the party's election strategy but this time the role will be filled by Alan Milburn - a key ally of Tony Blair. The premier insisted Mr Brown will have a key role in Labour's campaign, and praised his handling of the economy...Writing in the Guardian newspaper, Mr Brown outlined his view of the direction New Labour should be taking. ""As our manifesto and our programme for the coming decade should make clear, Labour's ambition is not simply tackling idleness but delivering full employment; not just attacking ignorance, disease and squalor but promoting lifelong education, good health and sustainable communities."" BBC political editor Andrew Marr said that Mr Brown's article was ""a warning shot"" to Mr Blair not to try and cut him out of the manifesto writing process. ""It was, as always, coded and careful... but entirely deliberate,"" was Mr Marr's assessment. The prime minister was asked about Mr Brown's article and about his election role when he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Blair said a decision had yet to be taken over how the election would be run but the chancellor's role would be ""central"". Mr Blair argued that under New Labour the country had changed for the better and that was ""in part"" because of Mr Brown's management of the economy. And he pledged childcare would be a ""centrepiece"" of Labour's manifesto. He also predicted the next general election will be a ""tough, tough fight"" for New Labour. But the prime minister insisted he did not know what date the poll would take place despite speculation about 5 May. Mr Blair said he was taking ""nothing for granted"" ahead of the vote - warning that the Tory strategy was to win power via the back door by hinting they were aiming to cut Labour's majority instead of hoping for an outright win.",politics
"'Super union' merger plan touted..Two of Britain's big trade unions could merge to form a ""super union"" of two million members...The move by Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) would be a seen as a bid to carry more weight with ministers and employers. Amicus has 1.2 million members and the TGWU has 800,000. Any merger would have to be approved by the unions' executives and their membership. It is understood meetings will be held on Wednesday about the proposal. Along with the GMB and Unison, the TGWU and Amicus worked closely together in the last year to hammer out a 56-point deal with Labour's leadership over equality at work, holidays and pensions - the Warwick Agreement. Both unions are remaining tight-lipped about the merger rumours, but one insider pointed out to the BBC News website that ""nobody is denying suggestions a merger could be on the agenda"" when the two unions' executives hold their meetings on Wednesday. Amicus's executive was due to meet in any case although the TGWU is holding specially scheduled talks.",politics
"UK firms 'embracing e-commerce'..UK firms are embracing internet trading opportunities as never before, e-commerce minister Mike O'Brien says...A government-commissioned study ranked the UK third in its world index of use of information and communication technology (ICT). The report suggests 69% of UK firms are now using broadband and that 30% of micro businesses are trading online. Mr O'Brien said UK businesses were sprinting forward in ICT use, but that there were more challenges ahead. The report, carried out independently by consultants Booz Allen Hamilton and HI Europe, placed the UK third behind Sweden and Ireland for business use of ICT...It showed British business brought greater maturity to their ICT use, by using broadband in increased numbers, bringing ICT into their business plans and using new technologies such as voice activated programmes and desktop video conferences. Mr O'Brien said: ""The increase in the proportion of business connected by broadband shows that UK companies are embracing the opportunities that ICT can bring. ""It is particularly encouraging to see that small businesses are beginning to narrow the digital divide that appeared to have opened up in recent years."" The government would play its part in ""cultivating an environment where information and communication technologies can flourish"", Mr O'Brien said. The ""clear message"" the report sends is that effective use of ICT can bring real improvements in business performance for all business...""However, we are not at the finishing line yet and many challenges remain if the UK is to reach its aim of becoming a world-leading e-economy,"" he added. The International Benchmarking Study was based on 8,000 telephone interviews with businesses, of which more than 2,700 were UK businesses. It is the eighth in a series of examining the adoption and deployment of ICT in the world's most industrialised nations.",politics
"UK heading wrong way - Howard..Tony Blair has had the chance to tackle the problems facing Britain and has failed, Michael Howard has said...""Britain is heading in the wrong direction"", the Conservative leader said in his New Year message. Mr Blair's government was a ""bossy, interfering government that takes decisions that should be made by individuals,"" he added. But Labour's campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp responded: ""Britain is working, don't let the Tories wreck it again"". Mr Howard also paid tribute to the nation's character for its generous response to the Asian quake disaster. The catastrophe was overshadowing the hopes for the future at this usually positive time of the year, Mr Howard said...""We watched the scenes of destruction with a sense of disbelief. The scale, the speed, the ferocity of what happened on Boxing Day is difficult to grasp. ""Yet Britain's response has shone a light on our nation's character. The last week has shown that the warm, caring heart of Britain beats as strong as ever."" He went on to reflect on the values that ""most Britons hold dear"". Looking ahead to the coming general election, he pledged to ""turn these beliefs into reality"" and set out the choices he says are facing Britain. ""How much tax do people want to pay? Who will give taxpayers value for money, the clean hospitals and good, disciplined schools they want? ""Who can be trusted to get a grip on the disorder on our streets and the chaos in our immigration system?""..Mr Blair has failed to tackle these problems, he claimed, saying he has the ""wrong solution"" to them...""The result is big government and higher taxes eroding incentives, undermining enterprise and denying people choice. ""Worst of all, it is a government that has wasted people's money and failed to tackle the problems families face today."" The Tories, he said, can cut crime and improve public services without asking people to pay more taxes. ""We can have progress without losing what makes Britain great - its tolerance, the respect for the rule of law, the ability of everyone to fulfil their potential. ""We simply need to change direction. The election will give Britain the chance to change."" This is the record Mr Blair will have to defend in the coming months, he said, urging voters to hold him to account...But Labour spokesman Mr Kemp said: ""It would be more appropriate for this message to come out on 1 April, not 1 January."" ""Let us never forget that when Michael Howard was in government Britain suffered mass unemployment, 15% interest rates, record home repossessions, and the introduction of the poll tax. ""With Labour Britain is working. Rather than alluding to false promises Michael Howard should be starting 2005 with an apology to the British people for the misery that the government, of which he was a member, inflicted upon the country.",politics
"Kilroy launches 'Veritas' party..Ex-BBC chat show host and East Midlands MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk has said he wants to ""change the face of British politics"" as he launched his new party...Mr Kilroy-Silk, who recently quit the UK Independence Party,said ""our country"" was being ""stolen from us"" by mass immigration. He told a London news conference that Veritas - Latin for ""truth"" - would avoid the old parties' ""lies and spin"". UKIP leader Roger Knapman says he was glad to see the back of Mr Kilroy-Silk...Mr Kilroy-Silk promised a ""firm but fair"" policy on immigration and said they hoped to contest most seats at the forthcoming general election. He said Veritas would also announce detailed policies on crime, tax, pensions, health and defence over the next few weeks. And he announced the party would be holding a leadership election. On Thursday he is due to announce which constituency he will run in at the next general election - that will come amid speculation he has his sights set on Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon's Ashfield seat. He was joined in the new venture by one of UKIP's two London Assembly members, Damien Hockney who is now Veritas' deputy leader. UKIP's chairman Petrina Holdsworth has said the group will just be a parody of the party the men have left...Mr Kilroy-Silk announced his decision to quit UKIP at a public meeting in Hinckley, Leicestershire last week. It came after months of tension as he vied unsuccessfully for the leadership of that party. He said he was ashamed to be a member of a UKIP whose leadership had ""gone AWOL"" after the great opportunity offered by its third place at last June's European elections. ""While UKIP has turned its back on the British people, I shall not,"" he said. ""I will be standing at the next general election. I shall be leading a vigorous campaign for the causes I believe in. ""And, unlike the old parties, we shall be honest, open and straight.""..Mr Hockney also left UKIP saying Mr Kilroy-Silk would ""deliver better"" as the leader of a Eurosceptic party. A spokesman for UKIP called on Mr Hockney to quit the London Assembly. The party asserts that Mr Hockney ""has a moral obligation, if not a legal one"" to stand down. Its leader, Roger Knapman, has said he is glad to see the back of Mr Kilroy-Silk. ""He has remarkable ability to influence people but, sadly, after the [European] election it became clear that he was more interested in the Robert Kilroy-Silk Party than the UK Independence Party so it was nice knowing him, now 'goodbye',"" he said. UKIP officials also argue Mr Kilroy-Silk has not been ""straightforward"" in attacking the party he once wanted to lead...This is just what the Europhiles pray for. As the main Eurosceptic party, UKIP should try to resolve its differences with Kilroy to show a united front and give the UK public a serious political voice against Europe. Having multiple parties with the same view point just splits the vote further...Thank goodness that Kilroy-Silk has gone - now UKIP at least has a chance in the election!..It is very sad to see the cause of Britain regaining its proper relationship with Europe damaged by this split within UKIP. Robert Kilroy-Silk could have a lot to offer. Instead we have a split party and a damaged cause. Under the present electoral system, people must work together, and small parties have no hope of representation. Last summer, UKIP achieved a major advance, partly and only partly due to Kilroy-Silk. It is a great shame this has been dissipated in in-fighting...UKIP has a wide platform of policies, not just withdrawal from the EU. This Kilroy-Silk conveniently ignores in the comments surrounding the launch of his own party. Neither the English Democrats nor the New Party were interested in letting him join them and take over their leadership speaks volumes. Veritas is the beginning of the end for Kilroy-Silk...If he believes in truth and democracy then he and the two assembly members should resign and force a by-elections to stand on their own platform rather than this backdoor approach to politics of being elected for one party then defecting to another...So UKIP was good enough for him to lead, not good enough for him to follow!..Interesting that a party committed to plain speaking should have a Latin name!..Every opinion poll points to an overwhelming anti-Europe feeling in this country. Kilroy-Silk could be on the verge of something huge if he can broaden his appeal beyond this one issue. He is an extremely able communicator with years of political experience. We wants quality schools, top hospitals, clean and efficient public transport, punishments that fit the crime, limited asylum, a purge on bureaucracy and less taxes. It needs courage and honesty, two qualities sadly lacking in our politicians. Kilroy-Silk may just have those very qualities. Recruit the right colleagues, Robert, and your time may have come!..Well if you cannot get enough limelight being an ordinary MP then go out and start up your own Party. It's all flash and no real policy here..Let's hope this is the start of both UKIP and Kilroy-Silk slipping into obscurity...Veritas? The name will doom it. But perhaps I am wrong for surely all modern schoolchildren will understand it since they do still learn Latin in the classroom do they not? The whole essence of what RKS represents is Euroscepticism, so explain to me how the too-twee label of Veritas symbolises that?",politics
"Blair 'damaged' by Blunkett row..A majority of voters (68%) believe the prime minister has been damaged by the row over David Blunkett's involvement in a visa application, a poll suggests...But nearly half those surveyed said Mr Blunkett should return to Cabinet if Labour won the next election. Some 63% of respondents in the Sunday Times poll thought his former lover - Kimberly Quinn - acted vindictively and 61% that he had been right to resign. YouGov polled a weighted sample of 1,981 voters online on 16-18 December. Mr Blunkett resigned as Home Secretary on Wednesday after an inquiry uncovered an e-mail showing a visa application by Mrs Quinn's former nanny had been speeded up. Sir Alan Budd's inquiry also found Mr Blunkett's account of events had been wrong. Almost a quarter (21%) of those polled for the Sunday Times said he should return to the Cabinet straight after the election. One in four said he should be back in the Government's top ranks within a year or two while 39% opposed a comeback...Three-quarters said Mr Blunkett was right to go to court for the right to see Mrs Quinn's son - whom he says he fathered - and just 14% voiced sympathy for Mrs Quinn. A total of 53% of those polled said they had sympathy for Mr Blunkett, with 40% saying they did not. Forty-three per cent thought Mr Blunkett had done a good job as home secretary and 17% disagreed. Meantime, 32% said Mr Blair was a good prime minister and 38% disagreed. A majority, 52%, said Chancellor Gordon Brown had done a good job and just 16% disagreed...A second poll for the Independent on Sunday found that support for all political parties remained largely unchanged after the Blunkett controversy. Labour lead the Conservatives by 39% to 34% with the Liberal Democrats on 19%. CommunicateResearch interviewed 401 people before David Blunkett's resignation and 601 afterwards. Some 82% said Mr Blunkett had set a good example by wanting to take responsibility for the child he says is his, but 42% backed his legal action compared to 45% who thought it was unbecoming. Thirty per cent said the affair showed Mr Blunkett could not be trusted as a minister while 63%, disagreed.",politics
"MP's shock at long lost daughter..Labour MP Stephen Pound has told of his shock and his joy on learning he fathered a daughter when he was ""out of control"" during the ""wild"" 1960s...Lucy, 36, tracked down Mr Pound after her birth mother told her he was known as ""Precious"" at school. Despite being told he was a ""nutter who died at sea"" she found a reference to Mr Pound on Friends Reunited. Lucy's mother kept her pregnancy secret and had her adopted at four weeks. Mr Pound found out about it last year. That happened when Lucy wrote to his Parliamentary office saying she believed he was her father...Mr Pound, who is now married with two other teenage children, said: ""I was a nutter and I was a sailor but I wasn't dead."" He said his first reaction was to wonder if he was victim of a ""set-up"" but he then realised all the dates fitted. ""It was a pretty horrible thing with a pretty happy ending. I felt guilt in the marrow of my bones,"" said the Ealing North MP. ""I don't blame Lucy's mother. I was pretty much out of control. I was 18 when she was conceived. It was a different time - it was pretty wild.""..Mr Pound says he rang Lucy as soon as he got her letter, they met up and have been in contact ever since. Describing that first meeting at London's King Cross station, he said: ""The earth went from under my feet ... We were walking across the Euston Road and I took her arm to take her across and there was an immediate connection. ""We were finishing each other sentences."" Lucy, who was adopted by a family from Essex, wants to remain anonymous for the sake of her adoptive father and her children. Mr Pound said his wife Maggie had been fully supportive and their two children Emily, 16, and Pelham, 14 were pleased to have an older sister.",politics
"Green fear for transport ballot..The Green Party is concerned thousands of residents may not be able to vote in Edinburgh's transport referendum...Edinburgh City Council is to ballot constituents on proposals to introduce congestion charging in the capital. But Green MSP Mark Ballard fears people not on the council's edited electoral register may miss out. Local authorities can only send ballot papers to those on the edited list over non-statutory matters, such as the transport referendum. Therefore, residents who have exercised their right to have their details left off the list could miss the chance to vote...However, there is still time for those who are not on the list to contact the council and make sure they are sent ballot forms ahead of February's voting deadline. Mr Ballard said: ""This vote will set the future of transport in Edinburgh for decades to come. ""It is therefore vital that as many residents as possible in Edinburgh City and the surrounding areas, are registered to vote in the ballot. ""Many people are not aware that they may miss out on their chance to have a say. ""Everyone involved in this debate - both for and against - wants the ballot to be as fair and representative as possible, and that means encouraging people to take part."" The ballot will ask residents to vote for or against the council's proposed congestion charge scheme and a host of transport improvements to be funded by it. The outcome of the referendum will be known next month after the ballot forms are sent out and returned to the council. Towards the end of February, the council will meet to decide whether to proceed with an application to Scottish ministers for approval for its planned congestion charging scheme and the other parts of its transport package.",politics
"New drink limit 'would cut toll'..More lives than previously thought could be saved by cutting drink-drive limits by a third, a report says...University College London research claims cutting the limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg would save 65 lives a year. The findings are being published by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety as MPs are due to vote on the government's Road Safety Bill. The bill includes changes to speeding fines but not to the drink-drive limit. The research, carried out by transport expert professor Richard Allsop, says cutting the limit would also lead to 230 fewer serious injuries on the UK's roads compared with 2003. He estimates that this would save the country £119m a year...A previous estimate, contained in a 1998 Department of Transport Document, suggested such a move could save 50 lives a year. The findings are based on the assumption that drivers who currently keep below the legal limit would continue to do so were it to be lowered and that those who tend to exceed the limit slightly would also lower their drinking. Professor Allsop said: ""Reducing the limit from 80mg to 50mg can be expected to save around 65 lives a year or around half of those who die in accidents where the driver's BAC [blood alcohol content] is within 30mg of the current limit. ""Only about one in 50 of those driving during weekend evenings and nights will need to moderate their drinking to achieve this and fewer still at other times.""..Ministers do not support a lower limit, saying it is not clear it would have a major impact on drink drive casualties. They believe educating drivers is more important. The AA Motoring Trust said it was not sure what affect dropping the limit would have on drivers' attitudes to drink-driving. Road safety head Andrew Howard said: ""It remains to be seen whether the social disapproval of the drinking driver will stay at the current rate if the alcohol limit is cut...""Parliamentarians need to consider this carefully. Britons police themselves by consensus much more effectively than they do by weight of enforcement alone."" Liberal Democrat transport spokesman John Thurso said drink-driving remained a ""major killer"", with figures showing a worrying rise in the number of accidents involving drivers who had been drinking. He said there had been a 29% drop in the number of drivers being breathalysed since 1997, which he said the government needed to address if it wanted to reduce the danger caused by drink-driving. The Road Safety Bill, which gets its second reading on Tuesday, would allow the results of roadside breath tests to be used in court - currently a blood test is needed. It also includes plans for a staggered speeding fines and points system, penalising drivers who exceed limits by a wide margin more than those who are caught going just over. These have been criticised by road safety campaigners, including Labour backbencher Gwyneth Dunwoody, who says it will reduce the incentive for drivers to stay within the limits in residential areas, leading to more road casualties. In an article for the Times newspaper, Ms Dunwoody, who chairs the Transport Select Committee, says: ""Slight increases to low car speeds increase hugely the risks to pedestrians and cyclists. ""It is quite simple: if you hit someone at 30mph, they have a 50 per cent chance of survival. If you are going at 40mph, nine times out of ten they will die.""",politics
"CSA 'could close', says minister..Ministers would not rule out scrapping the Child Support Agency if it failed to improve, Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson has warned...But he said replacing the controversial CSA would be ""the nuclear option"". A report by the Commons work and pensions committee called for the agency to be wound up unless it improved its service within weeks. Chairman Sir Archy Kirkwood said: ""If the agency cannot be rescued, then it must be replaced.""..The committee reached its conclusions after it found that nearly 250,000 cases have yet to be processed. It warned that it could be five years before the CSA was ""fit for purpose"", describing it as ""a failing organisation"" and ""in crisis"" with parents facing payment delays and inaccurate maintenance calculations. The report urged the CSA to draw up contingency plans, including the ""abandonment option"", to be presented to Parliament by Easter, in case the CS2 computer system could not be made to work...And responding to calls for the agency to be scrapped, Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""I certainly wouldn't rule out the nuclear option of moving to a completely new system. ""But I think the select committee would agree with me we would only do that when we were absolutely convinced that this system just isn't going to work.""..The MPs launched their inquiry into the CSA's performance after it became clear that, despite the introduction of a simpler system of calculating maintenance payments for new cases in 2003, a backlog of claims was building up. The MPs found the £456m system from American IT giant EDS was ""nowhere near being fully functional and the number of dissatisfied, disenchanted and angry customers continues to escalate"". Faced with the committee's criticism, the government has suspended its plan to cut the agency's staff by 25%. The CSA has been surrounded in controversy since its introduction in 1993 to assess and enforce child support payments by absent parents...It is currently chasing outstanding payments of more than £720m, while a further £947m has been designated as ""unrecoverable""...Michelle, a mother of twins, said she had not received a penny of the £57 a week she should be receiving from her ex-partner and had faced an ""on-going battle"" with the CSA. Her forms have twice been lost in the post, she said. ""I don't receive correspondence, I don't receive phone calls, I have to chase them all the time,"" she said. Theresa May, Tory shadow work and pensions secretary, said: ""We have got to find a way that's going to ensure those payments get through to the people who are due them."" The agency's former chief executive Doug Smith quit last autumn claiming he was ""seriously disappointed"" with its performance. The committee said the National Audit Office should investigate why the EDS system had gone so badly wrong. It blamed the agency's senior management for a ""multitude of problems"" within the agency, including for an apparent lack of training of frontline staff.",politics
"Boothroyd calls for Lords speaker..Betty Boothroyd has said the House of Lords needs its own Speaker and that peers should lead the way on reforming the upper chamber...Baroness Boothroyd, who was the first woman to be Commons Speaker, said she believed Tony Blair initiated reforms without a clear outcome in mind. ""Now we have to take care of it ourselves and make the best of it,"" she told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost. In 1999 Labour removed all but 92 of the Lords' 750 hereditary peers. That was billed as the first stage of reform of the institution. The lord chancellor hinted further reforms could be unveiled in the next Labour manifesto...""I think we need to look very carefully at the relationship between the Lords and the Commons,"" Lord Falconer told BBC1's Breakfast With Frost. ""How it interacts with the Commons is a very, very important issue. ""We need to address the issue in the manifesto, but you will have to wait for when the manifesto comes."" The lord chancellor currently has the role of House of Lords speaker. He is also head of the judiciary and a member of the Cabinet as constitutional affairs secretary...Lady Boothroyd said she believed it was unacceptable for the lord chancellor to have the role of Speaker. ""I would really like to see a Speaker of the House of Lords,"" she said. ""I don't go for the idea of somebody - a lord chancellor - who is head of the judiciary, a senior Cabinet minister and Speaker of the Lords. ""I want somebody there who is going to look after that House and do a job there.",politics
"Bid to cut court witness stress..New targets to reduce the stress to victims and witnesses giving evidence in courts in England and Wales have been announced by the lord chancellor...Lord Falconer wants all crown courts and 90% of magistrates' courts to have facilities to keep witnesses separate from defendants within four years. More video links will also be made available so that witnesses do not have to enter courtrooms. It is part of a five-year plan to help build confidence in the justice system...Ministers say the strategy is aimed at re-balancing the court system towards victims, and increasing the number of offenders brought to justice. Launching the Department for Constitutional Affairs' plan, Lord Falconer said: ""One of the top priorities will be a better deal for victims. ""The needs and safety of victims will be at the heart of the way trials are managed...""Courts, judges, magistrates, prosecutors, police and victim support - all working together to ensure the rights of victims are put first, without compromising the rights of the defendant."" He went on: ""Giving evidence is a nerve-wracking experience, especially when you're a victim. ""Yet with a will and with support it can be done."" Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was impossible for some elderly people to go to court to give evidence. Other witnesses could be intimidated by sitting alongside defendants outside courts. ""You are never going to get rid of some element of the trauma of giving evidence,"" he said. ""But you can make people believe that the courts understand the problem, it's not some kind of alien place where they go where they are not thinking about them.""..The plan comes as the lord chancellor also considers allowing cameras into courts for the first time since 1925, as long as they were used for cases that did not involve witnesses. Another feature of the strategy is constitutional reform, with a government bill to set up a supreme court and a judicial appointments commission returning to the House of Lords on Tuesday. Ministers had proposed getting rid of the title of lord chancellor, but the Lords have over-ruled this. Lord Falconer said it was right for the highest court to be completely distinct from Parliament. The person in charge of the court system should not also be speaker of the House of Lords, he said, and should be the best person chosen from either House of Parliament. What they did, not what they were called, was the critical issue, he added.",politics
"Lord Scarman, 93, dies peacefully..Distinguished lawyer Lord Scarman, who conducted the inquiry into the 1981 Brixton riots, has died aged 93...The peer enjoyed a celebrated judicial career, serving as Law Commission chairman in its first seven years. He also chaired the 1969 tribunal set up to investigate civil disturbances in Northern Ireland. Paying tribute, the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said Lord Scarman was one of the ""great advocates of our generation""...""His legacy from his decisions in the Lords and the Court of Appeal is substantial. ""His work in the wake of the Brixton riots and his commitment to the vulnerable and dispossessed was second to none...""A great judge, a great lawyer and a great man."" Lord Scarman's nephew George Ritchie said the peer, who passed away peacefully on Wednesday, would be ""sadly missed""...The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, who is the most senior judge in England and Wales, said it was Lord Scarman's ""pioneering work"" which paved the way for the Human Rights Act 1998. ""He was a lawyer and a judge who had a remarkable insight into human nature, and an exceptional sensitivity to the needs of a healthy society,"" he said. ""He was, personally, totally charming and he will be remembered with great affection and admiration by all who came into contact with him.""..Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the president of the Family Justice Division, said Lord Scarman was a ""good and humane judge"" and one of the greatest figures of the late 20th century. Lord Scarman will be remembered for the public inquiry he led into a string of race riots which began in Brixton when racial tensions rose after a police crackdown on street robbery. During the following three days of disturbances that spread to the Midlands, Merseyside, Bristol and Leeds, nearly 400 people were injured and buildings and vehicles were set alight...The inquiry famously settled on the so-called ""rotten apples"" theory, which argued that only a few police officers were racist, saying most were not. It spawned new law enforcement practices and led to the creation of the Police Complaints Authority. Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, praised Lord Scarman's ""ability to listen"". He said: ""When Lord Scarman toured the streets of Brixton his presence was electrifying. ""A community which had been systematically ignored by everyone else was suddenly embraced by the epitome of the English establishment. ""His great quality was the ability to listen to young people of all backgrounds, many of whose language he could barely understand, genuinely to hear what they had to say and to talk to them as human beings. ""He never lost the special combination of wisdom, humanity and the spark of radicalism that marked his watershed report into the Brixton riots.""",politics
"Tory leader urges Harry apology..Prince Harry should personally make clear how sorry he is about wearing a Nazi uniform to a friend's fancy dress party, says Tory leader Michael Howard...Mr Howard, whose grandmother died in Auschwitz, said many people would be offended by the prince's actions Clarence House has issued a statement saying the prince has apologised and realised it had been a poor costume. Number 10 said an error was made but now Harry had apologised the matter should be left to the palace. That was a message repeated by Home Secretary Charles Clarke who said the matter should now be left to lie...But Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said Harry was in a privileged position and said he should apologise in person. ""There is a reservoir of goodwill for Prince Harry, and Prince William with him, in this country, but I think he needs to remember that it can't last forever."" He added that Sandhurst would probably be good for Harry as it would teach him some self discipline. Former Labour MP Lord Janner, who is a high profile member of Britain's Jewish community, branded Harry's action's ""stupid and evil"". He told ITV: ""The time has come for him to make a public apology. It is about common decency, of respect to the people who fought the Nazis, to the families of those who were killed by the Nazis and to people who suffered during the Holocaust."" He added: ""I would send him in the army as fast as possible. I hope that would teach him not to behave like that.""..A photograph of Prince Harry wearing a swastika armband and German desert uniform at the party appears in Thursday's Sun newspaper under the headline: ""Harry the Nazi."" Mr Howard acknowledged the prince's apology and said he had no doubt the prince's father and family would have much to say to him privately about the incident. But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""It might be appropriate to tell us himself just how contrite he is."" Mr Howard declined to say what form the statement should take. But former Buckingham Palace press spokesman Dicky Arbiter said the prince should make a personal, broadcast apology. Mr Clarke said he recognised people's concerns about the costume but argued: ""He has apologised and I think we should leave the matter there.""",politics
"NHS waiting time target is cut..Hospital waiting times for patients in Wales are to be cut, but not to the same extent as those in England...Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt said no patient would wait more than 12 months for an outpatient appointment by March 2006, against a current target of 18 months. But she said the target for an inpatient appointment would remain at 12 months for March 2006. The announcement came as new monthly waiting figures showed a drop. This current inpatient target was set when the assembly government extended its second offer guarantee scheme, which gives patients the option of having their treatment outside Wales...Details about funding to resource the new targets are expected in the New Year. In England, the current target for inpatients - seeing a consultant to having an operation - is six months. Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh secretary of the British Medical Association (BMA), welcomed the new targets ""to make further and faster progress on waiting lists"". ""However, much remains to be done on waiting lists and waiting times because Wales still lags a long way behind England,"" he said. ""Capacity must be built into the system with sustained investment to ensure that Welsh patients don't receive a worse service than patients over the border."" Health analyst Tony Beddow, from the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care, called the new targets ""reasonably impressive""...On Wednesday, Ms Hutt also announced £264m for health services will be spent reducing waiting times, improving key areas and modernising staff pay structures in Wales...Ms Hutt said major achievements had been made in cutting ""unacceptably long waits for treatment over the past year"". ""We are turning the corner on long waits in Wales. Now we need to see those reductions in long waiters being improved again,"" she said. She added the targets intended to ensure no-one waits more than a year for treatment or to see a consultant. ""But let us not forget two thirds of those waiting for treatment now are waiting less than six months, and these targets affect the small minority of patients in Wales that are waiting far too long."" Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Plaid Cymru health spokesman said: ""It's exactly the same target she set in 1999, with the qualification that it's dependent on a second offer. It's a failed target, from a failed minister..with a failed policy."" For the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams called the new target ""hugely unambitious"". ""It leaves patients in Wales still waiting two years before they're treated."" Conservative health spokesman Jonathan Morgan said: ""We're spending more money but waiting lists have gone through the roof. ""The Audit Commission has said that the money is not being spent efficiently or effectively, and that's quite a criticism."" Meanwhile, the latest monthly waiting list figures showed the total number of people waiting more than 18 months as an inpatient in Wales has fallen by 9.8%. Statistics to the end of November showed a decline since October from 785 to 708. The number waiting over 12 months also fell from 7,613 to 6,630, or 12.9%. Ms Hutt said they were ""excellent figures"". There are 305,775 people on a waiting list of some kind, down from 311,764 last month.",politics
"Tories plan migrant health checks..Non-European Union citizens wanting to work in the UK will have to undergo tests for Tuberculosis and HIV, under plans unveiled by the Conservatives...A positive test for TB would mean visa applications being turned down, while HIV would be dealt with case by case. Leader Michael Howard said the checks on new arrivals would help protect public health and the NHS. Labour said many tests were already done. The Lib Dems warned both parties against ""pandering to prejudice""...The proposals, which would be brought in if the Conservatives won the General Election, would not apply to people coming to the UK for less than six months unless they intended to work in health or childcare or teaching. Mr Howard said the plans were based on policies already in action in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. ""It's very important that we should safeguard the good standards of public health that Britain enjoys,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Government figures suggest TB in England has increased by 25% over the past 10 years. ""Nearly two thirds of people with TB are born abroad,"" said Mr Howard...""I don't think a responsible government can stand aside and do nothing in the face of this problem."" But Mr Howard said the plans would not affect asylum applicants' claims. The proposals include:..- People coming to the UK from outside the EU for between six and 12 months from a ""high incidence TB country"" will have to undergo a chest X-ray.. - People coming to settle in the UK permanently from outside the EU will have to ""demonstrate they have an acceptable standard of health"".. - They will also have to show they are unlikely to be a danger to public health and are unlikely to ""impose significant costs or demands"" on the NHS.. - The tests will include a health check, chest X-rays for TB (except for children and pregnant women) and tests for hepatitis and HIV for over 16-year-olds. Only the discovery of TB will mean people will be automatically denied a visa, other conditions will be dealt with on a ""case by case basis""...There is already some screening in place. Last year 185,000 people were tested for TB at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, only about 200 were found to be infected. And Dr John Moore-Gillon, of the British Lung Foundation, said: ""TB is not simply imported, we are seeing a rise in many sections of the UK-born population as well."" The government says the Tories are ""a bit late"" to the issue. Immigration minister Des Browne quoted its five-year plan for immigration and asylum, as saying: ""We are implementing our existing powers by targeted health screening for TB in high-risk areas at the entry clearance stage. ""Those who are diagnosed would then need to seek treatment at home before being allowed to enter the UK."" Meanwhile Mark Oaten, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: ""This is another worrying step in the war of words over asylum and immigration between Labour and the Conservatives. ""Michael Howard knows perfectly well what bigger game he is playing, and history proves it is a very dangerous one."" Lisa Power, head of policy at Aids charity the Terrence Higgins Trust said the policy was prejudice-based rather than evidence-based. ""In fact, it would be more likely to drive people with health conditions to falsify tests while others gain entry by simple dint of their EU status,"" she said.",politics
"MPs issued with Blackberry threat..MPs will be thrown out of the Commons if they use Blackberries in the chamber Speaker Michael Martin has ruled...The £200 handheld computers can be used as a phone, pager or to send e-mails. The devices gained new prominence this week after Alastair Campbell used his to accidentally send an expletive-laden message to a Newsnight journalist. Mr Martin revealed some MPs had been using their Blackberries during debates and he also cautioned members against using hidden earpieces...The use of electronic devices in the Commons chamber has long been frowned on. The sound of a mobile phone or a pager can result in a strong rebuke from either the Speaker or his deputies. The Speaker chairs debates in the Commons and is charged with ensuring order in the chamber and enforcing rules and conventions of the House. He or she is always an MP chosen by colleagues who, once nominated, gives up all party political allegiances.",politics
"Wales 'must learn health lessons'..The new health minister for Wales says there are lessons to learn from England in tackling waiting lists...Dr Brian Gibbons, on his first full day in the job after Jane Hutt was sacked, admitted ""big challenges"" but insisted the ""essentials"" were in place. But both Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats said Dr Gibbons needed to change policy. Meanwhile Ms Hutt defended her record, saying waiting times and lists were ""only 10% of the health agenda. Dr Gibbons, who was a GP in Blaengwynfi, in the Upper Afan Valley, before becoming AM for Aberavon, said NHS staff wanted a period of consolidation after ""tremendous change and reform"". One of the biggest problems which had faced Ms Hutt during her five-and-a-half years as the assembly's first health minister was the length of waiting lists in Wales...In November the British Medical Association said NHS staff were ""weeping with despair"" as figures showed 311,000 people were waiting for treatment in Wales, up by 2,400 on the previous month. In the same month lists in England were at their lowest for 17 years, with 856,600 people waiting for treatment. Dr Gibbons told Radio Wales: ""There is no doubt that, in managing waiting lists, England has done a lot of very very useful work, and we do need to learn from that.""..But he said the NHS in Wales also needed to create a healthier population rather than respond only to ill health, and a balanced view of priorities was important. ""We do need a consistent across-the-board approach, recognising the patients' experience of how they use the service is going to be, at the end of the day, the main test of how the service is working."" He said NHS staff wanted a period of consolidation after ""tremendous change and reform"". Later, Dr Gibbons praised the work of Ms Hutt, saying he ""agreed with everything she's done"" to change the health service in Wales. Dr Gibbons said he accepted there was a problem, but his job now was to build on the foundations put in place by his predecessor. He also acknowledged that until the waiting list issue was sorted out, the rest of the assembly government's health policy would be overshadowed...Opposition members and some Labour MPs had long called for Ms Hutt's removal after sustained criticism over extended hospital waiting times. First Minister Rhodri Morgan told BBC Wales he had agreed with Ms Hutt in 2003 that she would not be health minister in the run-up to the 2007 elections. ""She's been doing the job for five years and eight months and, apart from Nye Bevan himself, (architect of the NHS), I don't think anybody has ever done the job for so long."" Mr Morgan said he had only told Ms Hutt of the reshuffle on Monday morning, and said the NHS in Wales was Dr Gibbons' ""baby"" now. In response to Dr Gibbons' comments, Ieuan Wyn Jones, leader of the Plaid Cymru group in the assembly, said: ""It is apparent that this reshuffle by the first minister was just changing the deckchairs on a sinking Titanic."" Kisrty Williams, for the Lib Dems, added: ""If the underlying policy is going to continue, then changing the minister will serve no purpose, other than to deflect flak from Labour's MPs,"" she said. Meanwhile Ms Hutt said she hoped ""that the people of Wales would benefit from my investment of the past five years and eight months"" Asked about waiting lists, she said that waiting times and lists were ""only 10% of the health agenda"" and that the Welsh Assembly Government had ""turned the corner"" on the issue.",politics
"UKIP candidate suspended..Eurosceptic party UKIP have suspended a candidate for allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed...John Houston, 54, was due to stand in the East Kilbride seat in Lanarkshire at the next election. But he was suspended after his reported views, including the return of the British Empire, were sent to two Scottish newspapers. UKIP spokesman Mark Croucher said those who selected Mr Houston knew nothing of his views. The episode comes at a difficult time for UKIP, soon after the high-profile departure of MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk. Mr Houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be ""made available to law-abiding members of the community"" and proposed the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. The document reportedly said: ""We're looking for the resurrection of the British Empire. ""The problems for the human race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale, and that calls for a radical alliance of the English-speaking nations, which they are uniquely able to do."" Mr Croucher said the main issue would be that Mr Houston's reported views had been presented as UKIP policy, which they were not. He said they might have been submissions to a committee working on the party's manifesto, but would not have been matched to Mr Houston when he was standing to become a candidate. He told BBC News: ""He appears to have said these things. We have suspended him as a member and as a candidate. ""By all accounts none of this was mentioned at his selection meeting. ""It is simply a distraction from the task in hand, the EU constitution, not individual idiocies."" Mr Houston was quoted in the Herald newspaper saying: ""I feel UKIP have over-reacted and overshot the runway.""..Peter Nielson, who is UKIP Scotland chairman, said he had suspended Mr Houston on Friday night. ""He will remain suspended while the matter is being investigated and then we will decide if and what further action will be taken."" He said that any evidence would be looked into and Mr Houston may be interviewed by the party. He added: ""I can't comment too much at the moment, I have one version from him but I haven't seen the papers yet.""",politics
"End Bush 'denial' Blair tells EU..Tony Blair is urging European leaders to wake up from their ""state of denial"" over President Bush's re-election...""America has spoken. The rest of the world should listen,"" the prime minister said in an interview with The Times newspaper, published on Friday. Mr Blair is at a summit in Brussels, where Iraq and European justice and immigration plans are on the agenda. French President Jacques Chirac reacted to his warning by saying Europe instead needed to reinforce its own unity. Mr Blair has probably been closer to President Bush than any other European leader...He said some people were in ""a sort of state of denial"" about the US election result but predicted a more ""receptive mood"" would emerge soon. America needed to listen to the world too, he said. ""The fact is that President Bush is there for four years. He is there because the American people have chosen him,"" he argued. He also made clear he intended to take seriously what he perceives as his role in bringing the two continents together...Britain was ""uniquely placed"" to make out the common ground because of its strong alliance with the US, he suggested. He admitted he had gone to bed at 2230GMT, well before the American polls closed, thinking Mr Kerry might have won. He woke up at 0530GMT to discover Mr Bush had won but declined to say if he was pleased with the eventual result. His words about President Bush met a cool reception from Jacques Chirac. The French president told reporters: ""Europe today has more than ever the need, the necessity, to reinforce itself and its dynamism and unity. ""That is the goal of the constitution in a world that is more multi-polar than ever.""..Mr Chirac will miss an address to the summit from Iraqi interim leader Iyad Allawi, who this week criticised nations which took a ""spectator"" role to Iraq's reconstruction. Mr Chirac denied there was any snub - he is going to a memorial service for the United Arab Emirates' late leader and says he would be happy to meet Mr Allawi. He also signed a communiqué stressing the EU's commitment to securing a stable and unified Iraq. The EU also confirmed a new $21m aid package. The communiqué congratulated President Bush on his victory and stressed the importance of good transatlantic relations. The summit is also expected to agree changes to streamline European asylum and immigration decisions. Mr Blair recently said the UK would only participate in EU-wide measures where it was in UK interests but the Tories say he is surrendering a key veto. The meeting will also assess progress on the economic reform plans agreed in Lisbon in 2000 to make Europe more competitive.",politics
"Brown to outline presidency goals..Next year will be ""make or break"" for development in poorer countries Gordon Brown will say as he sets out UK goals for its EU and G8 presidencies...The chancellor is due to outline a series of key targets the government will be judged on in 2005. They will include doubling aid from donor countries and eliminating debt owed by the poorest nations. Mr Brown also wants other G8 nations to match his target for overseas aid - spending 0.7% of national income...He also wants the richer countries to do more to help the development of vaccines for Aids and malaria. The chancellor is travelling to America next week as part of his persuasion drive over the issue. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""We need more resources allied to progress on trade and progress on debt relief if we are going to make an impact on the problems of ill health, of illiteracy, of poverty, particularly in Africa but right through the developing countries.""..His proposals were effectively a new ""Marshall Plan"" for the world, including an international finance facility, which would issue bonds in an attempt to double global aid cash to $100bn a year. Agreement in the Doha development talks could also give developing nations the trading ability they needed, he argued. The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy had caused aggravated trade problems, he said, but there was now an agreement to end export subsidies...Mr Brown said much had been achieved on issues such as debt relief in the last seven years. But with 30,000 children were dying unnecessarily every day more was needed, including 100% debt relief multilaterally. ""That is why next year is a test,"" he said. ""If after five years of making promises the world is not prepared to honour them, then people will be justified in saying they promised but they did not produce results."" The Catholic aid agency Cafod will host Mr Brown's speech on Wednesday...Cafod wants Britain to use its influence to pressure countries like the US to make firm commitments to tackle global poverty. Mr Brown said America too needed to take more action but defended President George Bush for guaranteeing resources to countries which introduced reforms to tackle corruption. Oxfam's Paying the Price report this week said 45 million children will die needlessly before 2015 and aid budgets are half their 1960 levels. The charity's director, Barbara Stocking, said: ""2005 offers the chance for an historic breakthrough, but unless world leaders act now the year will end in shameful failure."" The report said the G8 of top industrialised nations had agreed in 1970 to spend 0.7% of their incomes on aid...But 34 years later none of the organisations members had reached this target and many had not yet set a timetable. Mr Blair, who has described Africa as a ""scar"" on the world's conscience, has already said tackling world poverty would be one his G8 priorities along with climate change and the Aids epidemic. But Band Aid founder Bob Geldof in July said he was sick of hearing ""guff"" about scars on the world. It was pathetic that Britain was the 4th richest country in the world but only the 11th most generous aid donor, he added. Conservative shadow international development secretary Alan Duncan accused Mr Brown of missing his target on providing anti-retroviral drug treatment to three million Africans by 2005. Instead, only 500,000 people would benefit, he said. ""There's no point in him demanding praise and adulation for setting a whole new raft of targets when he has so woefully failed to meet the ones he already has,"" added Mr Duncan.",politics
"Brown shrugs off economy fears..Gordon Brown is to freeze petrol duty increases, fund a £1bn package to avoid big council tax rises and boost childcare and maternity leave...In an upbeat pre-Budget report, he slightly increased borrowing but insisted economic targets would be met. The chancellor also hailed the longest period of growth in UK ""industrial history"" but denied he was ""gloating"". But Oliver Letwin, for the Tories, attacked government red tape and debt, dubbing Mr Brown ""Sir Wastealot""...The shadow chancellor said Mr Brown's ""golden rule"" had ""turned to dross in his hands"" and said he was borrowing to spend, not invest, with predicted debt over the coming years totalling £170bn. Mr Letwin told MPs: ""The tide is going out on the chancellor's credibility. He is spending, borrowing and taxing so much because he is not getting value for taxpayer's money.""..Vincent Cable, for the Liberal Democrats, accused Mr Brown of ducking tough choices...He said: ""Last week the prime minister gave us the politics of fear; this week the chancellor has offered the economics of complacency. ""There are serious challenges ahead from the falling dollar and from the rapid downturn in the UK housing market and rising personal debt. But they have not been confronted."" Mr Brown rejected the Lib Dem's call to open up the government's books to the National Audit Office, saying decisions on tax and spending should be made by ministers. Some economists say his forecasts on public finances are wishful thinking. BBC economic editor Evan Davis said the figures were plausible but also a gamble...Mr Brown's insistence he was not ""gloating"" was a pointed rebuttal of a warning from new European Commissioner Peter Mandelson. In his speech, he set out a 10-year childcare strategy for if Labour wins the next election...It includes a £285m cash injection to extend paid maternity leave from six months to nine, with parents able to transfer leave from the mother to the father. He also promised to increase free nursery education for three and four-year-olds to 15 hours from April 2007. And funds would be provided to keep schools open from 0800 to 1800GMT to look after children while their parents were at work. Taken together, the measures would create a ""welfare state that is truly family-friendly for the first time in its history"", said Mr Brown. He also announced a cash hand-out for older pensioners, with payments of £50 for the over-70s as part of the winter fuel allowance. In a move ministers say should keep council tax rises below 5% next year, the chancellor said he was providing an extra £1bn for local councils. The money is expected to come from government departments such as health and education...Mr Brown said he was set to meet his two fiscal rules - to borrow only to invest and keep debt ""low and sustainable"" - both in this economic cycle and the next. Borrowing figures for 2003/4 are £35bn - £2.5bn less than the £37.5bn predicted in March's budget, as already announced by the Office for National Statistics. Borrowing is tipped to fall to £31bn by 2005/06 - but that is still £2bn more than Mr Brown predicted in his March budget. Inflation would be 1.75% next year and 2% in the years to follow, Mr Brown forecast. He also pledged an extra £105m for security and counter-terrorism. Business groups have welcomed efforts to improve competitiveness and invest more in skills and innovation. But there worries about the costs of more family-friendly working. Simon Sweetman, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ""The proposals on maternity leave have clearly been made with a general election in mind and with little thought to the impact on small employers.""",politics
"UK troops on Ivory Coast standby..Downing Street has confirmed British troops are on standby in case they need to help evacuate several hundred UK citizens from Ivory Coast...The news came as it emerged France had begun evacuating its hostages after days of anti-French demonstrations. Trouble flared after nine French peacekeepers were killed and President Jacques Chirac ordered the destruction of the Ivory Coast's air force. A company of 100-120 UK troops is understood to have been put on standby. They are ready to fly out and secure the route from the embassy to the airport if called upon. Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said: ""There are British nationals in Ivory Coast and as you can imagine we are making the usual contingency plans in case the situation deteriorates further, but that's all I can say at this stage.""..He added the situation would be monitored carefully in case evacuation became necessary. France has played a lead role in international peacekeeping in Ivory Coast - a former colony - after President Laurent Gbagbo broke an 18-month ceasefire with rebels bombing their positions and killing the nine French soldiers. The decision to destroy the African nation's small air force prompted riots against French and other foreign nationals. The Spanish have already put their forces on standby to evacuate their nationals if necessary.",politics
"Blair told to double overseas aid..Tony Blair is being urged to use all his negotiating powers to end poor countries' debt and double aid...Some 45 million children will die needlessly before 2015 and aid budgets are half their 1960 levels, Oxfam says in a report, Paying the Price. The call comes as the prime minister prepares to assume the presidency of the G8 of top industrialised nations. ""As rich countries get richer, they're giving less and less. This scandal must stop,"" Oxfam's Barbara Stocking said...""The world's poorest children are paying for rich countries' policies in aid and debt with their lives. ""2005 offers the chance for an historic breakthrough, but unless world leaders act now the year will end in shameful failure,"" the charity's director added. The report said: ""For rich countries, providing aid to help to end global poverty is an obligation and a matter of justice, not an act of charity."" It also points out that in 1970 the G8 of top industrialised nations agreed to spend 0.7% of their incomes on aid. But 34 years later none of the organisations members have reached this target and many have not yet set a timetable, the report says...It argues that the price of not investing in poor countries' sustainable development will be felt across the world. The report said: ""Global poverty threatens our shared prosperity and security. ""Environmental crises and natural disasters, disease and drug trafficking know no national borders. Poverty heightens the likelihood of conflict and unrest. ""New threats to the peace and security of rich nations arise from poverty and gross inequalities. ""Criminal and terrorist networks are more likely to operate where state institutions are weak.""..Both the prime minister and Chancellor Gordon Brown have called for urgent action to fight world poverty. Mr Blair, who has described Africa as a ""scar"" on the world's conscience, has already said tackling world poverty would be one his G8 priorities along with climate change and the Aids epidemic. Mr Brown has also pledged to write off the debt owed to Britain by the world's poor nations. A spokeswoman for the Department for International Development said: ""The government had made a clear commitment to reaching 0.7% of gross national income for overseas development aid by 2013. ""If Britain's proposal for an International Finance Facility were adopted, the objective of 0.7% could be achieved earlier, by 2008-09. ""These additional resources will be used to increase UK bilateral aid to Africa to at least £1.25bn a year by 2008 and spend at least £1.5bn on HIV/Aids related work over the next three years.""",politics
"Peace demo appeal rejected..Peace protestors have lost a landmark appeal over police actions in stopping an anti-war demonstration days after the start of the Iraq war...They had appealed against a High Court decision that it was not unlawful for police to forcibly turn protestors away near RAF Fairford, Glos, in 2003. The police had also sought to overturn a breach of human rights ruling arising from the same case. Sitting on Wednesday, three Appeal Court judges dismissed both appeals. They were challenging decisions by two judges in the High Court in February this year. It followed action by police, when three coachloads of people were searched and detained on the way to RAF Fairford and forced to return to London under police escort. The demonstrators appealed against a finding by Lord Justice May and Mr Justice Harrison that it was not unlawful for the police to turn the passengers away...The police were urging Lord Chief Justice and Lord Justices Clarke and Rix to overturn the ruling that they had breached the protestors' human rights by detaining them in the coaches. Craig Mackey, assistant chief constable of Gloucestershire Police, said: ""We have always considered that our responses were proportionate and all our decisions on the day were based on intelligence."" He said no one on the coaches accepted responsibility for items found on the coaches including body armour, a smoke bomb and five shields. ""Given these circumstances, and the fact that RAF Fairford, and other military installations in the UK, had been the scene of increasingly destructive disorder in the weeks preceding this incident, the police commander on the ground made the decision to turn back the coaches. ""From day one we have vigorously defended this decision, which was made out of a genuine concern that if the coaches were allowed to proceed it would have resulted in disorder and criminal damage at RAF Fairford."" Fairford Coach Action, representing more than 80 people who appealed against the police actions, say they are prepared to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights. Their action is supported by Amnesty International and Liberty.",politics
"Retirement age could be scrapped..The ""myth that ageing is a barrier"" to contributing to society needs to be ""exploded"", the work and pensions minister has said...This was why the government was considering scrapping the retirement age entirely, Alan Johnson said. It was also committed to ""stamping out"" age discrimination and would outlaw it, he told a conference on ageing. All three parties have been wooing older voters with both the Tories and Lib Dems pledging higher pensions...Mr Johnson told Age Concern's Age Agenda in London the government was ""seriously considering"" introducing pensions based on residency rather than national insurance contributions. This idea has been adopted by the Lib Dems as policy, while the Tories have pledged to boost pensions by restoring the link between earnings and pensions. Mr Johnson's speech comes after he last week unveiled plans to find a consensus on how to reform the country's pension system. This would be based on a series of principles including tackling pensioner poverty and fairer pensions for women, he said. Speaking at the London conference he said: ""Generalised stereotypes of people past state pension age as dependant, incapable and vulnerable are a particularly pernicious form of age discrimination""...The government wanted to tackle this by moving to a culture where retirement ages were ""increasingly consigned to the past"". ""We're sweeping them away entirely for people under 65, and we're giving those above that age a right to request to work past 65 which their employers will have to engage with seriously. ""And the review in 2011, which will look at whether it is time to sweep retirement ages away entirely, is to be tied to evidence ... showing that retirement ages are increasingly outmoded"". Mr Johnson said his department had a long-term aspiration of moving towards an 80% employment rate. This would involve an extra one million older people joining the work force, he said.",politics
"Jowell rejects 'Las Vegas' jibe..The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, has hit out at critics of the Gambling Bill...She told the Guardian newspaper there would be no ""Las Vegas-style"" super-casinos, as rumoured in the press. Meanwhile Labour backbencher Stephen Pound labelled casino-related regeneration schemes ""a pile of pants"". The MP for Ealing North claimed the legislation would encourage a mafia-like culture of vice and corruption, in an interview on BBC Radio 4. ""You look at some of the people who are involved...they aren't in there to regenerate Blackpool. They are in it to fill their boots,"" Mr Pound told the Today programme. ""I just really think that we have made a terrible mistake here. And over all of it hangs the shadow of the men in the chalk-stripe suits with names that rhyme with spaghetti,"" he said...Ms Jowell complained of the ""scale of misrepresentation"" in the media over the bill in her interview with the newspaper, her first since the bill was launched. The culture secretary said a four year consultation period had produced a consensus on the need to ""protect children and the vulnerable"" in a swiftly changing sector. Ms Jowell insisted: ""We have a good track record for extracting planning gain in this country, for instance in social housing."" And continued: ""We can be proud to have one of the lowest rates of problem gambling in the world. I intend to keep it that way."" Ms Jowell will set out her position when the Bill is debated in the Commons on Monday. In prime minister's questions last week Tony Blair assured Parliament that 90% of the bill was about tightening up the regulation of the gambling industry.",politics
"Ban on hunting comes into force..Fox hunting with dogs is now illegal in England and Wales after a ban on the activity came into force overnight...The law faces a stiff test this weekend, with the Countryside Alliance saying many hunts will be out in force. Chief police officers spokesman Nigel Yeo said he expected most people would obey the law - by drag hunting or chasing foxes then shooting them. He said police would challenge the ""one of two isolated hunts"" which are threatening to break the law...But Simon Hart of the Countryside Alliance has questioned how police will ensure there are no violations. ""The definitions of legal and illegal hunting are so blurred that the police are being asked to make impossible judgements. ""You can hunt a rat, but not a mouse, a rabbit but not a hare, an artificial scent, but not a real one,"" he said...The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, has so far issued no instructions to police on how they should deal with hunters who violate the law. He said he will consult the Director of Public Prosecutions and the police ""in the near future"" to decide what measures to take with regards to hunting prosecutions. He has rejected a ""blanket policy"" of not enforcing the ban until the House of Lords has considered its legality. John Cooper, a barrister and chairman of the League Against Cruel Sports, said the anti-hunting lobby expects the authorities to prosecute wherever there is clear evidence of illegal hunting practices. He said police had ""acknowledged their duty to investigate allegations of hunting offences""...The Beaufort Hunt had one pack out on Thursday and has promised a hunt this weekend. Under the new law hunters have a number of legal options available to them...As well as being able to mount a hunt for an artificial scent, it will still be legal for the hunts to ""flush out"" foxes, as long as they shoot their quarry rather than set the hounds on them. ""We are not going away. We will keep these hounds going, we will keep this community going and in the end we will come back and hunt when hunting is legal again,"" hunt master, Captain Ian Farquhar, said. But Tony Banks, Labour MP for West Ham, said the issue would soon disappear, and that ""people in a few years time will be wondering what it was all about"". He said had the government not prevaricated since 1997 in introducing the ban, hunting with dogs would have passed into history like other former country pursuits such as otter hunting and badger baiting. ""Let the election decide this because the Conservatives have made clear that if they get elected into government they will restore hunting,"" he said.",politics
"Blair says UK tsunami aid to soar..Tony Blair has predicted the British Government will eventually give ""hundreds of millions"" of pounds in aid to countries hit by the tsunami...The prime minister was speaking publicly for the first time since returning from his holiday in Egypt. Mr Blair insisted he had been ""intimately involved"" in ""all decisions at all times"" despite being abroad. He was speaking before the UK joins a three-minute silence at noon across the EU for the estimated 150,000 dead...The Foreign Office says 41 Britons are now confirmed to have died in the Tsunami which struck south Asia on Boxing Day, with 158 others missing. Asked about criticism that he did not cut short his holiday, Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""I don't think this is a situation in which the British people need me to articulate what they feel...""I think they feel - as we all do - shock, horror, and absolute solidarity with those people who have lost their lives."" The important thing was action and not words, he said, adding that of the £50m given by the government so far only ""six or seven million"" had been spent. It would become easier in the coming weeks to assess just how much money would have to be put in. ""My estimate is we will need to spend from government several hundred million pounds. So we will far and away more than match the generosity of the British people,"" he said. Asked whether he had not returned to work immediately because he was under doctors orders to rest, Mr Blair said there was also a story he had been away for plastic surgery. ""As you can see unfortunately I am still looking the same as I always did,"" he joked...The prime minister took personal charge of the UK's response on Tuesday, chairing a meeting of the emergency committee of ministers that has convened daily since Boxing Day. He also spoke on the telephone to US President George Bush, and the presidents of Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Chancellor Gordon Brown earlier backed a plan to freeze the foreign debts of all the affected nations...Mr Brown, who was not at the Downing Street meeting, says he has been in ""intensive talks"" with other G8 finance ministers. Germany proposed a freeze last week and Canada has begun its own moratorium. The chancellor said the plan would initially save the most affected countries about $3bn (£1.58bn) in repayments. Tory leader Michael Howard also backed the proposals but said ministers had been ""playing catch-up"" with public donations...Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is to visit Thailand and Indonesia this week. During his trip, Mr Straw will represent the G8 at the international conference called in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday. On Friday, he will visit the Thai beach resort of Phuket, where British families are still searching for relatives...International Development Secretary Hilary Benn will also visit Aceh in Indonesia, as well as Sri Lanka. The British public has now pledged £76m in aid with emergency supplies from the British government starting to arrive in the region on three RAF flights in a joint operation with Scandinavian countries. Two ships - the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Diligence and frigate HMS Chatham - have arrived in the disaster area. A second Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel, the Bayleaf, is also being sent. UK charities have also begun chartering planes to deliver aid.... - A BBC News Special: Asia Remembered, including the three-minutes silence, will be shown on BBC One and BBC News 24 from 1130 to 1215 GMT on Wednesday.",politics
"Straw attacked on China arms..Moves to lift the European Union's ban on arms exports to China have been condemned by human rights groups and the Conservatives...The 15 year embargo was imposed in the aftermath of China's crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who will hold talks in Beijing on Thursday, said an EU arms code was more effective than the current ban. But Human Rights Watch says the EU is putting commerce above abuse concerns...In December, the EU pledged to work towards lifting the ban but said it was not ready to do so yet. Germany and France have repeatedly called for the embargo to be lifted. Britain has been more cautious but Mr Straw last week said he also wanted it to end, despite US objections...He expects it to be lifted over the next six months, a prediction which has alarmed critics. Brad Adams, from Human Rights Watch, said: ""This is a huge political signal from Europe that they are willing to forget about Tiananmen Square. ""There are still thousands of people who are unaccounted for.""..Mr Straw said it was wrong to put China under the same embargo as countries such as Zimbabwe and Burma. The scope of the embargo was very narrow and did not have any force of law behind it, he told BBC Radio 4's World At One. In the UK, more export licences were refused under the existing European Union arms code than under the embargo, he said. And only two of the licences denied under the embargo would have been granted under the code. ""The code of conduct is much more effective, it's a more powerful tool of and we intend to strengthen it as a pre-condition of lifting the embargo with China,"" he said...Mr Straw denied the decision would suggest to China that Tiananmen Square had been forgotten. The level of human rights was a key criteria under the EU arms exports code, he said. Human rights groups say the code of conduct is not legally binding - but Mr Straw said it would be given legal force by the laws of many EU countries. Conservative shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said the move would be ""profoundly wrong"". The decision could undermine Nato as it severely damaged relations with the US, which is opposed to ending the ban...Mr Ancram argued: ""What the British Government is doing is giving in to French and German pressure, especially the French, who see vast contracts available to them if the embargo is lifted... ""It gives the wrong signals to China, who are simply not prepared to accept that what happened at Tiananmen Square was wrong."" Mr Straw's China trip is part of regular high-level meetings with Beijing ministers. He will meet Chinese counterpart Minister Li Zhaoxing to discuss developing relations between their two countries, Hong Kong and China's part in the talks on North Korea.",politics
"Defiant hunts put ban to the test..Thousands of hunt supporters have been out on the first day of hunting in England and Wales after the ban on hunting with dogs came into force...The Countryside Alliance called on hunt supporters to meet as normal, but vowed to stay within the law. Although hunting with dogs is now a criminal offence, exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal. One anti-hunt protester was taken to hospital after a violent clash in Kent...The man suffered facial injuries after an incident involving a group of men at the end of the East Kent Hunt, near Ashford. In Wiltshire, police arrested four men under the new law suspected of hunting with dogs. The group, from South Wales and Ireland, have been released on bail but police say they may face prosecution under new poaching laws...It is believed more than 270 hunts went out on Saturday, just one day after the ban came in...They were greeted by big crowds in many areas of the country, with actor Jeremy Irons and former minister Kate Hoey among the supporters. Anti-hunt groups - such as the League Against Cruel Sports - deployed 100 monitors at hunts to check for illegal activity...Mike Hobday, from the league, said video evidence of the law being broken was to be passed onto police. ""Our evidence suggests that most hunts did operate within the law, many meeting and promptly going home and others peacefully exercising their hounds or drag hunting. ""However, we have received reports of what we believe is clearly illegal activity by a number of hunts across Britain."" BBC correspondent Simon Hall at Postbridge on Dartmoor in the West Country said 2,000 people had turned out to welcome the hunt...And the BBC's Sarah Mukherjee, with the Beaufort Hunt in Badminton, Gloucestershire said several hundred people had gathered on foot to see the hunt, with 150 on horseback. Tom Heap, BBC rural affairs correspondent, said it appeared that hunstman had, for now, been sticking to the new rules. And while there was big turnout in support of the hunts on Saturday, he said it remains to be seen if the level of backing can be maintained...Before riding out with the hunt, former minister Kate Hoey told crowds: ""We will prevail and this law will have to be overturned."" Judith Moritz, in Melton Mowbray, said anti-hunt activists were out to monitor the four hunts operating in that part of Leicestershire, but were outnumbered by large crowds of followers. The Countryside Alliance said the meets would show the new law was ""impossibly difficult to determine"" and open to different interpretations...Chief executive Simon Hart said: ""There has been hunting in England for 700 years. This [ban] may take two or three years, perhaps two or three months, to unpick. ""It will be nothing more than a temporary break in normal service, as broadcasters say."" Conservative family spokeswoman Theresa May said if the party was in government again it would make sure the law was repealed. Suffolk Chief Constable Alastair McWhirter, the Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman on rural policing, told the BBC the law would be enforced, although the police would not break up hunts. The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has so far not issued any instructions to police on how they should deal with any hunters who do violate the law. He said he would consult the director of public prosecutions and the police ""in the near future"" to decide what measures to take on hunting prosecutions.",politics
"EU fraud clampdown urged..EU member states are failing to report fraud and irregularities in EU funds on a consistent basis, the UK's public spending watchdog has said...The National Audit Office said although the latest figures showed reported fraud was falling, the EU still had no common definition of fraud. It also expressed concern that, for the 10th year, the European Court of Auditors had qualified the EU accounts. The NAO urged the government to push for improvements in reporting fraud. It said member states needed to be more accountable on how money was spent. The report said: ""Member states still do not report fraud and other irregularities to the European Anti-Fraud Office on a consistent basis...""As the court has now qualified its opinion on the Community accounts for a decade, it is essential for all the authorities involved to contribute to the strengthening of the audit of EU revenue and expenditure and improving accountability for the financial management and use of EU resources."" It said there were 922 cases of reported fraud or irregularities in EU funds in the UK in 2003, worth £38.5m (52m euros), up from 831 cases worth £35.7m in 2002. At the same time, reported fraud throughout the EU dropped from 10,276 cases worth £808m to 8,177 cases worth £644m. Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said Britain had to set an example when it assumed the EU presidency...""Any fraud in other member states is potentially fraud against the UK taxpayer, given that we are the second largest net contributor to the Community,"" he said. ""Departments responsible for administering EU funds need to make sure that they're doing everything possible to weed out improper spending. ""The government must take the opportunity afforded by the UK presidency of the EU to press the Commission and other member states to take an equally robust stance against fraud and irregularity, and raise overall standards of financial management."" A spokesman for the European Anti-Fraud Office said the organisation agreed with the NAO's assessment of fraud reporting. ""The quality of reporting does differ from member state to member state, and there is room for improvement,"" spokesman Jorg Wojahn said. He added that there is generally good co-operation with member states and the anti-fraud office on specific cases of fraud, with the statistics studied by NAO providing a ""good overview for planning strategic ways of detecting fraud"".",politics
"Straw praises Kashmir moves..The UK has welcomed the decision by India and Pakistan to open a bus link across the ceasefire line dividing the disputed region of Kashmir...Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, touring South East Asian countries, praised the ""spirit of cooperation"" in achieving the breakthrough. Media reports in both countries describe the deal as a major step in the ongoing peace process. Mr Straw said he hoped the agreement would make a difference to Kashmiris. The bus service was one of several announcements made after a meeting of foreign ministers of both countries in Islamabad on Wednesday. Kashmiri politicians on both sides of the Line of Control which divides the region welcomed the move...In a statement, Mr Straw said the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad ""will be able to reunite families that have been divided for decades"". ""This will make a real difference to the lives of Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control,"" he said. ""I warmly applaud the efforts of both India and Pakistan to make this happen. ""This spirit of cooperation will, I hope, lead to many more measures that will benefit all in the region.""..On Thursday Mr Straw was in India visiting Sikhism's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar where he tried his hand at making Indian bread or roti. He is due to take part in talks with the Indian government on Friday. A second bus service linking the Pakistani city of Lahore with Amritsar in India was also announced as well as a rail link between Rajasthan state and Pakistan's Sindh province. Both sides agreed to begin talks on reducing the risk of nuclear accidents and also said they planned to reopen their respective consulates in Karachi and Mumbai (Bombay). The mountainous region of Kashmir has been a flashpoint between the two nuclear powers for more than 50 years.",politics
"UK helps raped Rwandan women..Britain is to give a £4m grant to help women survivors of the Rwandan genocide who were raped and often deliberately infected with HIV/Aids...An estimated 25,000 girls and women were raped during the 1994 genocide. About 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias after the assassination of an ethnic Hutu leader. The five-year Department for International Development funding will enable more survivors to have access to anti-retroviral treatment...The plight of the infected women was overshadowed for a long time. It was overshadowed by Rwanda's emergence from the 100 days of slaughter, during which time the mass killings took place, and the women's fate was largely a taboo subject. But many of the women were widowed and they now not only have their own children to care for but, in many cases, orphans too...As the women die, the number of Rwanda's orphans rises. Until recently, very few of the women have had access to anti-retroviral treatment. That is now starting to change. This funding is intended to make anti-retrovirals and other care available for some 2,500 women. Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, founder of the Survivors Fund (SURF), one of the organisations through which the funds are being channelled, said it was a recognition, before it was too late, that the survivors should be a priority for help.",politics
"Howard denies split over ID cards..Michael Howard has denied his shadow cabinet was split over its decision to back controversial Labour plans to introduce ID cards...The Tory leader said his front bench team had reached a ""collective view"" after holding a ""good discussion"", but admitted it was ""not an easy issue"". He had decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror, crime and illegal immigration. The Lib Dems have pledged to oppose the bill when it is debated next Monday...Tory sources say senior party figures had argued vociferously against the ID card scheme. Among those reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members David Davis, Oliver Letwin and Tim Yeo. But Mr Howard denied Mr Yeo, his transport and environment spokesman, said the plans ""stink"". He also said he was confident shadow home secretary Mr Davis would ""set out the position very clearly"" when he stands up to debate the matter next week. Mr Howard said the police had said ID cards could ""help them foil a terror bomb plot in which people could lose their lives"". He added: ""When the police say that you have to take them seriously""...He acknowledged there were ""good libertarian arguments"" against the cards, but said the shadow Cabinet had weighed up all the ""conflicting interests"" before reaching its decision. ""I don't pretend that it is an easy decision but at the end of the day a decision has to be taken."" He also denied he was afraid of looking ""soft"" on the issue, compared to Labour. The Conservatives announced their support for the government plans on Monday evening...Sources within the party told the BBC Mr Howard had always been in favour of ID cards, and tried to introduce them when he was Home Secretary. But the Tories insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme...They said they would also press Labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the Home Office would be able to deliver them. And they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of ID cards and whether people's privacy would be properly protected. ""It is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect,"" a spokesman said. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten has branded the ID scheme a waste of money and ""deeply flawed"". He said: ""This has all the signs of Michael Howard overruling colleagues' concerns over ID cards.""..The chairman of the Bar Council, Guy Mansfield QC warned there was a real risk that people on the ""margins of society"" would be driven into the hands of extremists. ""What is going to happen to young Asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere? They are going to be stopped. If they haven't [ID cards] they are going to be detained."" Tory ex-minister Douglas Hogg said he opposed the plans for ID cards branding them a ""regressive"" step which would intrude into the lives of ordinary citizens without any counterbalancing benefits. He predicted ultimately carrying the cards would become compulsory and that would lead to large numbers of Britain's ethnic minorities being stopped by police.",politics
"EU referendum question unveiled..The question to be asked in the referendum on the EU Constitution has been unveiled by the government...It will be: ""Should the United Kingdom approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the European Union?"" The constitution will be incorporated into UK law if there is a yes vote in the referendum, expected in 2006. Critics say the constitution is a further step towards a federal Europe, but advocates say it ensures effective operation of the enlarged 25-state EU. ""If we reject this treaty, Britain will be isolated and weak in Europe,"" said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who along with the rest of the Cabinet, will back a ""yes"" vote...Patriots by definition wanted the UK to be prosperous at home and strong and influential abroad, Mr Straw said. ""Our role as a leading member of the EU is a crucial part of securing that.""..Conservative shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said the referendum question ""seems straightforward"". But he accused the government of trying to confuse the issue by putting the EU referendum question in the same bill as the ratification of the constitution, when they should be treated as ""two separate issues"". Despite this ""underhand trick,"" the referendum bill stood ""no chance of becoming law before the election,"" he added. ""This is Tony Blair's cheap gesture to the pro-constitution lobby while he runs scared of a debate on Europe he knows he cannot win."" Neil O'Brien, director of anti-constitution group Vote No, said: ""The reality is that the government doesn't want to discuss the EU constitution ahead of the election because they know it is extremely unpopular with voters and with business.""..The UK Independence Party said: ""If the government believes that a No vote would mean that we should leave the European Union, they should just ask us if we want to leave the EU. Then we can be out of it and better off much sooner.""..Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, who backs the constitution, said he expected the referendum would come in the first half of next year. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""The sooner we get on with this, the better."" He said the question sounded ""very neutral"" and ""balanced,"" adding it would enable the argument ""to be enjoined fairly and squarely on both sides"". Green MEP Caroline Lucas welcomed Tony Blair's ""courage in keeping his word"" on holding a referendum. But she added: ""This treaty is a flawed document that will make the EU less accountable, less sustainable, and less just.""..Mr Blair signed the constitution at a ceremony in Rome in November, but had already made it clear the issue would be put to voters in a referendum. That promise came after sustained pressure from opposition parties. Jack Straw, who argues the constitution reflected a ""British vision for Europe"" and gives ""national governments a stronger grip"", has said the referendum could be held in spring 2006. But in an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Blair refused to be pinned down to that date, saying Britain would hold a poll ""some time in 2006 but when, I don't know"". The paper said the prime minister ""claimed ignorance"" of when other countries were planning to hold their referendums.",politics
"Malik rejects all-black MP lists..A call for ethnic minority shortlists to boost the number of black and Asian MPs has been rejected by one of Labour's most senior Asians...Shahid Malik, who is on Labour's ruling NEC, accepted people's frustration but said there should be targets not lists to boost representation of minorities. Just 13 of Britain's 659 MPs are from ethnic minority groups, he added. Commission for racial equality chief Trevor Phillips argued on Sunday the time had come for such shortlists. That came after it emerged that one of Britain's most ethnically diverse constituency, West Ham, was to get a women-only shortlist for the next election following an NEC ruling...Mr Phillips said changes to the race relations legislation might allow political parties to reserve seats for under-represented groups. For example in West Ham, this might allow only women and minorities to seek to be candidates. ""If we get to the other side of the general election and find that minorities are not represented, we have to say that after 20 or 30 years of talking about this, we cannot go on the same way,"" he said. He added: ""It would be terribly disappointing if in the least white constituency [West Ham] in the whole of Europe we didn't have a minority candidate."" Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Malik, who is himself running for the seat of Dewsbury, acknowledged that so far women-only shortlists had failed to deliver a boost in the number of ethnic minority candidates...But he argued: ""I do think that there currently things that parties can do and which they aren't doing... for example setting targets to ensure that existing democratic structures are more reflective."" Labour MP Diane Abbot, who backs Mr Phillips' proposal of shortlists, said she had been elected along with three other ethnic minority MPs - Keith Vaz, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant - in 1987 but it took another 10 years before another black woman was able to win a seat. That was a rate of progress Ms Abbott described as ""painful"". ""I am a little older than Shahid and served on the National Executive Committee in the 1990s - I was the first black person on the NEC ... crossing our fingers and hoping we are going to get more black and Asian MP hasn't worked,"" she said. ""The shortlist strategy works for women and I believe that it can be made to work for black and Asian people."" On Tuesday Labour chairman Ian McCartney said his party was ""ambitious"" to improve black and Asian representation. ""We haven't ruled out all-black shortlists and welcome a debate in the party about this,"" he said.",politics
"MP attacked by muggers in Kenya..An MP has had more than £600 and his passport stolen after being mugged by six men in a park in Kenya...Quentin Davies, the MP for Grantham and Stamford, was attacked in a notoriously dangerous park in the capital, Nairobi. He was not hurt in the mugging on Saturday evening. Several people are being questioned over the attack. He was in Kenya before travelling to Sudan with the Parliamentary committee. Local police were said to be ""surprised"" he was in the area. Mr Davies, 60, said the mugging occurred 100 yards from the Nairobi Serena Hotel and equally close to the Anglican Cathedral in the centre of the city at dusk...He said in a statement: ""It was a frightening experience. ""Six men managed to steal up on me and grab me from behind. ""I knew I had to stay very calm and passive - you cannot fight six men"". He had to spend an extra 24 hours in Nairobi before rejoining the rest of the House of Commons International Development Committee in Dafur after the mugging. ""Naturally, I was afraid they would use a knife or gun, though they never produced any weapon,"" he said. ""Two of them held me from behind and two others held my legs and another one expertly rifled all my pockets.""",politics
"Candidate resigns over BNP link..A prospective candidate for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has resigned after admitting a ""brief attachment"" to the British National Party(BNP)...Nicholas Betts-Green, who had been selected to fight the Suffolk Coastal seat, quit after reports in a newspaper that he attended a BNP meeting. The former teacher confirmed he had attended the meeting but said that was the only contact he had with the group. Mr Betts-Green resigned after being questioned by the party's leadership. A UKIP spokesman said Mr Betts-Green's resignation followed disclosures in the East Anglian Daily Times last month about his attendance at a BNP meeting. ""He did once attend a BNP meeting. He did not like what he saw and heard and will take no further part of it,"" the spokesman added. A meeting of Suffolk Coastal UKIP members is due to be held next week to discuss a replacement. Mr Betts-Green, of Woodbridge, Suffolk, has also resigned as UKIP's branch chairman.",politics
"'Nuclear dumpsite' plan attacked..Plans to allow foreign nuclear waste to be permanently stored in the UK have been branded ""deeply irresponsible"" by the Liberal Democrats...The government has confirmed intermediate level waste (ILW) that was to have been shipped back to its home countries will now be stored in the UK. The cash raised will go towards the UK's nuclear clean-up programme. But Lib Dem Norman Baker accused ministers of turning Britain into a ""nuclear dumpsite""...Under current contracts, British Nuclear Fuels should return all but low level waste, but none has ever been sent back. In future, only highly-radioactive waste will be sent back to its country of origin, normally Germany or Japan, under armed guard. Intermediate waste from countries such as Japan, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden will be stored permanently in the UK. At the moment, this waste is stored at Sellafield, in Cumbria, in the form of glass bricks, untreated liquid waste or solid material in drums. In a statement, the Department of Trade and Industry said the new policy meant there would be a ""sixfold reduction in the number of waste shipments to overseas countries"". And it said highly-radioactive waste would be returned to its home country sooner, ensuring there would be no overall increase in radioactivity...Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt said the new arrangements, revealed in a Commons written statement, would raise up to £680m for Britain's nuclear clean-up programme, under the new Nuclear Decommissioning Agency. But the move has been criticised by environmental groups and the Liberal Democrats. Mr Baker, the Lib Dem environment spokesman, said: ""I have been warning for months that this would happen and raised it with government several times. But now our worst fears have been confirmed. ""Once again Britain's environmental and health needs are being ignored in policies driven by the Treasury and DTI. ""This is a terrible attempt to offload some of the £48bn cost of cleaning up nuclear sites. ""The Energy Act was supposed to help Britain clean up, but in order to pay for it we are becoming a nuclear dumpsite. ""The nuclear industry is an economic, social and environmental millstone that hangs around Britain's neck.""",politics
"Labour accused of broken pledge..Labour has already broken its pre-election promise on immigration before the ink has dried on its new pledge card, the Tories have claimed...Home Secretary Charles Clarke has been quoted as telling Labour members he wants more migrants to come to the UK. Tory co-chairman Liam Fox said the comments were at odds with Tony Blair's prediction of a net cut in immigration. But Mr Clarke accused him of trying to score ""cheap political points"" by muddling immigration with asylum...London's Evening Standard quoted Mr Clarke telling Labour activists at a question and answer session in Gateshead that he wanted Britain to offer refuge for those fleeing tyranny. ""That's not only a moral duty and a legal duty, but something which is part of the essence of this country,"" he said...""We want more migration, more people come to study and to work. ""We want more people coming to look for refuge."" Mr Blair's was asked last Wednesday if the government's new immigration plans, including a point system for economic migrants, would reduce net migration. The prime minister told MPs: ""The abusers will be weeded out, and as a result of the end of chain migration [where families have an automatic right to settle], the numbers will probably fall.""..On Monday, Dr Fox told reporters: ""The prime minister has broken his word so many times in the past but now his promises do not even last a week. ""The Labour Party election pledges, even when they are so incredibly vague, do not even last four days.""..The Tories want quotas for economic migrants and refugees and on Tuesday will outline more details of their plans for health checks on migrants. Mr Clarke dismissed the latest Tory attack. ""This is simply a scurrilous attempt by the Tories to score cheap political points,"" he said. ""The Tories are purposely mixing together two separate issues of immigration and asylum.""..Mr Clarke said he had made clear the UK would welcome genuine economic migrants for key jobs on a strict points based system. And only asylum seekers genuinely fleeing death or persecution would be admitted. ""Under our plans we expect unfounded applications to continue to fall,"" he added. Earlier, Dr Fox accused Mr Blair and other Cabinet ministers of telling lies about Tory policies and then attacking the lies. He told BBC Radio: ""If you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war, I guess you are going to lie about anything at all."" The latest pre-election spats come after Mr Blair told Labour members the Tories offered a ""hard right agenda"" which would take Britain backwards. Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy accelerating Lib Dem election preparations this week as he visits Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Somerset, Basingstoke, Shrewsbury, Dorset and Torbay.",politics
"Labour trio 'had vote-rig factory'..Three Labour councillors in Birmingham were caught operating a ""vote-rigging factory"", an Election Court has heard...Police found the trio handling unsealed postal ballots in a deserted warehouse in the city during a late-night raid in June 2004, the hearing was told. The votes were later counted towards that month's English local elections. The men, elected to the Aston ward, deny collecting votes fraudulently. The judge presiding has indicated the whole postal voting system is under scrutiny. Deputy High Court Judge Richard Mawrey, QC told the hearing at the Birmingham and Midlands Institute the case could have potentially serious consequences for any forthcoming General Election...The special Election Court, the first in living memory to hear allegations of vote-rigging, opened in Birmingham last month. The case against Muhammad Afzal, Mohammed Islam and Mohammed Kazi is being brought by local Liberal Democrat supporters. They claim the trio benefited from the widespread misuse of postal votes during the 10 June election. Ravi Sukul, counsel for the petitioners, accused the three men of being ""deeply involved"" in illegal practices. Witnesses saw them carrying several bags from their campaign office, which the men drove to a warehouse on an industrial estate off Birch Road East, the court was told...The police were alerted and called to the premises. Mr Sukul said: ""When (the officers) arrived there, in the middle of the night, they saw a large room with a 10ft long table and six Asian men present. ""Hundreds of documents and unsealed envelopes were scattered all over the table."" The police officers left the warehouse, but were later ordered back to seize the documents. ""When the officers left, all the envelopes and papers were scattered,"" Mr Sukul said...""(When they went) back to make the seizure, every one of these 275 yellow ballot papers were placed neatly in envelope A and sealed. The house was in order."" Interrupting Mr Sukul in his opening, Mr Mawrey said: ""What you are saying is, these men were operating a vote-forging factory on an industrial estate."" The court heard how documents were taken by police to the elections office next morning, where they were mixed in with other ballots. The case against the men follows a hearing into postal fraud allegations made against three other Birmingham councillors in the Bordesley Green ward, claims which are denied. Mr Mawrey is due to deliver a judgment in their case once the Aston petition has been heard. Mr Afzal, Mr Islam and Mr Kazi deny conspiring to commit election fraud to deceive the returning officer. The case continues.",politics
"Blair returns from peace mission..Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived back from his diplomatic mission to the Middle East to try to resurrect the peace process...Mr Blair held talks with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas. He confirmed that a renewed drive to reform the Palestinian Authority and address security issues would come at a London conference in March. Mr Blair also made a surprise trip to Iraq this week. The Israelis described the meeting as important but said they would not need to attend. Mr Blair briefly visited the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah - the first world leader to do so. He nodded briefly towards the tomb, rather than lay a wreath, in what Palestinian officials said was a compromise gesture agreed at the last minute...The BBC's Paul Reynolds says the London conference will be a limited measure to shore up the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who is expected to win the Palestinian presidential election on 9 January. At a news conference following talks with Mr Blair, Mr Abbas said the British prime minister was ""in a unique position to help us progress in our peaceful pursuit"". He added: ""Your endeavour to hold a conference in London is another example of your deep commitment to this purpose."" In an interview with the BBC's political editor Andrew Marr, Mr Blair said getting progress between Israelis and Palestinians would be ""tough, but at least we have got the first step"". Mr Blair acknowledged some people believed he was too close to the Israelis, but said the Israelis were entitled to expect Palestinians to give up terrorism. He argued that Mr Sharon was committed to the internationally-agreed roadmap peace plan and said his bid to disengage from Gaza had to be part of the peace process, not the end of it. Earlier, Mr Sharon again said he had not seen ""the slightest step"" the Palestinians were working to end terror attacks - though he acknowledged Palestinian leaders were in the middle of an election campaign that could be hampering their efforts. Before visiting Israel, Mr Blair made a surprise visit to Iraq, where he met leaders in Baghdad during his first trip to the city. He was briefed on preparations for the national poll, which is scheduled for next month but is threatened by a deadly campaign of insurgent violence. He also flew to Basra in southern Iraq where British forces are stationed.",politics
"Galloway plea for hostage release..Ex-Labour MP George Galloway has appealed for the release of aid worker Margaret Hassan, kidnapped in Iraq...Mrs Hassan, 59, who led Care International operations in Iraq, was abducted in Baghdad on 19 October. Mr Galloway was expelled from the Labour party because of his staunch opposition to the war on Iraq. He denied an earlier report that he planned to make a direct appeal to the kidnappers via the Al-Jazeera Arabic television channel...Speaking in London on Saturday at the first annual delegate conference of his newly-founded party, the Respect Coalition, he said: ""I have deliberately not involved myself before in any of these situations. ""But this woman has been a prominent opponent of both the war and the preceding years of sanctions. ""I am prepared to do anything I can to help save her life."" A spokesman later said Mr Galloway had friends in common with Ms Hassan, who he described as a prominent anti-war activist, and that he was ""willing to do anything - go to Iraq or be an intermediary or anything that's necessary"". Since her abduction, several videos of Mrs Hassan have been broadcast by Al-Jazeera. The latest footage showed Mrs Hassan asking for British troops to be pulled out of Iraq. She also urged Care International, the aid agency she works for, to close its office in Baghdad, and appealed for Iraqi women prisoners to be freed. Care has since closed down all its operations in Iraq.",politics
"Guantanamo four questioned..The four Britons freed from US custody in Guantanamo Bay are expected to be allowed a visit by one relative...Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga, Feroz Abbasi and Richard Belmar were held for three years, accused of al-Qaeda links. Mr Begg's father, Azmat, said he had been told he could see his son for 20 minutes and would say he was ""a hero"". The men are being held at London's Paddington Green police station, where they are expected to be questioned by UK anti-terror officers. But Louise Christian, the lawyer representing Mr Abbasi and Mr Mubanga, said the families would be reunited with the men away from the station. Before being driven by police from Birmingham to London, Azmat Begg said he was concerned for his son Moazzam's mental state and was looking forward to giving him a hug. As Azmat Begg arrived at the London police station, there appeared to be some confusion as to the visiting arrangements. Police have said they have a duty to investigate the men, who were arrested on their return to the UK. But Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said evidence obtained by MI5 while the four were in Cuba was ""absolutely"" inadmissible in UK courts. In an interview with the Independent, Sir John said his officers would have to find other evidence before the suspects could be tried in the UK...He told the newspaper: ""If an admission is made, it is a totally different ball game... it could be used as evidence. ""The options are: if there is enough evidence they will be charged. If not they will be released as soon as possible."" The men have been allowed to meet their lawyers. Louise Christian said that after being ""tortured and abused"" at Guantanamo Bay, the men's arrest was unfair and inappropriate. She told BBC News she remained very concerned about their psychological state. Gareth Peirce, lawyer for Mr Begg, said she was shocked at the condition of the men and appalled that the authorities felt the need to detain them. Washington has claimed all four were ""enemy combatants"" who trained at camps run by al-Qaeda. The Pentagon says they were freed after the UK government promised they would not be a threat to the national security of the US or any of its allies...The detainees were immediately arrested under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 when they landed at RAF Northolt, west London, on Tuesday. Massoud Shadjareh, from the Muslim Safety Forum, said: ""What sort of homecoming is this? They are innocent people."" The Muslim Council of Britain urged that the men should receive counselling and medical help. ""We want these men to be returned into the arms of their waiting family,"" said Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the council.",politics
"Minister defends hunting ban law..The law banning hunting with dogs in England and Wales is enforceable and ""very clear"", Alun Michael has said...The rural affairs minister said it would become obvious if people flouted the law, which came into force on Friday, and pretended they were not. Some 270 hunts met legally on Saturday killing a total of 91 foxes - only four were accidentally killed by hounds. But anti-hunt campaigners said there had been widespread intimidation of activists monitoring hunts. Countryside Alliance chairman John Jackson said that Saturday had been a ""massive demonstration by the rural community of support for hunting"". People had turned out ""to show en masse that the Hunting Act was a bad law"", he said adding that foxes and other animals had been killed ""legally"" as far as he was aware...Although hunting with dogs is now a criminal offence, exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal. Addressing claims that the new law was unenforceable, Mr Michael told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: ""There has been a lot of spin about this by those that support hunting. ""The reality is that the law is very clear. You can't chase wild mammals with a pack of dogs, whether the wild mammal is a fox or a deer. ""If people do so and pretend they're not it's going to become very clear. You can't hunt accidentally."" Mr Michael also denied the hunting ban had led to a breakdown of trust between the government and rural communities. He said most people living in the countryside were more concerned with issues like the economy, the health service and their children's future than hunting...But the League Against Cruel Sports claimed the new act had been broken even though the numbers of foxes killed had fallen. Thousands of hunt supporters turned out at 270 hunts across England and Wales on the first day of the ban, with anti-hunt groups sending out 100 monitors to check the law was not being broken. There were only four arrests - over alleged hunting of hares in Wiltshire - although it was not clear whether they were made under the Hunting Act...They have been released on bail but police say they may face prosecution under new poaching laws. But Penny Little, who monitored the Bicester Hunt in Oxfordshire, said she had witnessed ""gratuitous, spiteful killing of foxes"". If people tried to ""run circles around this law"" the only outcome would be that it was tightened up, she said. Mike Hobday, from the League Against Cruel Sports, said video evidence of the law being broken would be passed onto police. He said intimidation seemed to have been widespread and called on hunts to do more to stop their supporters intimidating anti-hunt activists videoing hunts. But Mr Jackson, who had been at the Bicester Hunt in Oxfordshire, denied there was any intimidation.",politics
"Clarke to unveil immigration plan..New controls on economic migrants and tighter border patrols will be part of government plans unveiled on Monday...Home Secretary Charles Clarke wants to introduce a points system for economic migrants and increase deportations of failed asylum seekers. Tony Blair has said people are right to be concerned about abuses of the system but there is no ""magic bullet"". The Tories say Labour is acting too late while the Lib Dems say the plans may not produce an efficient system...The government's new five-year plan is designed to show how Labour would reform immigration and asylum controls if it wins the election, expected to be held in May. Ministers deny they have been spurred into action by Tory campaigning or because the prime minister is worried too little has been done...Instead, they say the plans are part of an ""evolving"" process aimed at winning public confidence. Mr Clarke is expected to announce an end to the automatic right to settle for immigrants' families, and the introduction of fingerprinting for all visa applicants. The prime minister on Sunday said immigration would be ""toughened up"" to ensure only those immigrants with skills the UK really needs will be granted work permits. But he rejected the Tories' call for a quota on economic migrants, saying no ""arbitrary figure"" could reflect the UK's needs...Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: ""We should cut the number or increase it depending on the country's needs... ""The public are worried about this, they are worried rightly, because there are abuses of the immigration and asylum system."" But he defended the UK's current regime, saying all systems around the world were subject to abuse. Tory proposals to cap the number of asylum seekers and process all claims abroad would not work, argued Mr Blair...He said: ""We will not be... pretending there is some simple easy way of processing Britain's asylum seekers in some other country, because no such other country exists."" Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis said the government had failed to remove 250,000 failed asylum seekers from the UK and limits on economic migrants had been a ""shambles"". ""What we are seeing today is a rather panicky response from the government after eight years of failure,"" he said. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said Labour was right to reject the Tories' idea of quotas on asylum. But he said it was yet to be seen if Mr Clarke could deliver ""a fair and efficient asylum system"".",politics
"Mayor will not retract Nazi jibe..London mayor Ken Livingstone has again refused to retract a Nazi insult made to a Jewish reporter...Labour's Mr Livingstone, who says he is ""standing by"" his remarks, had accused an Evening Standard journalist of being like a ""concentration camp guard"". At his weekly press conference on Tuesday he said his comments were not racist and refused to apologise. He said to media representatives: ""If you think they are racist, I think you are wrong."" The mayor said his comments would not affect the 2012 Olympic bid and added that his determination to stand up for what he believed in may impress bid chiefs, who arrived in London on Tuesday. ""I think it is important that the IOC (International Olympic Committee) members realise that when we get the games...they have a mayor who is not going to panic, change course or get in a great flap but will deliver the games on time and to budget,"" he said...On Tuesday, the mayor said he would be making a full written response to the chairman of the assembly. Two motions were passed by the London Assembly, which is made up of 25 members elected to examine the mayor's activities, on Monday asking him to apologise and withdraw his comments. The mayor said he had recounted to the assembly a number of ""examples of intrusion by journalists"" into his, and his family's private life. ""I don't suggest for one minute that has anything to do with the Holocaust which was uniquely the most evil chapter in history. ""But when reporters say to me I'm only doing this because it's my job... that's the same abdication of moral responsibility at the thin end of the wedge that in its most extreme and horrific version ends up with others being prepared to stand as a concentration camp guard...""We are responsible for our own choices in this life, I always have been and so have reporters."" An official complaint has been made to local government watchdogs by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, demanding an investigation by the Standards Board of England. It has the power to suspended or bar him from office but Mr Livingstone said: ""There must have been 20 instances like this over the last 24 years...""I have never in response to any of that modified a policy I believed to be right or modified a position I believed to be right and I don't intend to now. ""Because if I do that effectively you hand power over your policies and position to the editors of papers."" On tape Mr Livingstone, who once worked as a freelance restaurant critic on the paper, is heard asking reporter Oliver Finegold if he is a ""German war criminal"". Mr Finegold replies: ""No, I'm Jewish, I wasn't a German war criminal. I'm quite offended by that."" The mayor then says: ""Ah right, well you might be, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?""",politics
"Pakistani women 'must not hide'..Hiding women away in the home hidden behind veils is a backward view of Islam, President Musharraf of Pakistan has said during a visit to Britain...He was speaking to the BBC's Newsnight programme a few hours before visiting the Pakistani community in Manchester. ""My wife is travelling around. She is very religious but she is very moderate,"" said General Musharraf. It comes after Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain said some Pakistanis should integrate more. Dr Maleeha Lodhi said people could not expect others to listen to their grievances if they isolated themselves...Gen Musharraf told the BBC: ""Some people think that the women should be confined to their houses and put veils on and all that and they should not move out - absolutely wrong."" The Pakistani president was also asked whether he thought the war on terror had made the world less safe. ""Yes, absolutely. And I would add that unfortunately we are not addressing the core problems, so therefore we can never address it in its totality,"" he said. ""We are fighting it in its immediate context but we are not fighting it in its strategic long-term context...""It is the political disputes and we need to resolve them, and also the issue of illiteracy and poverty. This combined are breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism."" On Monday the Pakistani president met Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, on his first official visit to London. He is due to visit the Pakistani community in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon...The Mirror newspaper said on Tuesday it had been handed a sensitive dossier outling the details of Gen Musharraf's visit to Britain. The paper said the document had been found in a London street by a member of the public. It said the dossier contained details about his movements and also confidential police radio channels, call signs and codes. Speaking in London on Monday, Gen Musharraf said al-Qaeda was ""on the run"" in Pakistan...But standing next to Mr Blair he added that it was crucial to tackle the ""core of what creates terrorists, what creates an extremist, militant environment which then leads on to terrorism"". ""That is the resolution of political disputes.""..Mr Blair said the two leaders had talked about Afghanistan, the wider war on terror, the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing dispute over Kashmir. ""We agreed that in Afghanistan there is some cause for optimism about the progress that has been made there,"" said Mr Blair. ""In respect of Iraq, we agreed that whatever the issues of the past, the important thing now is to see the strategy through and ensure that Iraq is capable of becoming a stable and democratic state.""",politics
"Visa row mandarin made Sir John..The top civil servant at the centre of the David Blunkett visa affair has been knighted in the New Year Honours...Sir John Gieve was Home Office permanent secretary during the saga which ended with Mr Blunkett quitting. He and other civil servants were criticised for failing to recall how the visa for Mr Blunkett's ex-lover's nanny came to be fast-tracked. The outgoing head of the troubled Child Support Agency Doug Smith also earns an honour in the New Year's list. Mr Smith, 57, whose retirement was announced by Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Smith in November, is made a Commander of the Order of Bath...Both men were giving evidence to a Commons committee on the computer difficulties facing the agency, which left thousands of single parents without any maintenance payments, when the announcement was made. The knighting of Sir John, 54, will be received with astonishment by opposition politicians...The Liberal Democrats said it ""beggared belief"" he and fellow officials could not remember how Leoncia Casalme's application for indefinite leave to remain went from Mr Blunkett's office to the head of the Immigration and Nationality Department. Meanwhile, the Conservatives accused officials of a ""collective failure"" of memory. But Sir Alan Budd, who led an inquiry into the affair, said he had no reason to believe anyone involved had deliberately withheld information...Downing Street defended the decision to honour both men, with a spokesperson saying: ""You have to look at their whole career."" Sir John was made permanent secretary in April 2001 following a Civil Service career which dates back to 1974. He has also worked in the Treasury and the Department of Employment. A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said of Mr Smith's honour: ""The award reflects all that he has achieved in a Civil Service career, principally in the Inland Revenue, spanning over 40 years - not just his role as chief executive of the Child Support Agency...""In his career he has personally led a number of successful major change programmes."" Mr Smith is set to stay on at the CSA until March. Less controversial will be the knighthoods for Derek Wanless and Mike Tomlinson, who undertook major government reviews on health and education respectively. Former NatWest chief executive Mr Wanless, 57, has delivered not one but two major reports on the NHS. Ex-chief inspector of schools Mr Tomlinson, 62, has recommended replacing A-Levels and GCSEs with a new diploma system in a shake-up of the exams system.",politics
"Kilroy-Silk attacked with slurry..Euro MP Robert Kilroy-Silk has had a bucket of farm slurry thrown over him by a protester in Manchester...The UK Independence Party member was arriving for a BBC radio show when the attacker emerged from behind a bush. Fellow guest Ruth Kelly MP was also hit by the slurry. Mr Kilroy-Silk said the man, who later disappeared, claimed he was ""doing it in the name of Islam"". In January, Mr Kilroy-Silk quit his BBC One show for remarks he made about Arabs, who he called ""suicide bombers""...Mr Kilroy-Silk had already been taken off air by BBC bosses for the comments, in which he also described Arabs as ""limb-amputators, women repressors"". The remarks prompted outrage among Muslim groups. The slurry attack took place on Friday as Mr Kilroy-Silk and Ms Kelly, a Cabinet Office minister and Bolton West MP, arrived at Manchester High School for Girls for the recording of BBC Radio 4's Any Questions...The police were called but the attacker had disappeared by the time officers arrived. They are treating the incident as assault. The programme's host, Jonathan Dimbleby, later told the audience the MEP had been covered from ""head to toe"". Mr Kilroy-Silk was still able appear to appear on the show after being loaned a change of clothes...He told reporters he was ""very angry"" and planned to press charges if his attacker was caught. He said the man shouted: ""You've offended my religion, I'm doing this in the name of Islam."" ""As I started to turn round a guy tipped a bucket of farmyard muck over me and then threw the rest of it over me and the car,"" Mr Kilroy-Silk said. ""I was totally covered, it was all through my clothes, and it stank to high heaven. It went all inside the car and splattered Ruth Kelly."" A BBC spokesman said: ""He took his seat as Jonathan Dimbleby was introducing the show. Fortunately someone at the school had a change of clothes to let him have."" Greater Manchester Police said people near Mr Kilroy-Silk had also been hit by the waste. Officers took statements at the scene, but no arrests have been made. Police say the suspect ran off after towards Wilmslow Road after committing the offence but is believed to have been driving a red Vauxhall Corsa earlier. The suspect is described as white, aged 30 to 40, with a ginger beard. Police want to hear from anyone who has any information...Mr Kilroy-Silk, an MEP for the East Midlands, resigned the UK Independence Party whip in the European Parliament in October, after criticising UKIP and stating his ambition to be leader. However, he remains a member of the party. He said on Friday he hoped to be elected party leader before Christmas. ""I think that is sufficient time for us to put in process what is necessary... in time for us to fight and have a significant impact upon the General Election."" But a UKIP spokesman said that would be impossible under the party's constitution, which requires 70 days before any leadership ballot can take place.",politics
"Petrol duties frozen, Brown says..Chancellor Gordon Brown has announced a freeze on fuel duty in his pre-budget speech to the Commons on Thursday...Mr Brown told the House that government policy is to raise fuel duty at least in line with inflation each year to fulfil environmental commitments. But this financial year, because of ""volatility in the oil market"", he said the duty would be frozen. During 2000 many motorists campaigned against the rises but environmentalists believe less duty means more pollution. He said: ""It is our policy that each year fuel duties should rise at least in line with inflation as we seek to meet our targets for reducing polluting emmissions and fund our public services. ""But this financial year because of the sustained volatility in the oil market I propose to match the freeze in car vehicle licence duty with a continuation on the freeze on the main road fuel duties.""..The RAC welcomed the news, calling it an ""early Christmas present"" for motorists. But the organisation urged drivers to continue to shop around to get the best price for petrol. Environmental group Transport 2000 said the freeze sends the wrong message to motorists. ""We are concerned that although Britain leads the world in rhetoric about climate change it often fails in practical action,"" said a spokesman. In 2000 the People's Fuel Lobby caused chaos by blocking roads with slow-moving convoys after Mr Brown threatened to raise fuel taxes. The chancellor did not raise duty that year, but despite threats of more protests in 2003, he added 1.28p per litre.",politics
"Howard unveils election platform..The Conservatives would stand up for the ""forgotten majority"", Michael Howard pledged as he unveiled the first part of the Tory election manifesto...The Tory leader argued there was a mass of people whom he says feel let down by Tony Blair and who share Tory values. In the foreword to the manifesto, he promises to focus on restoring order, trying to lower taxes and giving power back to the people. Labour says the document offers only a return to a ""failed Tory past"". The Liberal Democrats say the Conservatives cannot win what they predict will be a three-party contest...Campaigning activity is accelerating ahead of the general election, which is widely tipped for May but could be any time before June 2006. Labour on Monday postponed a launch of election posters because of the Asian tsunami disaster. Mr Howard published the introduction to the Tory manifesto. Other chapters will follow in coming weeks...In a speech in Northamptonshire, he said the ""forgotten majority"" made up the backbone of Britain. They were people who were saving for their first home or their retirement, working hard and accepting their responsibilities. He says in the manifesto foreword: ""They have been forgotten, neglected and taken for granted by Mr Blair.""..Saying Britain must change direction, Mr Howard argues government is too big and cannot continue ""down the path of ever rising taxes"". He promises to ensure frontline professionals, parents and patients make the key decisions rather than Whitehall ""bureaucrats"". And he says the Tories would get a grip on crime, immigration and disorder. ""The decline of responsibility and the proliferation of so-called 'human rights' have left us in a moral quagmire, unable to get a grip on rising crime and disorder,"" he says...Mr Howard says he will produce a Timetable for Action so people can hold him to account but on issues like taxation he has so far only published options, not specific plans. Mr Howard told BBC News: ""I'm determined to lower taxes but I'm also determined not to make any promises I can't keep."" The Tories were unveiling material months ahead of the expected election because they needed time to make voters aware of their policies, he said. He was asked if Tory support for the government on Iraq and identity cards had given the Lib Dems the chance to portray themselves as the opposition to Labour. Mr Howard argued the only test for his policies was whether they were best for Britain. It had nothing to do with putting ""clear blue water"" between himself and his opponents...Labour's election slogan will be: ""Britain's working, don't let the Tories wreck it again"". Campaign coordinator Alan Milburn accused the Tories of ""launching Thatcherism in instalments"" while Labour helped the hard working majority of families. Lib Dem president Simon Hughes said his party had set out its election stance in September. ""The Liberal Democrats will ask the British people for support this year as the party with the policies best able to deliver freedom and fairness and to restore trust,"" he said.",politics
"Lawyer attacks anti-terror laws..A senior barrister who has resigned in protest over the government's anti-terror laws says the current system is giving Britain a bad name...Ian MacDonald QC quit when the government failed to recognise a House of Lords ruling that detaining terror suspects indefinitely is unlawful. He was part of a 19-strong panel who have special security clearance to act for suspected terrorists. Five more barristers are now reported to be threatening to resign...Mr MacDonald told BBC News: ""The reason why I am resigning is because I fundamentally disagree with locking people up without any trial for an indefinite period on reasonable suspicion. ""The current legal system is certainly having a very adverse effect on the Muslim community in Britain and the whole Asian community. ""I think it is giving Britain a bad name internationally""...Under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act introduced by the government in 2001 in response to the 11 September attacks, foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism who cannot be deported can be held indefinitely without trial. But Mr MacDonald believes that detainees currently being held should be entitled to a trial by jury. ""My own view is we need to have a full return to trial by jury, a proper criminal trial with proper accusations. ""As far as I'm concerned, the government have to start all over again and rethink their whole strategy for dealing with this."" he added...The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith will receive a letter of resignation from Mr MacDonald on Monday. According to the Independent, his resignation is expected to be followed by those of five other barristers - Nicholas Blake QC, Andrew Nicol QC, Manjit Singh Gill QC, Rick Scannell and Tom de la Mare. They are all believed to be carefully considering their positions on the panel of Special Advocates who represent detainees before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) - a secure court without a jury, which tries terror suspects. Mr MacDonald said he had ""no idea"" whether further resignations would follow. But Barry Hugill, a spokesman for the campaign group Liberty, told Radio 4's Today programme that more lawyers may go. ""I can assure that there is a distinct possibilty that more lawyers may be resigning,"" he said. ""They are now in a situation where everything they have been trained to believe in, the right to trial by jury, has been abandoned and that is what gives some of them sleepless nights.""..Helena Kennedy, a Labour peer and a human rights lawyer, said the Special Advocates' main concern was that once they had seen any special intelligence they were not allowed to speak to the detainees. ""When this whole procedure was being considered immediately after 11 September there was a great deal of argument particularly in the House of Lords about whether there really was a process that could be considered a judicial review,"" she said. ""Without that you are having detention with no habeus corpus and really a blot, as Ian McDonald has said, on our legal landscape, something really quite shocking with regard to the rule of the law.""",politics
"Turkey deal 'to help world peace'..A deal bringing Turkey a step closer to EU membership is of ""fundamental importance"" to the peace and security of the world, Tony Blair has said...The deal, struck at the European Council last week, also proved claims of a clash between Muslims and Christians were ""wrong"", Mr Blair said. It represented the achievement of an ""historic British objective"", he added. Tory leader Michael Howard said the deal laid to rest any suggestion the EU was ""anti-Islamic""...Turkey's involvement with the EU would provide an ""invaluable bridge"" between Europe and the rest of the world, Mr Howard added. But the Tory leader argued that the EU constitution was not designed to take in a country as large as Turkey. Mr Blair has been a leading advocate of Turkish membership despite controversy surrounding the idea. He insisted that the Turkish leadership had made great advances in improving its human rights records. The deal to open formal talks with Ankara came despite an EU demand for Turkey to recognise Cyprus...It was agreed the issue can be tackled at a later date but Turkish premier Recep Erdogan had to accept negotiations did not guarantee his country full EU membership. The internationally recognised southern part of Cyprus is an EU member, but Turkey, which occupies northern Cyprus, had previously insisted it would not bow to demands to recognise the country, calling the issue a ""red line"". It could take up to 15 years before Turkey is able to join, and entry cannot be guaranteed. If it joins, Turkey may have to accept restrictions to limit migration by its citizens. The EU has also announced that it will start accession talks with Croatia in April 2005. However, talks will begin only if the country co-operates fully with the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.",politics
"Protect whistleblowers, TUC says..The government should change the law to give more protection to employees who raise health and safety concerns about their workplaces, the TUC has said...It said data from employment tribunals suggested 1,500 ""safety whistleblowers"" had lost their jobs since 1999. Some firms found it cheaper to sack a worker than to improve buildings or change working conditions, it said. The Health and Safety Executive said it was trying to get workers more involved in helping to make workplaces safer. The TUC figures were drawn from unfair dismissal cases at tribunals were health and safety were the main issue...Safety representatives were often ignored when raising concerns because there was no legal duty to respond, claimed the union organisation. General secretary Brendan Barber said: ""It shouldn't be a firing offence to object to unsafe work. ""Workers should not be placed in the situation where they are forced to choose between risking their job or risking their personal health and safety."" Mr Barber, who said the ""problem is far worse than official statistics show"", called for a legal system that ""protects safety whistleblowers"". He added that workers who are not in a union, as well as casual and migrant workers, ""stand little chance of redress.""..Rory O' Neill, editor of union-backed Hazards magazine, which conducted the research, said: ""Giving union safety reps more rights in more workplaces is the ultimate win-win. ""Death and injuries at work increased last year, for the second time since the turn of the century. ""It would be a fatal mistake not to take full advantage of the union safety effect."" The TUC has called on the government to appoint ""roving"" safety reps and to increase spending on health and safety work inspections. The Health and Safety Executive had said that it had launched an initiative to make factories and offices safer, with more worker involvement.",politics
"Kinnock to urge reform in Lords..Neil Kinnock has said his acceptance of a seat in the House of Lords will allow him to help ""achieve further progress with substantial democratic reform.""..On the BBC's Breakfast with Frost it was put to Mr Kinnock that he had once referred to Lords members as ""brigands, muggers, bribers and gangsters"". But the outgoing European Commissioner said his comments - made some 26 years ago - needed to be put in context. He said advocates for reform needed to be inside the Lords to vote for it. ""It was pointed out to me that if the additional democratic reform is going to take place it is going to require advocates in the Lords and people there willing to vote for it.""..Mr Kinnock added that the second factor behind his acceptance of the peerage was his appointment as chairman of the British Council. ""History demonstrates that it's immensely useful for the British Council to have its chairman in the House of Lords and that was a conclusive factor."" Mr Kinnock said he thought about the decision for ""quite a long time"" because he had long had reservations about the Lords. But he added: ""The process of reform has developed substantially but not sufficiently, and consequently I did take all these factors into consideration because it's not a decision to be made glibly."" The former Labour leader said he would probably take the title of Lord Kinnock of Bedwellty - his first constituency for which he was selected in 1969.",politics
"McConnell details Scots wave toll..At least three people from Scotland died in the tsunami disaster and a further three are on the missing list, the first minister has told MSPs...The figures came out during a statement by Jack McConnell to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday. He formally expressed Scotland's sympathy for the victims of the Indian Ocean tidal wave which killed 150,000. Mr McConnell went on to promise that Scotland would play its part in the reconstruction effort. He said the provisional figures on the dead and lost had been provided by the police...Mr McConnell said the tragedy should persuade everyone to step up the fight against global poverty and change the world for the better. He said he was proud of the generous response of people in Scotland to the disaster appeal, which is expected soon to top £20m. The first minister also praised Scottish Water for immediately flying bottled water and five large generators to the disaster zone. The Scottish Executive has seconded 11 staff to the aid agencies...But he said Scotland was ""in it for the long term"" with help planned for fishing communities, for children's services, and for the aid charities. He said 2005 must be the year that Scotland showed clearly it cared for what happened to people elsewhere in the world, whether in Asia or in Africa. Mr McConnell went on to signal that the executive would play its part in the Make Poverty History campaign being mounted by a variety of aid charities, trade unions and churches in the run-up to the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July. Edinburgh architect, Dominic Stephenson, became the first Scot to be confirmed as a victim of the Asian tsunami. The 27-year-old was holidaying on the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi with Eileen Lee, 24. She is still missing.",politics
"Police urge pub closure power..New powers are needed to close disorderly pubs, bars and clubs for up to a week or even permanently, police chiefs have told MPs...Association of Chief Police Officers president Chris Fox said the current 24-hour closure power did not have enough impact on bad landlords. Mr Fox's comments follow the controversy over plans to allow pubs to open around the clock. He rejected critics' calls for the law change to be delayed. Instead, the new Licensing Act could help reduce drunken disorder - but only if it was properly planned, he argued...Acpo made its call for stronger closure powers in a paper for the Commons home affairs select committee. After the meeting, Mr Fox said being able to close premises for only 24 hours did not necessarily make an impact. ""If it's 12.30 on a Saturday morning and you close for 24 hours there's not a lot of pain for the premises because they probably wouldn't open on Sunday anyway...""This is about getting through to the management that they can't run a disorderly house without facing some immediate sanctions."" Under Acpo's proposal, the closure orders would be used only with the agreement of the local licensing authority. The new licensing laws will give police greater powers to close pubs and clubs - but only for 24-hour periods...Mr Fox said the drinks industry was currently not regulating itself. ""It's making money at the cost of human misery and the public purse, and the strategic planning process has been less than useless,"" he said. Mr Fox said the new laws, due to start being phased in next month, could help if food outlets, public transport and public toilets could cope with late-night drinkers. ""Staggering it (closing hours) will be a solution if the infrastructure is there, if the premises are properly managed and people aren't being served rolling drunk and underage and then tossed out into the street,"" he said. ""We have the problem from 11pm to 2am in any event. We have to get a grip on the underlying causes of this.""..Acpo wants pubs and clubs which cause extra work for police and hospitals to have to pay towards the costs. Home Secretary Charles Clarke is currently looking at the idea of a levy on the drinks industry to pay for the cost of extra policing. The licensing changes have sparked concern among some MPs, councils and some senior police officers who fear they could exacerbate drinking problems. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on Tuesday said it was not her job to bow to the campaign against the changes. It was the status quo, not the new laws, which were causing current binge drinking problems, she told BBC Two's Newsnight. Leaked documents have suggested ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett branded new opening hours as a ""leap in the dark"". But Ms Jowell insisted his concerns had been met. The police's job against alcohol-related crime would be made easier if all pubs did not close at the same time, she added.",politics
"Blunkett tells of love and pain..David Blunkett has spoken of his love for married publisher Kimberly Quinn for the first time...The home secretary described how it affected his friends and personal life, but said he was a great believer in personal responsibility. Mr Blunkett is taking legal action to gain access to Mrs Quinn's two-year-old son. She denies he is Mr Blunkett's. The interview with BBC Radio Sheffield was made before allegations he fast-tracked a visa for Mrs Quinn's nanny. The allegations, which he has denied, are being investigated by Sir Alan Budd. Mr Blunkett talked about how he fell in love - but that she resisted his desire to go public...In an apparent reference to his court action to gain access to her son, he says he was a great believer in responsibility and consequences, even when they were painful. Mr Blunkett told BBC Radio Sheffield: ""I fell in love with someone and they wouldn't go public and things started to go very badly wrong in the summer, and then the News of the World picked up the story. ""I tried for three years to make something work. ""I haven't spoken about it and I don't intend to. Even in the biography that's being written about me I've ensured that there's as little as possible."" BBC political correspondent Carole Walker said the timing of the broadcast was unlikely to help his efforts to show that he is concentrating on getting on with the job of home secretary. Shadow home secretary David Davis says Mr Blunkett should quit if he is found to have influenced the visa process even indirectly...Reports have claimed Mr Blunkett chaired a meeting to discuss delays in the visa system after he learned of nanny Leoncia Casalme's wait. The Home Office has said it would be up to Sir Alan's inquiry to decide if any such meeting was relevant. Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart said she hoped Mr Blunkett would survive in his job. ""I work with him every day and I have always been surprised by how focused he is on the job in hand, on working to deal with things,"" she said. She told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme: ""He is just really down for the job and I hope he does (survive).""",politics
"Housing plans criticised by MPs..""Irreversible environmental damage"" will be caused by government plans to build more than one million homes in south-east England, MPs have warned...""Sustainable communities"" were being promoted without a real understanding of what ""sustainable"" means, the Environmental Audit Committee said. It said issues like energy needs and transport were not properly addressed. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said the report was completed before new initiatives were announced. He said: ""We are working across government, especially with our colleagues at Defra, to create cleaner, safer and greener communities, while protecting and enhancing the environment.""..The report said there was far too little attention paid to many environmental issues, including water, even though supplies in parts of the South East are already too low. Regulations designed to ensure energy-efficient buildings are too lax, and builders routinely flout them anyway, it said...Financing for improving transport was around one-twentieth of what would be required. The report was a stinging rebuke for the government and especially John Prescott's department, BBC environment correspondent Richard Black said. Chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee Peter Ainsworth MP, said: ""The government's housing policy is an alarming example of disjointed thinking in an areas where joined-up policy is crucial. ""I accept the need to improve housing supply but, as things stand, the principal beneficiary of housing growth will be property developers, with the environment we all depend on being the principal loser."" Points raised in the report included:... - No proposals to further increase housing supply should be taken forward without strong supporting evidence.. - The government should recognise shortcomings of the Treasury's Barker Review, which said 140,000 new homes a year were needed in Britain.. - The government should consider a ""national spatial framework"" for England such as those already in place in Scotland and Wales.. - The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister should maximise brown field development and housing densities.. - Measures to encourage improved energy efficiency for existing homes should be considered - including reduced stamp duty for homes that achieve set standards and a clear timetable for achieving zero-emissions homes.. - The government should make clear how it intends to measure its success at creating sustainable communities....Conservative local government spokeswoman Caroline Spelman said: ""There is now growing evidence that John Prescott's buildings programme is environmentally unsustainable, leaving a concrete scar across the face of rural England.""",politics
"MPs' murder sentence concern..Murder sentences should not be reduced automatically simply because of a guilty plea, says a new MPs' report...The influential Commons home affairs committee was responding to sentencing guidelines issued this summer. The MPs also call for tougher sentences for crimes committed under the influence of drink or drugs. They say the influence of drugs and alcohol should be introduced as an aggravating factor when judges and magistrates sentence offenders. Committee chairman John Denham said drugs of alcohol were sometimes used as an excuse...""The committee believes that these arguments should be rejected by sentencers and that being under their influence should instead be an aggravating factor."" At present judges, when sentencing murderers to the mandatory life sentence, can reduce the tariff - the minimum term they must serve - if the defendant pleads guilty. But although they are spared the ordeal of a trial many murder victims' relatives are unhappy. In July this year Amanda Champion's killer, James Ford, pleaded guilty to her murder and was jailed for at least 15 years - it would have been longer had he denied the charge...Amanda's uncle, Lewis Champion, told the BBC News website Ford did not deserve any credit for his plea, saying: ""Nothing at all is worth taking five years off a murder sentence."" MPs criticised Home Secretary David Blunkett last year for introducing last-minute rules allowing reduced sentences for murderers who pleaded guilty...The measures passed into law virtually unnoticed after Mr Blunkett introduced them at a late stage of the Criminal Justice Bill...As a result, says the committee, the government may need to re-legislate to ""remove ambiguity"" over how murderers should be sentenced. It is also calling on the senior judge in England and Wales, Lord Woolf, to abandon draft guidelines he proposed in September to reduce sentences of murderers who plead guilty. The committee said the plans had not reflected the ""public disquiet"" expressed over the possibility of significantly reduced prison terms for murderers. Lord Woolf's Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) caused further controversy by suggesting a one third discount off sentences for early guilty pleas in all types of crime. As a result murderers who face a 15-year tariff could get five years knocked off if they give themselves up to the police...Mr Denham believes the SGC should reconsider its proposals to reflect Parliament's wish that murder should be treated as a separate and especially grave category of offence. He said: ""We want to see sentencers advised that in the case of murder, reduction in sentence for a guilty plea should not normally be granted in addition to reductions for other mitigating circumstances."" But a spokesman for the Home Office defended the proposals. He said: ""By making express provision for murder tariffs in the Criminal Justice Act, Parliament sent a clear signal that it expects murder to be treated differently to other offences. ""We stand by the provisions in the Act that cover guilty plea discounts, which have potential benefits for victims and witnesses of avoiding the trauma of a trial.""..Shadow home secretary David Davis echoed criticisms of the way Mr Blunkett introduced the murder tariff rules. ""There is genuine concern about potential reductions in murder sentences - such action sends out the wrong signals to violent criminals and completely undermines the government's claim to be tough on crime,"" he said. But Liberal Democrat spokesman Mark Oaten warned the MPs' committee that binding judges too much might look like political interference. ""The danger of having a prescriptive approach is that whilst every murder is awful, it is also different,"" he told BBC News.",politics
"'No-one can define new hunt ban'..The new law banning hunting with dogs is ""so poorly drafted"" no-one can define the offence, pro-hunt MPs say...The accusation came after it emerged a Devon man had been told he could use his four dogs to ""chase away unwanted animals"" from his farm. Because he did not intend to kill deer or foxes it was not hunting. Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik said ministers had invented a new category of hunting - chasing away - and asked how police were supposed to interpret the rules...North Devon landowner Giles Bradshaw was put in touch with the Middle Way Group, of which Mr Opik is a co-chairman, after he had been in contact with the rural affairs ministry, Defra. He had asked whether his technique of using his four dogs to frighten off deer and foxes would be outlawed under the Hunting Act. Mr Bradshaw was initially told it was an offence - prompting him to complain. The Middle Way group also said Mr Bradshaw would be put in a position where he would have to buy a rifle to shoot animals that would have previously gone free. In a later conversation Mr Bradshaw was told that according to Defra's lawyers chasing away unwanted animals was ""not in fact hunting as described in the Hunting Act 2004 therefore you would not be committing an offence""...Mr Opik said: ""Hunting with dogs and flushing are not defined in the Hunting Act. ""Now Defra have also invented a completely new category of hunting - 'chasing away' which isn't even covered by the Act. ""However, all these activities involve the use of dogs to chase wild mammals. ""How is the village bobby who sees a group of people with dogs supposed to distinguish between illegal hunting, exempt hunting, drag hunting, unintentional hunting, a hunt exercising hounds or simply chasing away?"" Tory MP Peter Luff, another co-chairman of Middle Way, said that the legislation was ""so poorly drafted nobody appears able to properly define the offence""...""It is no wonder the government desperately wants to move on from this disastrous law. However, I seriously doubt the countryside will be that accommodating."" Mike Hobday, of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: ""There is no confusion, it is a matter of simple common sense. ""If Mr Bradshaw is setting his dogs to chase wild animals then he is hunting them and that will be a criminal offence. ""If all the dogs are doing is barking at the deer, then nobody can define that as hunting.""",politics
"Hospital suspends 'no Welsh' plan..An English hospital has suspended plans to stop treating Welsh patients who have waited more than three months...Hereford County Hospital had earlier said that from the new year patients waiting longer than this would be taken off waiting lists for hip and knee operations. GPs in Wales had feared patients could be pushed to the back of another queue. But after talks with Powys Health Board the hospital called off its plan until health chiefs meet early in January. Hereford Hospital Trust caused an outcry when it sent out a letter telling patients that for financial and administrative reasons it planned to turn down some orthopaedic patients. Shocked health officials in Powys said this meant they would be left with the prospect of patients and doctors having to find new appointments in other hospitals. Andy Williams, chief executive of Powys Local Health Board, had said it was ""a totally unacceptable way to behave""...Mr Williams had said he did not think it was a Welsh-English issue, but said Hereford hospital was ""struggling financially and trying to pass the problem back to Powys"". He had told BBC Radio Wales: ""I have written straight back to the trust... to insist they withdraw this threat and treat the patients I am paying them to treat."" But after the hospital had agreed to the suspension, Mr Williams said he was optimistic a compromise could be reached which would ensure Welsh patients continued to be treated there. He said the problem had been caused by the difference in waiting time targets between England and Wales...The target is 12 months for Welsh patients, but just three months in England. The contract with the Powys health board was worth £7m a year for the hospital and accounts for 12% of its patients. In a statement before the suspension of the idea, the Welsh Assembly Government said the situation was ""unacceptable"". ""But Powys Local Health Board is committed to ensuring our patients receive the care that is appropriate,"" said the assembly government. ""Although we will be challenging Hereford's decision we will put in place appropriate care for our patients. They will be contacted by their GPs in the next week."" Earlier, David Rose, Chief Executive of Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust, had said: ""It is with real regret that we have taken this step. ""We want to continue providing an excellent and fast service to Powys people but can only do this if we are paid to provide the service. ""In 2005 our waiting time will fall to a maximum of 6-months and we want Powys people to ask to be referred to our modern hospital. ""We appeal to Powys Local Health Board to allow Powys people to choose Hereford for their treatment.""",politics
"Tories pledge free sports lessons..Children would be offered two hours' free sports training a week by a future Tory government, the party has said...The Club2School policy would provide up to £250m yearly for local sports clubs in the UK to deliver after-school sport. The extra coaching would be funded by the National Lottery and would come on top of the two hours of sport a week children are supposed to get in school. Shadow home secretary David Davis said five million children were being denied adequate sporting opportunities...The plans would help tackle the ""fastest growing rate of obesity in the developed world"", he said. Shadow sports minister Lord Moynihan said the policy would empower local clubs and create a lasting legacy. ""We aim to shift the emphasis on after-school sport provision away from our overstretched teachers and schools directly in to the 151,000 sports clubs in the UK."" The Tories say Labour's plans to give all children two hours of sports lessons a week in schools have failed. Government figures show that in England in 2002 only a third of schools at Key Stages 1, 3 and 4 and two-fifths of schools at Key Stage 2, met that target. The Tories also claim that of the £750m the prime minister pledged in 2000 to invest on school sports facilities, only £41m had been spent. But the Big Lottery Fund has said that complex capital projects are involved - and it was confident the money would all be allocated by next year as intended.",politics
"Faith schools citizenship warning..Schools must improve the quality of citizenship lessons - or social cohesion and democracy will suffer, says the education watchdog...Independent faith schools were singled out by Ofsted chief, David Bell, for not doing enough to promote the ""wider tenets of British society"". Mr Bell said Muslim, Jewish and Evangelical Christian schools must be ""intolerant of intolerance"". Diversity ""certainly must not mean segregated or separate"", he said. Mr Bell's speech called for a much greater effort in all types of schools to teach citizenship - with an accompanying survey showing that young people knew little about politics and had no enthusiasm to find out more...Badly-taught citizenship lessons have previously been criticised by Mr Bell, and in a speech to the Hansard Society, he warned that it was failing to pass on an understanding of democracy, public service and shared values. He highlighted his particular concern for citizenship in the growing number of independent faith schools - which he said included about 100 Muslim, 100 Evangelical Christian and 50 Jewish schools...Mr Bell expressed concern about schools which did not teach children enough about a ""common heritage"" and needed to do more to promote principles of mutual tolerance and social inclusion. ""I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to British society,"" said Mr Bell. The Ofsted chief said his forthcoming annual report would make particular reference to Muslim schools. ""Many must adapt their curriculum to ensure that it provides pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in England and helps them to acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony."" Mr Bell said such questions of religion and cultural identity were ""tricky issues"". But he argued that ""we must not allow our recognition of diversity to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation"". ""I would go further and say that an awareness of our common heritage as British citizens, equal under the law, should enable us to assert with confidence that we are intolerant of intolerance, illiberalism and attitudes and values that demean the place of certain sections of our community, be they women or people living in non-traditional relationships,"" said Mr Bell.",politics
"Ministers lose slopping out case..The Scottish Executive has lost an appeal against an inmate's compensation for being forced to slop out in prison...Armed robber Robert Napier, 25, won £2,450 after he claimed he suffered an outbreak of the skin complaint, eczema, when slopping out at Barlinnie Prison. Napier said that the practice, where prisoners use buckets in their cells as toilets, breached his human rights. On Thursday, the Court of Session threw out a move by the executive to apply a more rigorous standard of proof...The executive faces more than 1,000 similar claims for damages from prisoners and former inmates. More than 310 actions have already been raised in the Court of Session and sheriff courts in Scotland. An executive spokesman said: ""We will study this judgement in detail. Much has changed to address the issues raised in the Napier case, for example, slopping out has ended at Barlinnie and work in other prisons is being accelerated. ""Today's judgement does not affect the outcome of other cases."" Napier, a remand prisoner at the time, raised a legal challenge in 2001 under the European Convention on Human Rights, in which he sought £5,000. He was awarded compensation last April after winning his case...Executive ministers raised an appeal arguing that the standard of proof to be applied in cases alleging a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights through degrading and inhumane treatment should ""be beyond reasonable doubt"". This is the standard normally applied in criminal trials in Scotland. However, civil litigation is settled on the test of ""a balance of probabilities"". Judge Lord Cullen, sitting with Lord Osborne and Lord Hamilton, ruled that alleged human rights breaches involving degrading treatment should be dealt with on the normal civil standard. Napier's lawyer Tony Kelly believes the action will soon be followed by others. Mr Kelly said: ""There are hundreds of people still undergoing slopping out, overcrowding and poor regime and those people will certainly be heartened by today's judgement."" Scottish National Party Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill said that the slopping out case had been ""a fiasco from start to finish"". He said: ""Ministers were fully aware of the state of Scotland's jails. Funds were available but they chose to ignore the problem and after this ruling I suspect we will be faced with even more claims and no doubt more payouts. ""A short term executive saving has resulted in a long term public cost.""",politics
"Escaped prisoner report ordered..First Minister Jack McConnell has ordered a report on the decision to allow a paranoid schizophrenic knife attacker to go on a visit unguarded...Michael Ferguson, 36, escaped after being allowed out of the high-security Carstairs unit. The SNP's Nicola Sturgeon has demanded to know who was responsible for signing off the leave. The Scottish Executive said ministers would be notified but it would ""not be common practice"" to sign approval. An executive spokesman said the health department and the state hospital itself would work together on preparing the report. Ministerial responsibility for Carstairs rests with Rhona Brankin, the deputy health minister. Ms Brankin said: ""The first minister has called for a review of what has happened, we need to talk to the state hospital and we need to reflect on this."" Ms Sturgeon has written to Mr McConnell asking for clarification on the move to allow the prisoner out. She said questions must be answered about his escape, if the public is to be reassured about safety. Police are still searching for Ferguson, who failed to return after a trip to East Kilbride on Monday...The Scottish National Party's parliamentary leader argued that under the law, authorisation of Ferguson's leave of absence would have come directly from ministers. She said: ""The Scottish Executive seemed to indicate yesterday that the escape of Mr Ferguson was a matter for Carstairs. ""However, my understanding is that, under the mental health legislation, the decision to grant this patient - and any restricted patient - leave of absence, would have required direct and specific authorisation by Scottish ministers."" She added: ""I have written to the first minister today asking for confirmation of that fact. I have also asked him to confirm which minister would routinely take decisions of this nature and what information they are based on. ""This is not an attempt to apportion blame, but to ensure a better understanding of the decision making process in such important and sensitive cases.""..Police said Ferguson posed a danger to the public. BBC Scotland political correspondent Glenn Campbell said the first minister had ordered an urgent report into the situation. He said: ""We understand from the executive that in this case no individual minister signed off the approval for Michael Ferguson to be released unescorted from Carstairs. ""The executive concedes that it is up to Scottish ministers, they have a legal responsibility for approving this sort of leave, but they say routinely it is specialised officials that make that decision and simply inform ministers that they have taken it. ""But at that stage presumably ministers can ask hard questions and can ask for reassurances that the patient is not a serious danger to the public or that any risk has been minimised."" Scottish Conservative leader, David McLetchie, said earlier it was ""almost beyond belief that this has been allowed to happen""...The executive spokeswoman said the recommendation for leave was agreed by a psychiatric advisor ""in conjunction with officials on behalf of ministers"". She said: ""Ministers were told of that, notified of it, but it would not be common practice for them to sign it off. ""They do have statutory responsibility, but the common practice has been that people who work with the patient and have the best knowledge about risk would make that decision."" Ferguson, who slashed a man in a doctors' surgery in Coatbridge in 1994, had been out to see his fiancée Annabella Holmes, 47, whom he met when she was a patient at the high security complex in South Lanarkshire. He is described as being 5ft 9ins tall, slim, with blond hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. Ferguson was wearing a black jacket, grey jeans, black jumper and black shoes when he was last seen. He has multiple fading tattoos on his left hand and a very faded tear tattoo under his left eye. Ms Holmes is not missing but there have been no sightings of Ferguson since Monday. Strathclyde Police asked anyone who spots Ferguson to contact Sergeant Keith McDonald on...",politics
"Chancellor rallies Labour voters..Gordon Brown has issued a rallying cry, telling supporters the ""stakes are too high"" to stay at home or protest vote in the forthcoming general election...The chancellor said the vote - expected to fall on 5 May - will give a ""clear and fundamental"" choice between Labour investment and Conservative cuts. Speaking at Labour's spring conference in Gateshead, Mr Brown claimed the NHS was not safe in Conservative hands. He said Tory plans to cut £35bn tax would ""cut deep into public service""...To a packed audience at Gateshead's Sage Centre, the chancellor said the cuts proposed by shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin were the equivalent of sacking every teacher, GP and nurse in the country, he told activists. Laying into the Conservative's record in government he said: ""I give you this promise - with Labour, Britain will never return to the mistakes of ERM and 10% inflation, 15% interest rates, £3bn in lost reserves, 250,000 repossessed, one million in negative equity and three million unemployed. ""Never again Tory boom and bust...""This will be the central dividing line at the election, between a Conservative Party taking Britain back and planning deep cuts of £35bn in our services, and a Labour government taking Britain forward, which on a platform of stability will reform and renew our hospitals, schools and public services and, I am proud to say, spend by 2008 £60bn more."" Turning to the economy, the chancellor pledged to continue economic stability and growth in a third term in power...He said after seven years Labour had transformed from a party not trusted with the economy to ""the only party trusted with the economy"". It was now a ""party not just of employees, but of employers and managers"", he said. In the speech - which prompted a standing ovation from an audience clearly ""warm"" to Mr Brown - he also promised to end teenage unemployment within the next five years. He also highlighted plans for 100% debt relief for the world's poorest countries, a national minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds and the creation of a network of children's centres and flexibility in maternity leave. The prime minister is to take part later on Saturday in an interactive question and answer session, fielding queries sent in by e-mail, text message and telephone as part of Labour's attempt to engage the public in their campaign.",politics
"Councils 'must find Gypsy sites'..Ministers are telling councils to find more sites for travellers, amid continuing rows concerning a string of unauthorised encampments...Councils are also to be given stronger powers to move on illegal settlements by Gypsy communities on rural land. More money is to be given to councils to develop official caravan parks, said housing minister Yvette Cooper. In November, MPs urged ministers to make councils create sites because 3,500 travellers have no place to stop. Ms Cooper said an annual scheme to refurbish existing traveller sites would now be extended to consider council bids for new stopping places. That scheme has paid out £25m in four years, with £8m available for 2005...""There are two major problems in the planning system at the moment concerning Gypsy and traveller sites,"" said Ms Cooper. ""Firstly, local authorities are not identifying enough appropriate locations either for private or public sites. And secondly, they do not have enough powers to deal swiftly with development on inappropriate sites. ""The result is that there are too many developments on inappropriate sites, causing tensions and difficulties for both the neighbouring communities and the Gypsies and travellers. ""That is why we are consulting on a new obligation on local authorities to identify more appropriate sites, as well as new powers to take immediate action if the development is in the wrong place and cannot be tolerated in even the short-term because of risk to local amenity and the environment."" Under the new regulations, expected to be in force in the spring, officials will be able to serve ""temporary stop notices"" aimed at preventing works on a site before a council has had chance to obtain a full legal ban. Many MPs with rural constituencies, particularly in eastern England, have been pressing the government to create stronger enforcement powers, saying villagers are suffering because of the legal delays in removing illegal encampments...Andrew Ryder, of the Traveller Law Reform Coalition, said: ""We welcome talk about an obligation on councils to identify land for Gypsies and travellers, so long as it is a real obligation as opposed to a recommendation which could be and was easily ignored. ""New accommodation proposals for travellers need to be backed up with decent funding and intervention by the government when councils attempt to dodge their responsibilities towards travellers, as they often do. ""Living on the side of the road or being worn down by planning appeals, legal action and eviction is no one's idea of fun."" In their November report, MPs from the committee scrutinising the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, responsible for housing, said most illegal traveller encampments were caused by a lack of places to stop. Numerous communities and councils were paying for lengthy and expensive evictions against travelling communities, said the MPs. In turn, the problems had worsened because councils were reluctant to voluntarily provide sites because of resistance from residents. Two of the most controversial traveller sites - Cottenham in Cambridgeshire and Minety in Wiltshire - remain embroiled in an ongoing legal battle.",politics
"Plaid MP's cottage arson claim..A Plaid Cymru MP believes UK security services were involved in some arson attacks blamed on Welsh extremists...It is 25 years since the start of 12 years of fire-bombings, attributed to a shadowy group known as Meibion Glyndwr. Plaid Cymru's Elfyn Llwyd has suggested the security services could have been involved, with the intention of discrediting the nationalist vote. Ex-Welsh Office Minister Lord Roberts of Conwy denied security services were involved. In March this year, North Wales Police reopened the case, saying materials kept during their investigations would be examined to find whether it would yield DNA evidence...Meibion Glyndwr - which means ""sons of Glyndwr"" - began burning property in December 1979 in protest at homes in rural Wales being sold as holiday cottages to people from England. The group was linked to most of the 220 or so fire-bombing incidents stretching from the Llyn Peninsula to Pembrokeshire. The campaign continued until the early 1990s. Police were accused in some quarters of targeting anyone who was a nationalist. Although one man, Sion Aubrey Roberts, was convicted in 1993 of sending letter bombs in the post, the arson cases remain unsolved...As a solicitor, Elfyn Llwyd represented Welsh singer Bryn Fôn when he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the arson campaign. Fôn was released without charge . But now, as MP for Merionnydd Nant Conwy and Plaid Cymru's Parliamentary Leader, Mr Llwyd has argued that some of the terror attacks may have had the involvement of the security services and not Meibion Glyndwr. He believes that elements of the British security services may have carried out renegade actions in order to discredit Plaid Cymru and the nationalist vote ahead of elections. The claim is made in an interview for BBC Wales' Maniffesto programme to be shown on S4C on Sunday...Mr Llwyd said that the sophistication of many of the devices used in the attacks compared to the crude nature of many others, suggests a degree of professionalism which could only have come from individuals who knew exactly what they were doing. He said: ""What I'm saying is that the role that they took wasn't the appropriate one, i.e. like an..agent provocateur..and perhaps interfering and creating a situation where it looked like it was the nationalists that were responsible."" The programme also heard from Lord Roberts of Conwy, who was a Welsh Office minister at the time. He denied that the security services played any improper role. Mr Llwyd's theory has also been questioned by Plaid Cymru's former President, Dafydd Wigley. He accepted that the fires damaged Plaid Cymru's public image but believed that the security services had their hands full at the time with the IRA and animal rights activists.... - Maniffesto can be seen on S4C on Sunday, 12 December, at 1200 GMT.",politics
"Hatfield executives go on trial..Engineering firm Balfour Beatty and five railway managers are to go on trial for manslaughter over the Hatfield rail crash in 2000...Four people died when a section of rail broke and a high speed train derailed. Balfour Beatty's railway maintenance arm was in charge of the upkeep of the line at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Balfour Beatty managers Anthony Walker and Nicholas Jeffries, and Railtrack managers Alistair Cook, Sean Fugill and Keith Lea all face individual charges. All five men, along with four others, are also accused of breaches of health and safety laws. Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance faces a corporate manslaughter charge. It is expected the trial could last as long as a year. The accident, on 17 October 2000, happened when the London to Leeds express came off the tracks at 115 mph, when it was derailed by a cracked section of rail. The accident on the East Coast Main Line sparked major disruption. The overall responsibility for the line was Railtrack's - the company that has now become Network Rail. Those who died in the accident were Steve Arthur, 46, from Pease Pottage, West Sussex; Peter Monkhouse, 50, of Headingley, Leeds; Leslie Gray, 43, of Tuxford, Nottingham; and Robert James Alcorn, 37, of Auckland, New Zealand.",politics
"Final hunts held as ban looms..Hunts in England and Wales have begun on the last day that hunting with dogs is legal, with more due out later...Thousands of supporters are expected to turn out at more than 250 meets, many of which have altered their normal schedules to be out on a Thursday. The ban on hunting with dogs comes into effect from 0001 GMT on Friday. The Countryside Alliance had its latest legal bid to block the ban thwarted on Wednesday when the Appeal Court ruled the Hunting Act was lawful...But the group says hunting will continue in some form after the ban comes in, with hunts expected to test the new law to its limits. Others are expected to defy the ban by continuing to hunt illegally...Anti-hunt organisations, for whom the ban is the culmination of years of campaigning, say they hope most will stay within the law. Mike Hobday, of the League Against Cruel Sports, told BBC News: ""We've long urged them to go drag hunting - to follow an artificial scent - and that is what we hope they do. ""But if they continue to chase foxes, to chase wild mammals around the countryside, that's against the law and we're confident they'll be brought to justice."" At the headquarters of Quorn hunt in Leicestershire, feelings were running high as hunt enthusiasts prepared for their final legal hunt. BBC correspondent Sarah Mukherjee said hunt supporters were in tears...She said many people did not share the Countryside Alliance's optimism that hunting would be able to continue. Farmer Geoff Brooks, a senior member of the Quorn hunt, told BBC News people's lives ""revolved around hunting"". He described the ban as ""ridiculous"" and ""badly thought out"" but said it would be hard for most people to defy it as they would not want to risk their incomes by getting a criminal record...At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, the Countryside Alliance failed in its attempt to have the Hunting Act ruled invalid. But it says the ban is unenforceable because the law is unclear and impossible to police...The alliance says hunt supporters will go out and test this law to its limits on Saturday. The League Against Cruel Sports and the RSPCA say they will monitor hunts and assist police in bringing prosecutions. The Association of Chief Police Officers has issued guidance to forces on how to deal with the new rules. A spokesman said: ""Basically, it's not going to be police officers chasing about in cars across fields, it will be based on intelligence and information received as well."" The decision on how to police individual hunts will be left to local forces, with more officers sent to hunts where disruption is expected. He said police would consider evidence submitted by anti-hunt organisations on its merits.",politics
"Falconer rebuts 'charade' claims..Concessions on a bill which critics claim would allow euthanasia ""through the back door"" were not a political ploy, the lord chancellor has said...Ministers have been accused of panic in offering last minute changes to the Mental Capacity Bill amid chaotic scenes in the Commons on Tuesday. Lord Falconer said it was fair to criticise the late timing of the offer. He said the changes provided a solution to a very difficult issue but some MPs argue the situation is still unclear...The bill allows people to give somebody the power of attorney to make decisions on their behalf if they become too ill to decide for themselves. Ministers insist the plans would not change laws on euthanasia and would improve safeguards. Critics fear it could allow ""killing by omission"" through withdrawing treatment, including food and fluids...Tony Blair said he would do everything he could to meet concerns about the bill. But changes to the bill must not overturn the law set when a court ruled that doctors could withdraw artificial feeding and hydration from Hillsborough coma victim Tony Bland. ""It is important we don't end up in the situation where doctors and consultants are confused about the law and may lay themselves open to prosecution in circumstances where no sensible person would want that to happen,"" he said...On Tuesday, the government saw off a backbench attempt to force changes to the bill by 297 votes to 203, despite rebellion by 34 Labour MPs. The revolt was also reduced by news that Lord Falconer had promised the Catholic archbishop of Cardiff to strengthen safeguards in the bill. But that only came after MPs bombarded Constitutional Affairs Minister David Lammy with a barrage of requests for him to read the letter as they complained they had been left in the dark. Eventually, he was hurriedly handed the letter to read out five minutes before the crunch votes, prompting claims of a shambles. The deputy speaker later said the debate had not been handled as it should have been...Lord Falconer says there will be amendments when the bill goes to the House of Lords. He told BBC News: ""We have given a commitment to put into the bill a clause that says that nothing in the bill authorises any act where the motive of the person authorising the decision is to end life. ""The motive has got to be to end suffering."" He denied the concessions were a ""political manoeuvre"" forced by panic about the rebellion. It was inevitable that minds became more focused as the bill went through Parliament but the result was a ""sensible solution"", he said. ""I don't think it is something to be embarrassed about. These issues are not easy to deal with,"" he went on. BBC political editor Andrew Marr said Mr Lammy was ""waste deep in quicksand and sinking fast"" after his performance. But Lord Falconer praised his minister for an ""excellent job"". Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, one of the chief critics of the plans, condemned the debate as a ""charade"" and complained the promises of changes to the bill were vague.",politics
"School sport 'is back', says PM..Tony Blair has promised that ""sport is back"" as a priority for schools...The prime minister launched a £500m initiative to allow school sports clubs in England to provide up to three hours of extra activity a week by 2010. ""It's an important part of education and it's an important part of health,"" Mr Blair said. But the Conservatives say government proposals - which include two hours' PE within school for 75% of pupils by 2006 - are unrealistic...The latest move is aimed at encouraging more diversity in sport, with activities such as yoga and Tai Chi being options. Launching the initiative, Mr Blair completed an agility course and shot basketball hoops with students from the all-girl Waverley Sports College in Southwark, south London. He said: ""You've got to bring back school sport. It's got to be done differently than it was 30 or 40 years ago. It's still very, very important.""..Earlier, Education Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC News there were at least three areas which needed ""a coherent framework"" and ""dedicated funding"". These were training for PE teachers, establishing more specialist schools and the development of partnerships for activities such as inter-school competitions. He added the government had originally pledged ""for every pupil to get at least two hours of high-quality physical education"" a week. The proportion was currently at 62%, and the government was hoping this would rise to 85% by 2008 and 100% by 2010. The money for the initiative will come from a new £500m fund...The £500m move will also increase the number of specialist sport colleges from 350 to 400. But the Conservatives warned of rising obesity levels and said that since only a third of children do two hours of sport a week currently, the government is promising something it cannot guarantee. Shadow spokesman for sport Hugh Robertson said: ""I suspect the correct way to tackle it is to look at the other end of the spectrum and try to enable the clubs - which is where the real passion for sport exists - to deliver the school sport offer."" He said more emphasis should be put on traditional sports, saying that an ""anti-competitive sport agenda"" had been pursued in recent years. Martin Ward, of the Secondary Heads Association, said members did not like ""ring-fenced funds"" and that it should be up to the schools themselves to decide how to spend their money.",politics
"Anti-terror plan faces first test..Plans to allow Home Secretary Charles Clarke to place terror suspects under house arrest without trial are set for their first real test in Parliament...Tories, Lib Dems and some Labour MPs are poised to vote against the plans. Mr Clarke says the powers are needed to counter terror threats. Opponents say only judges, not politicians, should be able to order detention of UK citizens. The government is expected to win Wednesday's vote in the Commons, but faces a battle in the House of Lords...The Prevention of Terrorism Bill was published on Tuesday. It proposes ""control orders"", which would mean house arrest in the most serious cases, and curfews, electronic tagging and limits on telephone and internet access for other suspects...The two opposition parties are particularly worried that the control orders would initially be imposed on the say-so of the home secretary, rather than a judge. Tory shadow home secretary David Davis warned of the potential for miscarriages of justice, like the Guildford Four - for which Tony Blair recently apologised - as a result of the pressure on politicians to lock up terror suspects. ""Those pressures would be much more for a politician than they would on a judge and that's why we have serious concerns abut that approach,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme...Mr Clarke says he does not intend to use the house arrest powers now - even for the 11 current terror detainees. He also said that any decision he made would be reviewed by a judge within seven days. The foreign terror suspects currently detained are mostly held at London's Belmarsh prison. They are held under laws which the Law Lords have ruled break human rights rules - and which are due to expire on 14 March...The new powers, designed to replace the existing laws and meet the Law Lords' concerns, would apply to British as well as foreign terror suspects. Critics say that giving politicians the power to deprive UK citizens of their freedom is the biggest attack on civil liberties for 300 years. Opposition MPs are also angry they will have only two days - Wednesday and next Monday - to debate the new plans before they pass to the House of Lords. But the government says the existing powers run out soon so must be replaced urgently...In a rare move, the Tories and Lib Dems have jointly tabled a motion opposing the new bill, saying the house arrest plans are ""excessive"". It argues decisions should be taken on a higher standard of proof and the plan ""wrongly infringes the right to liberty"" by failing to bring terrorists to trial where there is evidence. Mr Davis told Today: ""It gives a minister, for the first time in modern history, the right to detain without trial, without showing the evidence and indeed, in some respects, almost the allegation against the individual concerned.""..He questioned why there was ""such a rush"" to introduce the legislation when Mr Clarke had indicated he was not planning to use the house arrest powers straight away. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""We believe it should be the judge that takes decisions, not politicians."" Mr Clarke said the security services and police backed his measures and it would be ""rash and negligent"" to ignore their advice. Nobody should doubt that terrorists at home and abroad wanted to attack the UK and its interests, he argued.",politics
"Former NI minister Scott dies..Former Northern Ireland minister Sir Nicholas Scott has died at a London hospice, his family has announced...The former Conservative MP for Kensington and Chelsea, died after a long illness diagnosed as Alzheimer's. The 71-year-old served in Northern Ireland from 1981 to 1987 during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. As a Northern Ireland minister he dealt with education and later security where he rode out the mass IRA escape from the Maze in 1983...In education, he encountered criticism over school closures and the future of the Catholic training colleges. He also merged the New University of Ulster and the Ulster Polytechnic to create the University of Ulster. Sir Nicholas was a strong defender of the Anglo-Irish Agreement and was held in esteem in Dublin government and SDLP circles. But he experienced hostility from unionists some of whom dubbed him ""Minister of Discord"". After leaving Northern Ireland in a reshuffle, he became a UK disability minister. Sir Nicholas was replaced as the member for Kensington and Chelsea by the flamboyant Alan Clark, after being deselected by his constituency in December 1996. His deselection followed a series of scandals including being found slumped in the street by police during the Tory Party conference in Bournemouth and taken back to his hotel...Sir Nicholas claimed strong painkillers he was taking for a back problem had reacted badly with a small amount of alcohol. After his sacking, he bitterly said that despite the support of Cabinet ministers and Tory backbenchers, the Eurosceptics in his constituency were ""absolutely determined to get rid of me"". His colourful career also included a very public disagreement with daughter Victoria over civil rights for the disabled. Sir Nicholas admitted he misled MPs when he denied his department had been involved in wrecking tactics designed to kill the Disability Bill in 1994. Victoria, a lobbyist for disabled rights, denounced her father's actions and heaped insult on injury when she joined the calls for him to resign. He joined the backbenches two months later.",politics
"Blair rejects Iraq advice calls..Tony Blair has rejected calls for the publication of advice on the legality of the Iraq war amid growing calls for an investigation...The prime minister told his monthly press conference the matter had been dealt with by the Attorney General. Earlier, Conservative MP Michael Mates joined calls for a probe into claims Lord Goldsmith's statement to Parliament was drawn up at Number 10. Mr Blair said the statement was a ""fair summary"" of Lord Goldsmith's opinion...""That's what he (Lord Goldsmith) said and that's what I say. He has dealt with this time and time and time again,"" Mr Blair told his monthly news conference in Downing Street. He refused to answer further questions on the issue, saying it had been dealt with ""literally scores of times and the position has not changed"". Lord Goldsmith has denied being ""leaned on"" and says the words written were his...The government refuses to publish his advice on the legality of the war - saying such papers have always been kept confidential. Mr Mates, who is a member of the Commons intelligence and security committee and was part of the Butler inquiry into pre-war intelligence, told the BBC on Friday: ""That, as a general rule, is right, but it's not an absolute rule."" He said there had been other occasions when advice had been published, most recently regarding Prince Charles's marriage plans. The government could not pick and choose when to use the convention, he said...Mr Mates added: ""We discovered that there were two or three occasions in the past when law officers' advice to the government has been published. ""And this may be one of those special occasions... when it would be in the public interest to see the advice which the attorney general gave to the prime minister."" This is argument was rejected by Mr Blair, who said: ""Firstly, we haven't broken the precedent, and secondly Peter Goldsmith has made his statement and I have got absolutely nothing to add to it."" In a book published this week, Philippe Sands QC, a member of Cherie Blair's Matrix Chambers, says Lord Goldsmith warned Tony Blair on 7 March 2003 that the Iraq war could be illegal without a second UN resolution sanctioning military action...But a short statement about Lord Goldsmith's position was presented in a written parliamentary answer on 17 March 2003 - just before a crucial Commons vote on the military action. Mr Sands' book suggests it was actually written by Home Office Minister Lord Falconer and Downing Street adviser Baroness Morgan. Former minister Clare Short, who resigned from the government over the Iraq war, said it was the same statement that was earlier shown to the cabinet as it discussed military action. She told the BBC the full advice should have been attached, according to the ministerial code...""My view is we need the House of Lords to set up a special committee, summon the attorney, get all the papers out, look at exactly what happened,"" she said. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats say they want the publication of the full legal advice given by the Attorney General. On Thursday, Lord Goldsmith said his statement had not been ""written by or at Number 10"". ""In my parliamentary answer on March 17 2003, I explained my genuinely held independent view, that military action was lawful under the existing Security Council resolutions,"" he said.",politics
"Police probe BNP mosque leaflet..Police are investigating a British National Party leaflet posted to homes in south Wales opposing plans for a new mosque...Anti-racism campaigners in Swansea have handed copies to South Wales Police. Swansea's Muslim community is raising money to open a new mosque and community centre in the former St Andrews United Reform Church. The building on George Street has been derelict since the 1980s...Taha Idris, director of the Swansea Bay Race Equality Council, said his organisation contacted police after receiving complaints from the public. ""I'm quite shocked to see this sort of leaflet by the BNP in Swansea,"" he said...""The BNP has tried in the past to get into Swansea and this is another example of them trying again. ""I am in no doubt that the BNP are not needed and not wanted here."" A South Wales Police spokeswoman confirmed that they were looking at the contents of the leaflet. According to the BNP's website, they have been posted to homes in the Castle ward. The BNP website carries a photograph of party leader Nick Griffin - who lives near Welshpool, mid Wales - delivering the leaflet. The BNP has denied it is trying to stir up hatred of any race or religion, but argues that they should be able to debate this without fear of arrest. Swansea Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is meeting this week to plan a campaign. Following the death earlier this year of Kalan Kawa Karim, an Iraqi Kurd living in Swansea, it organised an anti-racism march in the city that was supported by more than 1,000 people. It is planning its own mail shot campaign and may launch a petition in support of the plans for the mosque...Andy Richards, of Swansea UAF, said the leaflet was exactly what he had come to expect from the BNP...""The people of Swansea will not put up with this."" Swansea's Muslim community bought the former church, just across the road from the existing mosque on St Helen's Road, in the late 1990s. Mr Idris said the community was now raising money to renovate the building. ""It is a landmark building in Swansea and would otherwise just crumble,"" he said. ""It is the ideal opportunity for the building to be restored and used in the proper manner. ""It will be a Muslim community centre. It's a holistic place used for education, weddings, deaths and births."" He said space was limited in the current mosque and on some occasions Muslims had to travel to Llanelli for cultural events.",politics
"Blair says mayor should apologise..Tony Blair has urged London mayor Ken Livingstone to apologise for his ""Nazi"" comment to a Jewish reporter...Labour's Mr Livingstone, who says he is ""standing by"" his remarks, had accused an Evening Standard journalist of being like a ""concentration camp guard"". Mr Blair told Five's Wright Stuff show: ""Let's just apologise and move on."" Mr Livingstone has said the remarks may have been offensive but were not racist, and said he would not apologise even if the prime minister asked...Mr Blair, who was instrumental in returning Mr Livingstone to the Labour Party, insisted on Wednesday it was time for the London mayor to say sorry...""A lot of us in politics get angry with journalists from time to time, but in the circumstances, and to the journalist because he was a Jewish journalist, yes, he should apologise,"" he said. ""Let's just apologise and move on - that's the sensible thing."" Tory leader Michael Howard, asked about Mr Livingstone's remark by reporters, said it was important for politicians to be mindful about the language they use. ""It's particularly important that as we get close to the election that politicians talk with civility and courtesy about issues that we all face,"" he said. ""I think it's a matter of sadness that we are not seeing that from the Labour Party. We had what Ken Livingstone said, we had what Alastair Campbell has said and we have what others have said. I think that's a matter of great regret.""..The row blew up after Mr Livingstone was approached by Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold following a party marking the 20th anniversary of former Culture Secretary Chris Smith coming out as Britain's first gay MP. On tape, Mr Livingstone, who once worked as a freelance restaurant critic on the paper, is heard asking Mr Finegold if he is a ""German war criminal""...Mr Finegold replies: ""No, I'm Jewish, I wasn't a German war criminal. I'm quite offended by that."" The mayor then says: ""Ah right, well you might be, but actually you are like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?"" At his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Mr Livingstone said his comments were not racist and refused to apologise. ""If you think they are racist, I think you are wrong,"" he told reporters. The dispute comes as an inspection team from the International Olympic committee began a four-day tour to assess London's bid for the 2012 Games. An official complaint has been made to local government watchdogs by the British Jews, demanding an investigation by the Standards Board of England. It has the power to suspend or bar Mr Livingstone from public office.",politics
"Jowell confirms casino climbdown..Tessa Jowell has announced plans to limit the number of new casinos in the UK to 24, in a move branded a ""humiliating retreat"" by the Tories...It puts an end to plans for up to 40 super casinos, originally outlined in the government's Gambling Bill. Instead there will be a cap of eight new casinos in each size category - small, medium and large. The Culture Secretary said the move showed she listened to critics who feared an explosion in gambling...But Conservative shadow culture secretary John Whittingdale said the way the government had handled the bill was a ""shambles"". ""This announcement is a further humiliating retreat by the government. ""Instead of the initial intention of the gambling bill, to liberalise the rules governing gambling, the bill now imposes a more restrictive regime than exists at present."" Shares in British casino operators London Clubs International, Rank Group and Stanley Leisure, who had been hoping the bill would pave the way for a big expansion in smaller casinos, fell by between 10 and 25% following the announcement. Ms Jowell's deputy, Richard Caborn, said the government had adopted a cautious approach to the issue, and responded to the concerns raised. ""Limiting the number of regional casinos to eight in the first phase is a cautious move that will allow us to test the impact of a new kind of casino on the levels of problem gambling,"" he said. ""We also believe it's right to apply this same level of caution to small and large casinos.""..He added that local authorities would still be able to stop new casinos coming to their areas. Church groups welcomed the limit on the number of casinos. Salvation Army spokesman Jonathan Lomax said: ""The proliferation of these casinos on high streets across the country was a real concern and the [three year] trial period, which we think should last at least five years, will enable research into the potentially severe social consequences of an increase in hard and addictive forms of gambling."" But British British Casino Association Chairman Penny Cobham said her members were ""outraged"" by the decision, which followed a campaign in the Daily Mail newspaper. ""There was never going to be a massive explosion of casinos. Talk of a casino on every High Street was just a scaring tactic.""",politics
"Security papers 'found in street'..An inquiry is under way after files containing security details about the Pakistani president's visit to London were found by a member of the public...The files are believed to contain detailed security arrangements for Gen Pervez Musharraf's visit this week, including police codes. Scotland Yard said the policing operation had been reviewed. A spokesman said President Musharraf's safety had not been compromised, as the papers had been handed in promptly. ""We cannot discuss who was responsible for the documents, only that they contained the policing arrangements for the official visit,"" said the spokesman...The papers are believed to have been found by a member of the public in a street in Mayfair and given to the Mirror newspaper. The police spokesman said the newspaper handed the report over on Monday. The force's Directorate of Professional Standards is investigating the circumstances surrounding the loss of the documents, he said. Gen Musharraf held talks with Tony Blair on Monday. He arrived in Britain on Sunday night after flying from the United States, where he met President George W Bush. He is due to visit the Pakistani community in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon.",politics
"Blair congratulates Bush on win..Tony Blair has said he looks forward to continuing his strong relationship with George Bush and working with him during his second term as president...Mr Bush's re-election came at a crucial time for a world that was ""fractured, divided and uncertain"", Mr Blair said. It had to be brought together, he added, saying action was needed on poverty, the Middle East and the conditions on which terrorists prey. Mr Blair said states had to work with the US to fight global terrorism...But there was a need to recognise it would not be defeated by ""military might alone but also by demonstrating the strength of our common values"" he added. Solving the conflict in the Middle East was the world's single most ""pressing political challenge"" of the present day, Mr Blair warned. The prime minister also urged Europe and the US to ""build anew their alliance""...""All of us in positions of leadership, not just President Bush, have a responsibility to rise to this challenge. It is urgent that we do so."" Mr Blair also paid tribute to Democrat John Kerry's campaign, saying he had helped make the presidential election ""a true celebration of American democracy"". The election of the US president was significant for the world but particularly so for Britain because of its special relationship, he added. Earlier Tory leader Michael Howard sent Mr Bush his ""warmest congratulations"", saying: ""We look to the president to be a unifying force for those all over the world who share our determination to defend freedom."" Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy welcomed the fact there had been a quick conclusion to the election, unlike in 2000...Mr Bush's first task was to ""rebuild a sense of domestic purpose"" within the US, he said. Mr Kennedy said: ""Internationally, it is to be hoped that a second term will see a more sensitive approach to relations with long-standing allies, not least for the global efforts to combat terrorism."" Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said a win by Mr Kerry would have given Mr Blair the chance of a fresh start, adding it was almost as if there was an ""umbilical cord"" between Mr Bush and the UK premier...""Europeans must hope that his administration will be much more multilateral in character, and that he will act swiftly to rebuild the Atlantic partnership which is so vital to security. ""Iraq will remain an issue of potential division for some time to come."" Even before the result became clear, Mr Blair was being urged to push for action on climate change at his first meeting with whichever candidate won...Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker underlined the issue of global warming during a Commons debate on Anglo-American relations on Wednesday. Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett has said the US will act on global warming despite George Bush's refusal to sign up to the Kyoto protocol on carbon emissions. Public opinion would force change, she told BBC news. But Myron Ebell, an adviser on climate change to President Bush, has said there would be no change in the US stance and rejected the threat of climate change. He claimed the US was the only country with independent scientists.",politics
"Howard 'truanted to play snooker'..Conservative leader Michael Howard has admitted he used to play truant to spend time with his school friends at a snooker hall...Mr Howard said his time at Jack's Snooker Hall in Llanelli in the 1950s had not done him ""any lasting damage"". But he told the Times Educational Supplement that truancy was ""very bad"" and said ""firm action"" was needed. Mr Howard also called for a return to O-levels and more classroom discipline...Mr Howard eventually left Llanelli Grammar School - and the snooker hall - to go to Cambridge University. He said: ""I don't think it's done me any lasting damage. Nor has it made me a snooker world champion. ""There might have been some occasions when we left early of an afternoon...""I'm just being honest. I think truancy is a very bad thing and that firm action should be taken to deal with it."" Another player who has failed to win snooker's world championship - Jimmy ""the Whirlwind "" White - has previously admitted missing lessons, instead spending his days in smoky halls. ""Tony Meo [another player] and me used to spend all of our spare time there,"" Mr White said, ""We loved the game and the atmosphere. ""School went out of the window. I went for a while and then started taking time off."" Mr Howard's fellow Welshman Ray Reardon - known by his fellow professionals as ""Dracula"" - won the snooker world championship six times, having left school at 14 to work as a miner. And Terry Griffiths, like Mr Howard from Llanelli, won the tournament in 1979. It is not known whether the two of them ever clashed cues at Jack's.",politics
"Short attacks US over tsunami aid..Former Cabinet minister Clare Short has criticised the US-led tsunami aid coalition, saying the UN should be leading efforts...President Bush has announced that an alliance of the US, India, Australia and Japan will co-ordinate a humanitarian drive. But Ms Short said the effect of the parallel coalition would be to undermine the UN. She said only the UN had the ""moral authority"" to lead the relief work. Ms Short resigned as international development secretary over the Iraq war. ""I think this initiative from America to set up four countries claiming to co-ordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the UN when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up,"" she said. ""Only really the UN can do that job,"" she told BBC Radio Four's PM programme. ""It is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers."" Ms Short said the countries involved could not boast good records on their response to major disasters. The US was ""very bad at coordinating with anyone"" and India had its own problems, Ms Short said. ""I don't know what that is about but it sounds very much, I am afraid, like the US trying to have a separate operation and not work with the rest of the world through the UN system,"" she added.",politics
"Guantanamo four free in weeks..All four Britons held by the US in Guantanamo Bay will be returned to the UK within weeks, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons on Tuesday...Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, and Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Feroz Abbasi, from London, have been held by the US for almost three years. They were detained in the Cuban camp as part of the US-led ""war on terror"". Mr Straw said the US had agreed to release the four after ""intensive and complex discussions"" over security. He said the government had been negotiating the return of the detainees since 2003. All four families have been informed of their return and have been involved in regular discussions with the government, Mr Straw said...But he added: ""Once they are back in the UK, the police will consider whether to arrest them under the Terrorism Act 2000 for questioning in connection with possible terrorist activity."" The shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, welcomed the return of the four detainees. But he said there were still ""serious questions"" both over the possible threat the four pose to the UK, and the treatment they received while detained. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell said the four had been rescued from a ""legal no-man's land"". ""Their civil rights were systematically and deliberately abused and they were denied due process.""..Azmat Begg, father of Moazzam, thanked his lawyers and the British people for the support he had received while campaigning for his son's release. He added: ""If they have done something wrong, of course they should be punished, but if they haven't, they shouldn't have been there."" Lawyer Louise Christian, who represents Mr Abbasi and Mr Mubanga, said the government should have acted sooner. She said: ""They should at the outset have said quite clearly to the American government that they were behaving in breach of international law and that the British government wanted no part of it and wanted Guantanamo Bay shut down. ""They didn't do that. They colluded with it."" Moazzam Begg's Labour MP Roger Godsiff welcomed his release, but said questions remained unanswered, particularly about charges. Asked about possible damages Mr Begg and the other detainees could bring against the US, Mr Godsiff said: ""People get released from prison when it's found that their prosecution was unsustainable and they are quite rightly awarded sizeable sums of money. ""I don't see any difference in this case."" Human rights campaigners have been outraged at the treatment of the detainees in Cuba. Amnesty International has called Camp Delta a ""major human-rights scandal"" and an ""icon of lawlessness"". Both Amnesty and the lobby group Guantanamo Human Rights Commission described the release as ""long overdue"". Civil rights group Liberty said it was ""delighted"" but called on the government to release men indefinitely detained in the UK without charge or trial...Director Shami Chakrabarti called on the government to ""practise what it preaches"" and either free or charge 12 detainees at Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons. Law Lords ruled last month that the 12 were being held in contravention of human rights laws but they are still behind bars. The US has also announced that 48-year-old Australian Mamdouh Habib, previously accused of terrorist offences, will be released without charge from Camp Delta. Five British detainees released from Guantanamo in March last year were questioned by UK police before being released without charge.",politics
"Tories attack EU asylum moves..David Blunkett has been accused of using the ""politics of confusion"" to disguise new EU immigration measures...Tory spokesman David Davis told MPs the UK was losing its power of veto over who was allowed to come to Britain. The EU has opted to adopt qualified majority voting in this area - previously measures needed unanimous agreement from all member states. Mr Blunkett told MPs the UK would still be able to reject proposals on immigration it did not agree with...He argued closer co-operation with Europe over asylum and immigration was crucial to controlling the flow of people into the UK. ""If we don't like what other EU countries do on immigration and nationality we have the right to opt-in or out to suit the British people,"" he said. The home secretary was responding to an emergency question from his Tory opposite number Mr Davis. ""The government is employing the politics of confusion - I think, deliberately,"" argued Mr Davis. ""By confusing the country it hopes no one will notice the disappearance of the asylum and immigration veto."" On Monday Tony Blair insisted closer co-operation did not mean losing control of British borders. He said an enlarged 25-member EU needs a streamlined decision making process. Mr Davis said once Britain had opted into policies then it could not opt out - leaving the UK open to unfavourable interpretations of what those policies actually meant...He accused the government of being ""pathetic"" when it came to its efforts over immigration and asylum and of ""surrendering"" on the issue. And he asked why the government was agreeing to the measure on asylum and immigration now when the whole issue was part of the EU constitution, which voters in the UK had been promised a referendum over. Mr Blair told his monthly news conference Britain had the ""best of both worlds"" and would keep the veto. ""There is no question of Britain giving up our veto on our border controls,"" he said. ""With the Treaty of Amsterdam seven years ago, we secured the absolute right to opt in to any of the asylum and immigration provisions that we wanted to in Europe."" Mr Blunkett met his EU counterparts in Luxembourg on Monday to consider proposals aimed at streamlining decision making on the issue...The 25 member-states are expected to scrap the requirement for unanimous agreement on immigration policy, in favour of the qualified majority voting (QMV) system. Under this scheme larger states such as Britain are expected to have more power than the smaller EU states. Britain is expected to retain an ""opt-in"" right which will allow it to ignore any measures it disagrees with. Liberal Democrat spokesman Mark Oaten called the change pragmatic and argued it gave a better chance of producing a European asylum solution. ""If we don't work together it means some countries can ignore their responsibilities at the expense of their neighbours,"" said Mr Oaten. ""The Liberal Democrats have long argued that Britain should be a safe haven for asylum seekers but it's right that we don't do this in isolation.""",politics
"Cherie accused of attacking Bush..Cherie Blair has been accused of criticising George W Bush's policies in a private address she gave during a United States lecture tour...The prime minister's wife is said to have praised the Supreme Court for overruling the White House on the legal rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Tories said she broke a convention that British political figures do not act in a partisan way when abroad. But Downing Street said she was speaking in her capacity as a lawyer. It said she was not expressing political opinions. Mrs Blair's remarks are said to have been made in a speech to law students in Massachusetts. She said the decision by the US Supreme Court to give legal protection to two Britons held at Guantanamo Bay was a significant victory for human rights and the international rule of law. She also described the US legal code as an outdated grandfather clock and welcomed a decision to throw out a law backed by Mr Bush relating to sodomy in Texas...BBC news correspondent Gary O'Donoghue said Mrs Blair was likely to face further calls for restraint, since the US election is imminent. ""There have been some objections from people reasonably close to the Bush administration about her making these comments in their backyard just two days before a presidential election,"" he said. ""Conservatives here too have made their feelings clear. ""Cherie Booth has always regarded herself as having an independent career. She has continued to practise as a major human rights lawyer in the courts. ""It's not unusual for her to make these sorts of criticisms clear but it can be embarrassing.""",politics
"Tsunami 'won't divert Africa aid'..UK aid to help the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster will not take much needed relief from Africa, Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised...Mr Blair told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost show the money spent on the tsunami would not ""invade"" the money Britain wanted to spend on Africa. Questioned about the disaster, he said his faith in God had not been shaken. He added he would give new figures on the number of tsunami-related British deaths to the Commons on Monday. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Friday that about 440 Britons were either dead or missing in the disaster...Mr Blair told Sunday's programme: ""Since Jack Straw gave those figures a couple of days ago they haven't moved a great deal, which should give us some hope that we are beginning to reach the peak of the numbers. But we just can't be sure. ""It is just an immensely difficult job to get absolutely accurate figures, all countries are struggling with this.""..He said the £50 million originally allocated from the Department for International Development was now ""well on the way"" to being spent. But the exact allocation could not be clarified until the World Bank had completed its assessment of the needs of the countries affected. Within the next few weeks a clearer picture would emerge of the long-term costs of reconstruction, he added. But he pledged that Africa - which sees a ""preventable"" tsunami-size death toll every month from conflict, disease and poverty - would not be neglected. As Britain takes up its presidency of the G8 group of leading nations, Mr Blair said ministers had a big agenda for Africa. ""For the first time we have a plan that won't just deal with aid and debt but will also deal on issues of governance within African countries and conflict resolution,"" he said. ""A lot of the problems in Africa come from conflict, that again are preventable, but only with the right systems in place.""",politics
"Mandelson warning to BBC..The BBC should steer away from ""demonising"" ex-Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell, Peter Mandelson has said...The European commissioner and former Labour minister was speaking amid claims that Mr Campbell is part of a Labour ""dirty tricks"" campaign. That charge was denied by Mr Mandelson, who said the Tories were afraid of Mr Campbell's campaigning skills. He warned the BBC that attacking Mr Campbell had brought it trouble before. That was a reference to the Hutton inquiry following a BBC story claiming Downing Street ""sexed up"" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction dossier...The affair prompted the resignation of BBC chairman Gavyn Davies, director-general Greg Dyke and reporter Andrew Gilligan. Labour has attracted media criticism for using new freedom of information laws to dig up information about Tory leader Michael Howard's past...Mr Mandelson, a former Labour communications director, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ""I understand why the Tories will be gunning for Alastair Campbell because they fear his campaigning skills. ""What I understand less is why the BBC should be joining with the Tories in driving that agenda. ""In my experience of these things, parties which shout about dirty tricks and the like tend to do so because they fear a direct hit in some vulnerable part of their political anatomy. ""I suggest the BBC concentrates on the issues and helps the public to understand the policies and the choices that are at stake in the election rather than engages in the process politics, the trivialisation of the campaign. ""I think the BBC would be much better advised to leave all this stuff well alone, concentrate on the issues as I say, not resume their demonisation of Alastair Campbell - we all know where that led before.""..Mr Campbell is acting as an adviser for Labour, which denies engaging in personal campaigning. Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox said Mr Campbell's return and Labour poster plans attacking Mr Howard - recently withdrawn from the party's website - were a sign of ""abusive politics"". ""The government, despite the fact that they would say want to go forward, not back, seem intent on talking about history rather than their own record or even more importantly, about the future,"" he said on Sunday. Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, who is chairing the Power Inquiry into political disengagement, said people already thought politicians engaged in dirty tricks. ""This feeling of distrust is going to be enlarged if this campaigning on all sides is conducted in the way that it looks as if it just might,"" she said.",politics
"Blair 'pressing US on climate'..Tony Blair is pressing the US to cut greenhouse gases despite its unwillingness to sign the Kyoto Protocol, Downing Street has indicated...Officials have confirmed climate change was discussed when influential senator John McCain recently visited Mr Blair. Climate change was an issue the prime minister ""wanted to progress"" during the UK's presidency of the G8 and EU in 2005, said a spokesman. But he played down reports Mr Blair was considering a new US-friendly treaty...According to the Times, the UK leader wants to end US isolation with a ""Kyoto-lite"" agreement on the scale and nature of the threat from climate change. He is said to have discussed the idea with Mr McCain during his time at Number 10. The prime minister is said to believe the United States' refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on emissions is undermining other countries' resolve to cut carbon dioxide production. So far the US has refused to sign up to the Kyoto treaty - which aims to cut emissions - branding it politically motivated and not based on science. President Bush's advisers have repeatedly denied global warming is taking place...Europe, which disputes the claim, has also signalled it wants to press ahead with talks about longer term climate change action in a way which involves both the United States and developing countries. Mr Blair's reported treaty would also establish an international programme to develop technology needed for renewable energy and the reduction of carbon emissions, says the Times. But there is still apparently ""little prospect"" of America agreeing to cut emissions, which could further provoke environmental campaigners already angry at the lack of progress. Mr Blair was left blushing on Wednesday when it emerged his manifesto target of a 20% cut to the 1990 greenhouse gas level by 2010 was set to be missed.",politics
"Police chief backs drinking move..A chief constable has backed the introduction of 24-drinking, saying police had a responsibility to ensure people could benefit from a law change...However, Norfolk police chief Andy Hayman also warned that a great deal of preparatory work was still needed. ""I don't subscribe to the views of some of my colleagues who are coming out and objecting to it,"" he said. His comments come after the Liberal Democrats backed Tory demands that the government's plans be put on hold. Andy Hayman said he did not agree with politicians and senior police officers who have objected to the plans, which come into force on 7 February. ""I feel that is a premature position to be taking,"" he said. Among those who have criticised the plans are the UK's top policeman Sir John Stevens...The Metropolitan police chief said last week that the plans for 24-hour drinking should be re-examined because of a binge drinking ""epidemic"". However, Mr Hayman said: ""It would be totally unacceptable in my view for a chief constable to say, 'I'm very sorry'. He said that police should make sure that responsible people who wanted a change could benefit from more liberal legislation. ""My view is that I have got a responsibility to create an environment where that can happen, "" he said. However, he believes a lot of preparatory work is still needed to be done by police, local authorities and the drinks industry before the nation was ready for 24-hour drinking. But he is confident problems in the early days can be ""ironed out"". He believed the majority of people favoured this law change and ""we have to accept that lifestyles are changing"". But aspects such as transport, and basic things such as making sure public toilets are open all night had to be taken into account...Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended the Licensing Act, saying it is wrong to deny people the relaxed hours enjoyed elsewhere in Europe because of a ""tiny minority"" of violent binge drinkers. A six-month transitional period starts on 7 February during which time venues can apply for extended licences. The Conservatives have called for 24-hour drinking to be shelved until the problems of binge drinking are solved. On Monday, the Lib Dems also called for a delay. Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: ""It would clearly be prudent to allow the police and local authorities more time to prepare for flexible drinking hours."" Chief constable Mr Hayman acknowledged that binge drinking did cause problems. ""If you come to Norwich on a Friday or Saturday night you will see things going on that will you make you feel ashamed. ""However, I want industry to succeed in Norwich and I want Norwich to be the recognised nightspot of East Anglia. ""There is no way I want to say we cannot manage it or police it. We can.""",politics
"Game warnings 'must be clearer'..Violent video games should carry larger warnings so parents can understand what their children are playing, the trade and industry secretary has said...Patricia Hewitt is expected to call for the law banning the sale of 18-rated games to children to be enforced better at a games industry meeting on Sunday. She is concerned too many children are playing games aimed at adults which include ""high levels of violence"". Parents are expected to spend millions on video games as Christmas presents...Violent games have been hit by controversy after the game Manhunt was blamed by the parents of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah, who was stabbed to death in Leicester in February. His mother, Giselle, said her son's killer, Warren Leblanc, 17 - who was jailed for life in September - had mimicked behaviour in the game. Police investigating the Stefan's murder dismissed its influence and Manhunt was not part of its legal case. Ahead of Sunday's meeting in London, Ms Hewitt said she was proud of the UK's ""vibrant games industry"" but was concerned too many children were playing games which should only be sold to adults. Roger Bennett, head of gaming industry body ELSPA, said banning violent games would be wrong. He said: ""We don't want to go down that route. We have seen that the government is supportive of the industry."" The government is holding a further meeting on Friday with industry and retail representatives as well as the British Board of Film Classification to discuss how labelling can be made clearer. Ms Hewitt said: ""Adults should be treated as adults and children as children. It is important that retailers respect the classifications and do not sell games with high levels of violence to minors...""Equally parents need to know what they might be buying for their children. ""Video games are different to films or videos, and not all parents have grown up playing games in the way our children do. ""We need to look carefully at how we improve content warnings and strengthen sales enforcement."" Her call was backed by Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tessa Jowell who said: ""You wouldn't let your child watch the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You wouldn't let them go to a strip club. ""So you shouldn't let them play an 18-rated game. It's the same principle - adults can make their own informed choices, but children can't always and need to be protected."" Anyone convicted of selling an 18-rated game to a child can be jailed for six months and fined up to £5,000. Rockstar Games, the makers of Manhunt, has said in the past it markets its games responsibly and only targets its adverts at adults.",politics
"Mallon wades into NE vote battle..Middlesbrough mayor Ray Mallon has been drafted in to boost the Yes campaign as the North East assembly referendum enters its final week...The former police chief, dubbed Robocop for his zero tolerance style, clashed on Thursday with Sunderland No campaigner Neil Herron. Mr Mallon said an assembly would give local people more of a say over key issues such as transport and crime. But Mr Herron said North East people did not want or need an assembly...The pair met on the platform at Sunderland station as Mr Mallon toured the region highlighting claimed improvements to transport if the area gets an assembly. But Mr Herron - who gained fame as one of Sunderland's ""metric martyrs"" and is running his own No campaign alongside the official North East Says No campaign - said he was not convinced by Mr Mallon's arguments. ""The reality is that it is not going to deliver,"" he said. ""Labour has had two-and-a-half years to convince people of this. If you can't sell a deal in that time, it is a bad deal."" On Wednesday, Mr Mallon provoked fury by branding the official No Campaign ""two-bit Tories"" in a confrontation outside its Durham headquarters. ""The campaign is being run by two-bit Conservatives who are not interested in what happens in the North East; they are interested in hitting the Labour party over the head,"" he said. Mr Mallon is a late recruit to the Yes campaign after rejecting overtures from No campaigners including, he claims, Tory leader Michael Howard...Most local observers believe the contest is too close to call, although little recent polling has been carried out. Yes campaign chairman John Tomaney said he hoped for a late flurry of votes to boost turnout - something he says will boost their cause. He added: ""The government exerts a lot of political power in the North East. The accountability should be in the North East as well."" He also defended the decision to attack the official No campaign's alleged political allegiances. ""We felt we had to show what people were behind the No campaign - London Tory spin doctors."" Graham Robb, spokesman for North East Says No, said the Yes campaign's decision to get personal dragged the campaign ""into the gutter"" and showed they were ""rattled"". And he hit back at Mr Mallon's claim that an assembly would improve transport links in the region. ""It can push paper around but it can not get people moving,"" he said. Some 487,939 people had returned their ballot papers by Wednesday - a turnout of 25.7%. The deadline for voting is next Thursday, 4 November.",politics
"Claxton hunting first major medal..British hurdler Sarah Claxton is confident she can win her first major medal at next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid...The 25-year-old has already smashed the British record over 60m hurdles twice this season, setting a new mark of 7.96 seconds to win the AAAs title. ""I am quite confident,"" said Claxton. ""But I take each race as it comes. ""As long as I keep up my training but not do too much I think there is a chance of a medal."" Claxton has won the national 60m hurdles title for the past three years but has struggled to translate her domestic success to the international stage. Now, the Scotland-born athlete owns the equal fifth-fastest time in the world this year. And at last week's Birmingham Grand Prix, Claxton left European medal favourite Russian Irina Shevchenko trailing in sixth spot...For the first time, Claxton has only been preparing for a campaign over the hurdles - which could explain her leap in form. In previous seasons, the 25-year-old also contested the long jump but since moving from Colchester to London she has re-focused her attentions. Claxton will see if her new training regime pays dividends at the European Indoors which take place on 5-6 March.",sport
"O'Sullivan could run in Worlds..Sonia O'Sullivan has indicated that she would like to participate in next month's World Cross Country Championships in St Etienne...Athletics Ireland have hinted that the 35-year-old Cobh runner may be included in the official line-up for the event in France on 19-20 March. Provincial teams were selected after last Saturday's Nationals in Santry and will be officially announced this week. O'Sullivan is at present preparing for the London marathon on 17 April. The participation of O'Sullivan, currentily training at her base in Australia, would boost the Ireland team who won the bronze three years agio. The first three at Santry last Saturday, Jolene Byrne, Maria McCambridge and Fionnualla Britton, are automatic selections and will most likely form part of the long-course team. O'Sullivan will also take part in the Bupa Great Ireland Run on 9 April in Dublin.",sport
"Greene sets sights on world title..Maurice Greene aims to wipe out the pain of losing his Olympic 100m title in Athens by winning a fourth World Championship crown this summer...He had to settle for bronze in Greece behind fellow American Justin Gatlin and Francis Obikwelu of Portugal. ""It really hurts to look at that medal. It was my mistake. I lost because of the things I did,"" said Greene, who races in Birmingham on Friday. ""It's never going to happen again. My goal - I'm going to win the worlds."" Greene crossed the line just 0.02 seconds behind Gatlin, who won in 9.87 seconds in one of the closest and fastest sprints of all time. But Greene believes he lost the race and his title in the semi-finals. ""In my semi-final race, I should have won the race but I was conserving energy. ""That's when Francis Obikwelu came up and I took third because I didn't know he was there. ""I believe that's what put me in lane seven in the final and, while I was in lane seven, I couldn't feel anything in the race...""I just felt like I was running all alone. ""I believe if I was in the middle of the race I would have been able to react to people that came ahead of me."" Greene was also denied Olympic gold in the 4x100m men's relay when he could not catch Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis on the final leg. The Kansas star is set to go head-to-head with Lewis-Francis again at Friday's Norwich Union Grand Prix. The pair contest the 60m, the distance over which Greene currently holds the world record of 6.39 seconds. He then has another indoor meeting in France before resuming training for the outdoor season and the task of recapturing his world title in Helsinki in August. Greene believes Gatlin will again prove the biggest threat to his ambitions in Finland. But he also admits he faces more than one rival for the world crown. ""There's always someone else coming. I think when I was coming up I would say there was me and Ato (Boldon) in the young crowd,"" Greene said. ""Now you've got about five or six young guys coming up at the same time.""",sport
"IAAF launches fight against drugs..The IAAF - athletics' world governing body - has met anti-doping officials, coaches and athletes to co-ordinate the fight against drugs in sport...Two task forces have been set up to examine doping and nutrition issues. It was also agreed that a programme to ""de-mystify"" the issue to athletes, the public and the media was a priority. ""Nothing was decided to change things - it was more to have a forum of the stakeholders allowing them to express themselves,"" said an IAAF spokesman. ""Getting everyone together gave us a lot of food for thought."" About 60 people attended Sunday's meeting in Monaco, including IAAF chief Lamine Diack and Namibian athlete Frankie Fredericks, now a member of the Athletes' Commission. ""I am very happy to see you all, members of the athletics family, respond positively to the IAAF call to sit together and discuss what more we can do in the fight against doping,"" said Diack. ""We are the leading Federation in this field and it is our duty to keep our sport clean."" The two task forces will report back to the IAAF Council, at its April meeting in Qatar.",sport
"Dibaba breaks 5,000m world record..Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba set a new world record in winning the women's 5,000m at the Boston Indoor Games...Dibaba won in 14 minutes 32.93 seconds to erase the previous world indoor mark of 14:39.29 set by another Ethiopian, Berhane Adera, in Stuttgart last year. But compatriot Kenenisa Bekele's record hopes were dashed when he miscounted his laps in the men's 3,000m and staged his sprint finish a lap too soon. Ireland's Alistair Cragg won in 7:39.89 as Bekele battled to second in 7:41.42. ""I didn't want to sit back and get out-kicked,"" said Cragg. ""So I kept on the pace. The plan was to go with 500m to go no matter what, but when Bekele made the mistake that was it. The race was mine."" Sweden's Carolina Kluft, the Olympic heptathlon champion, and Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak had winning performances, too. Kluft took the long jump at 6.63m, while Ceplak easily won the women's 800m in 2:01.52.",sport
"Isinbayeva claims new world best..Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own indoor world record by clearing 4.89 metres in Lievin on Saturday...It was the Russian's 12th world record of her career and came just a few days after she cleared 4.88m at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham. The Olympic champion went on to attempt 5.05m at the meeting on France but failed to clear that height. In the men's 60m, former Olympic 100m champion Maurice Greene could only finish second to Leonard Scott. It was Greene's second consecutive defeat at the hands of his fellow American, who also won in Birmingham last week. ""I ran my race perfectly,"" said Scott, who won in 6.46secs, his best time indoors. ""I am happy even if I know that Maurice is a long way from being at his peak at the start of the season.""",sport
"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.",sport
"Hansen 'delays return until 2006'..British triple jumper Ashia Hansen has ruled out a comeback this year after a setback in her recovery from a bad knee injury, according to reports...Hansen, the Commonwealth and European champion, has been sidelined since the European Cup in Poland in June 2004. It was hoped she would be able to return this summer, but the wound from the injury has been very slow to heal. Her coach Aston Moore told the Times: ""We're not looking at any sooner than 2006, not as a triple jumper."" Moore said Hansen may be able to return to sprinting and long jumping sooner, but there is no short-term prospect of her being involved again in her specialist event. ""There was a problem with the wound healing and it set back her rehabilitation by about two months, but that has been solved and we can push ahead now,"" he said. ""The aim is for her to get fit as an athlete - then we will start looking at sprinting and the long jump as an introduction back to the competitive arena."" Moore said he is confident Hansen can make it back to top-level competition, though it is unclear if that will be in time for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next March, when she will be 34. ""It's been a frustrating time for her, but it has not fazed her determination,"" he added.",sport
"Off-colour Gardener storms to win..Britain's Jason Gardener shook off an upset stomach to win the 60m at Sunday's Leipzig International meeting...Gardener clocked 6.56 seconds to equal the meeting record and finished well ahead of Germany's Marc Blume, who crossed the line in 6.67 secs. The world indoor champion said: ""I got to the airport and my stomach was upset and I was vomiting. I almost went home. ""I felt a little better Sunday morning but decided I'd only run in the main race. Then everything went perfectly."" Gardener, part of the Great Britain 4x100m quartet that won gold at the Athens Olympics, will now turn his attention to next weekend's Norwich Union European Indoor trials in Sheffield...""Given I am still off-colour I know there is plenty more in the tank and I expect to get faster in the next few weeks,"" he said. ""It's just a case of chipping away as I have done in previous years and the results will come."" Scotland's Ian Mackie was also in action in Leipzig. He stepped down from his favoured 400m to 200m to finish third in 21.72 secs. Germany's Alexander Kosenkow won the race in 21.07 secs with Dutchman Patrick van Balkom second in 21.58 secs. There were plenty of other senior British athletes showing their indoor form over the weekend. Promising 60m hurdler..clocked a new UK record of 7.98 seconds at a meeting in Norway. The 24-year-old reached the mark in her heat but had to settle for joint first place with former AAA champion Diane Allahgreen in the final..., who broke onto the international scene at the Olympic Games last season, set an indoor personal best of 16.50m in the triple jump at a meeting in Ghent. That leap - 37cm short of Brazilian winner Jadel Gregorio's effort - was good enough to qualify for the European Indoor Championships. At the same meeting,..finished third in 7.27 seconds in a high-class women's 60m. The event was won by European medal favourite Christine Arron of France while Belgium rival Kim Gevaert was second. Britain's Joice Maduaka finished fifth in 7.35. Olympic bronze heptathlon medallist..made a low-key return to action at an indoor meeting in Birmingham. The 28-year-old cleared 1.76m to win the high jump and threw 13.86m in the women's shot put.",sport
"Collins to compete in Birmingham..World and Commonwealth 100m champion Kim Collins will compete in the 60m at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18 February...The St Kitts and Nevis star joins British Olympic relay gold medallists Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis. Sydney Olympic 100m champion and world indoor record holder Maurice Greene and Athens Olympic 100m silver medallist Francis Obikwelu will also take part. Collins ran in Birmingham at the 2003 World Indoor Championships. ""I'm looking forward to competing against such a strong field,"" he said. ""I got a great reception form the crowd at the NIA when I won my 60m world indoor silver medal in 2003 and it will be really exciting to return to this venue."" The world champion says he's in good shape but he isn't underestimating the home competition. ""Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis are Olympic gold medallists now and I'm sure they'll be aiming to win in front of their home supporters. ""I'm looking forward to competing against Britain's best sprinters and I'm sure the 60 metres will be one of the most exciting races of the evening."" Collins was sixth in the Olympic final in Athens but is hoping for a better result at the World Championships in Finland this summer. ""This will be a big year for me and I plan to defend my 100m world title in Helsinki in August. Before then I want to perform well over 60m indoors and start my year in winning form.""",sport
"Radcliffe yet to answer GB call..Paula Radcliffe has been granted extra time to decide whether to compete in the World Cross-Country Championships...The 31-year-old is concerned the event, which starts on 19 March in France, could upset her preparations for the London Marathon on 17 April. ""There is no question that Paula would be a huge asset to the GB team,"" said Zara Hyde Peters of UK Athletics. ""But she is working out whether she can accommodate the worlds without too much compromise in her marathon training."" Radcliffe must make a decision by Tuesday - the deadline for team nominations. British team member Hayley Yelling said the team would understand if Radcliffe opted out of the event. ""It would be fantastic to have Paula in the team,"" said the European cross-country champion. ""But you have to remember that athletics is basically an individual sport and anything achieved for the team is a bonus. ""She is not messing us around. We all understand the problem."" Radcliffe was world cross-country champion in 2001 and 2002 but missed last year's event because of injury. In her absence, the GB team won bronze in Brussels.",sport
"Edwards tips Idowu for Euro gold..World outdoor triple jump record holder and BBC pundit Jonathan Edwards believes Phillips Idowu can take gold at the European Indoor Championships...Idowu landed 17.30m at the British trials in Sheffield last month to lead the world triple jump rankings. ""It's all down to him, but if he jumps as well as he did in Sheffield he could win the gold medal,"" said Edwards. ""His ability is undoubted but all his best performances seem to happen in domestic meetings.""..Idowu made his breakthrough five years ago but so far has only a Commonwealth silver medal to his name. Edwards himself kept Idowu off top spot at the Manchester Games. But he believes the European Indoors in Madrid represent a chance for the 26-year-old to prove his credentials as Britain's top triple jumper. ""He has to start producing at international level and here is the beginning,"" said Edwards. ""Phillips still needs to be much more consistent. I'm sure a victory in Madrid will build up his confidence and self-belief that he can be best in the world."" The qualifying round of the men's triple jump in Madrid takes place on Friday with the final scheduled for Saturday. Olympic champion Christian Olsson will not be taking part as he is out for the entire indoor season with an ankle injury.",sport
"Kenya lift Chepkemei's suspension..Kenya's athletics body has reversed a ban on marathon runner Susan Chepkemei after she made an official apology...Athletics Kenya (AK) had suspended the two-time London Marathon runner-up for failing to turn up to a cross-country team training camp in Embu. ""We have withdrawn the ban. Chepkemei has given a reason for her absence,"" said AK chief Isaiah Kiplagat. ""She explained she had a contract with the organisers of the race in Puerto Rice and we have accepted her apology.""..The Kenyan coaching team will now decide whether Chepkemei can be included in the team for this month's world cross country championships. The 29-year-old would be a strong contender at the event in France and is hopeful she will be granted a place in the 32-strong squad. ""I am satisfied that the whole saga has been brought to an end,"" Chepkemei said. ""I am ready and prepared to represent my country. ""I will be disappointed if I am not given a chance to compete at the world cross country championships."" AK had insisted it was making an example of Chepkemei by banning her from competition until the end of 2005. But the organisation came under intense international and domestic pressure to reverse its decision. The 29-year-old took part in the 2002 and 2003 London Marathons and was edged out by Radcliffe in an epic New York Marathon contest last year...The two-time world half-marathon silver medallist will be back to challenge Radcliffe at this year's London event in April. AK also dropped its harsh stance on three-time world cross country 4km champion Edith Masai. Masai missed Kenya's world cross country trials because of an ankle problem but AK insisted it would take disciplinary action unless she could prove she was really injured. ""Subject to our doctor's confirmation, we have decided to clear Masai,"" added Kiplagat.",sport
"McIlroy aiming for Madrid title..Northern Ireland man James McIlroy is confident he can win his first major title at this weekend's Spar European Indoor Championships in Madrid...The 28-year-old has been in great form in recent weeks and will go in as one of the 800 metres favourites. ""I believe after my wins abroad and in our trial race in Sheffield, I can run my race from the front, back or middle,"" said McIlroy. New coach Tony Lester has helped get McIlroy's career back on track. The 28-year-old 800 metres runner has not always matched his promise with performances but believes his decision to change coaches and move base will bring the rewards. McIlroy now lives in Windsor and feels his career has been transformed by the no-nonsense leadership style of former Army sergeant Lester. Lester is better known for his work with 400m runners Roger Black and Mark Richardson in the past but under his guidance McIlroy has secured five wins this indoor season...McIlroy now claims he is in his best shape since finishing fourth for Ireland at the outdoor European Championships in 1998. ""That was my last decent year,"" said McIlroy, who temporarily retired last August before returning to the sport under Lester's shrewd guidance. ""Before, every race was like trying to climb Mount Everest and I now know you can't do it on your own. ""Trying to succeed saw me sometimes standing half-dead and terrified on the starting line, which became a bit too much."" McIlroy, who was compared to the likes of Sebastian Coe, Steve Cram and Steve Ovett in his younger days, is now competing without the benefit of National Lottery funding. That situation could change if he maintains his current form and repeats the world-class times he produced in the 800m and 1000m at major races in Erfurt and Stuttgart earlier this season. Russian Dmitriy Bogdanov won at the same Madrid venue last week and then claimed the European Championship race would be between himself, Dutchman Arnoud Okken and Antonio Reina of Spain but McIlroy is unfazed...He admitted: ""He looked quite good in his win and fair enough everyone has the right to their own opinion. ""I never write myself off and let's face it, I haven't or looked like being beaten this season."" And McIlroy, whose time of one minute 46.68seconds in Erfurt elevated him to sixth place on the UK All-Time list, is also already looking beyond Madrid. He said: ""I've been much more focused this year about my career and having such a good team around me has been very important. ""Ultimately of course, this weekend is a means to an end and that is getting prepared for the summer's world championships. ""That ambition has meant that I've had only two nights out since last August. The rest of my time has seen me just concentrating on rebuilding my career.""",sport
"UK Athletics agrees new kit deal..UK Athletics has agreed a new deal with adidas to supply Great Britain squads of all ages with their kit for the next four years...The German-based firm kitted out Team GB at the 2004 Olympics and has deals with 20 other national Olympic bodies. UK Athletics chief David Moorcroft said: ""The Athens experience can now be extended to more major championships. ""In the year ahead these include the European indoor and World outdoor championships. We are delighted."" Moorcroft added: ""It is hugely beneficial to the sport that the adidas commitment will also provide for officials and other personnel at our world-class series of live televised events."" This week, UK Athletics also agreed a four-year deal with energy drink company, Red Bull, who will be supplying the product to athletics at major domestic meetings and in high performance centres.",sport
"Verdict delay for Greek sprinters..Greek athletics' governing body has postponed by two weeks the judgement on sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou for missing doping tests...The pair are facing lengthy bans for the missed tests, including one on the eve of last year's Athens Olympics. They were set to learn their fate by the end of February, but late evidence from them has pushed the date back. ""A decision is now expected by around mid-March,"" said one of their lawyers, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos. Kenteris, 31, who won the men's 200m title at the 2000 Sydney Games and Thanou, 30, who won the women's 100m silver medal in Sydney, face a maximum two-year ban if found guilty. The athletes, who spectacularly withdrew from the Athens Olympics, have been suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for missing the three tests. The IAAF said the sprinters had failed to provide samples for tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens and ordered Greek athletic's governing body, Segas, to hold a disciplinary inquiry. The athletes also face a criminal hearing in Greece over the missed drugs tests and have been charged with faking a motorcycle accident on the day of the Athens test, which led to them spending four days in hospital. Following the final hearing in late January, the athletes sounded confident they would be acquitted. ""I am confident and optimistic,"" Thanou had said at the time. ""We presented new evidence to the committee that they were not aware of."" It was not clear what this new evidence was.",sport
"Call for Kenteris to be cleared..Kostas Kenteris' lawyer has called for the doping charges against the Greek sprinter to be dropped...Gregory Ioannidis has submitted new evidence to a Greek athletics tribunal which he claims proves the former Olympic champion has no case to answer. Kenteris and compatriot Katerina Thanou were given provisional suspensions in December for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. The Greek tribunal is expected to give its verdict early next week. Kenteris and Thanou withdrew from the Athens Olympics last August after missing drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. They were also alleged to have avoided tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago before the Games...But Ioannidis said: ""Everything overwhelmingly shows that the charges should be dropped."" Ioannidis also said he has presented evidence that will throw a different light on the events leading up to the pair's sensational withdrawal from the Athens Games. The lawyer added that he has proof the authorities ""knew"" Kenteris was in Germany at the time he was alleged to have missed a test in Chicago. Nick Davies, spokesman for athletics' ruling body the IAAF, which handed out the provisional bans, said: ""We can't comment because we were not present at the hearing and don't know what was said behind closed doors. ""We expect a verdict from the Greek Athletics Federation before the end of February and will obviously be making a statement then."" Kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Thanou won silver in the 100m.",sport
"Merritt close to indoor 400m mark..Teenager LaShawn Merritt ran the third fastest indoor 400m of all time at the Fayetteville Invitational meeting...The world junior champion clocked 44.93 seconds to finish well clear of fellow American Bershawn Jackson in Arkansas. Only Michael Johnson has gone quicker, setting the world record of 44.63secs in 1995 and running 44.66secs in 1996. Kenyan Bernard Lagat missed out on the world record by 1.45secs as he ran the third quickest indoor mile ever to beat Canada's Nate Brannen by almost 10secs. The Olympic silver medallist's time of three minutes 49.89secs was inferior only to the 1997 world record of Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj and former world record holder Eamonn Coghlan of Ireland's 3:49.78. Lagat was on course to break El Guerrouj's record through 1200m but could not maintain the pace over the final 400m. Ireland's..continued his excellent form by winning a tight 3,000m in 7:40.53. Cragg, who recently defeated Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele in Boston, held off Bekele's Ethiopian colleague Markos Geneti by only 0.19secs to secure his victory. Mark Carroll, who will join Cragg in the European Indoor Championships next month, finished a solid third in 7:46.78. Olympic 200m gold medallist..of Jamaica ran the fastest women's 60m in the world this year as she equalled her personal best of 7.09secs. World indoor 60m hurdles champion..also won, improving his season-leading time to 7.51secs.",sport
"London hope over Chepkemei..London Marathon organisers are hoping that banned athlete Susan Chepkemei will still take part in this year's race on 17 April...Chepkemei was suspended from all competition until the end of the year by Athletics Kenya after failing to report to a national training camp. ""We are watching it closely,"" said London race director David Bedford. ""There is a long way to go before the race and we are hoping the situation will be satisfactorily resolved."" The camp in Embu was to prepare for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships later this month. Chepkemei however took part and finished third in last Sunday's world best 10K race in Puerto Rico. The 29-year-old has finished second to Paula Radcliffe in the 2002 and 2003 London races as well as in November's New York City marathon.",sport
"Edwards tips Idowu for Euro gold..World outdoor triple jump record holder and BBC pundit Jonathan Edwards believes Phillips Idowu can take gold at the European Indoor Championships...Idowu landed 17.30m at the British trials in Sheffield last month to lead the world triple jump rankings. ""It's all down to him, but if he jumps as well as he did in Sheffield he could win the gold medal,"" said Edwards. ""His ability is undoubted but all his best performances seem to happen in domestic meetings.""..Idowu made his breakthrough five years ago but so far has only a Commonwealth silver medal to his name. Edwards himself kept Idowu off top spot at the Manchester Games. But he believes the European Indoors in Madrid represent a chance for the 26-year-old to prove his credentials as Britain's top triple jumper. ""He has to start producing at international level and here is the beginning,"" said Edwards. ""Phillips still needs to be much more consistent. I'm sure a victory in Madrid will build up his confidence and self-belief that he can be best in the world."" The qualifying round of the men's triple jump in Madrid takes place on Friday with the final scheduled for Saturday. Olympic champion Christian Olsson will not be taking part as he is out for the entire indoor season with an ankle injury.",sport
"Chepkemei hit by big ban..Kenya's athletics body has suspended two-time London Marathon runner-up Susan Chepkemei from all competition until the end of the year...Athletics Kenya (AK) issued the ban after Chepkemei failed to turn up for a cross country training camp in Embu. ""We have banned her from all local and international competitions,"" said AK chief Isaiah Kiplagat. ""We shall communicate this decision to the IAAF and all meet directors all over the world."" The 29-year-old finished second to Paula Radcliffe in the 2002 and 2003 London races, and was also edged out in an epic New York Marathon contest last year...But the ban will prevent the two-time world half-marathon silver medallist from challenging Radcliffe at this year's London event in April. Global Sports Communications, Chepkemei's management company, said she had wanted to run in the World Cross Country Championships in March. But AK maintained it was making an example of Chepkemei as a warning to other Kenyan athletes. ""We are taking this action in order to salvage our pride,"" said Kiplagat. ""We have been accused of having no teeth to bite with and that agents are ruling over us."" KA has also threatened three-time women's short-course champion Edith Masai with a similar ban if reports that she feigned injury to avoid running at the cross country world championships are true. Masai missed the national trials in early February, but was included in the provisional team on the proviso that she ran in a regional competition. She failed to run in the event, citing a leg injury.",sport
"Holmes secures comeback victory..Britain's Kelly Holmes marked her first appearance on home soil since winning double Olympic gold with 1500m victory at the Norwich Union International...Holmes hit the front just before the bell in front of a sell-out crowd in Glasgow and cruised to victory in a time of four minutes 14.74 seconds. ""It was nice to get that out of the way. I was nervous about whether I would actually be able to get round. ""I felt good. I just had to relax and use my racing knowledge,"" said Holmes. ""It was all about winning in front of my home crowd. The time is irrelevant. ""I got round in one piece and didn't disgrace myself. Now it's about going forward. ""The reception I've had since the Olympics has been amazing and that's why I wanted to keep running this year, because I get a buzz from the crowd."" Holmes ran a tactically perfect race to finish clear of France's Hind Dehiba and Russia's Svetlana Cherkasova. The Olympic 800m and 1500m champion's time was inside the qualifying mark for the European Indoor Championships in Madrid in March. But the 34-year-old would not reveal whether she intended to run or not, having previously indicated she would leave a decision until after the Birmingham Grand Prix on 18 February.",sport
"Greek pair attend drugs hearing..Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have appeared before an independent tribunal which will decide if their bans should stand...They were given provisional suspensions by athletics' ruling body the IAAF in December for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. The pair arrived with former coach Christos Tzekos to give evidence at the Hellenic Olympic Committee's offices. A decision is expected to be announced before the end of February. Whatever the ruling, all parties will have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Yiannis Papadoyiannakis, who was head of the Greek Olympic team at the Athens Games last year, also testified at the tribunal, along with other Greek sports officials and athletes. ""I believe the tribunal will reach a decision that will uphold the standing of the institution,"" said Papadoyiannakis. ""Whatever the athletes have done, we must not forget that they have offered us great moments."" Kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Thanou won silver in the 100m...They withdrew from the Athens Games last August after missing drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. The pair spent four days in a hospital, claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. The five-member tribunal, assembled by the Hellenic Association of Amateur Athletics, is also examining allegations that Kenteris and Thanou avoided tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago before the Games. Tzekos was also banned for two years by the IAAF. He faces charges of assisting in the use of prohibited substances and tampering with the doping inspection process. All three, who have repeatedly denied the allegations, have also been charged by a Greek prosecutor and face trial for doping-related charges. A trial date has not been set. In imposing two-year suspensions on the duo on 22 December, the IAAF described their explanations for missing the tests as ""unacceptable"". But Kenteris' lawyer Gregory Ioannidis told BBC Sport earlier this week he was confident the sprinters would be cleared of the charges of failing to give information on their location and refusing to submit to testing. ""We refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical,"" he said. ""There have been certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the sporting authorities and their officials, and these procedural breaches have also violated my client's rights. ""There is also evidence that proves the fact that my client has been persecuted.""",sport
"Chepkemei joins Edinburgh line-up..Susan Chepkemei has decided she is fit enough to run in next month's Great Edinburgh International Cross Country...The Kenyan was initially unsure if she would have recovered from her gruelling tussle with Paula Radcliffe in the New York Marathon in time to compete. But she has declared herself up to the task and joins a field headed by World cross country champion Benita Johnson. Race director Matthew Turnbull said: ""Susan will add even more strength in depth to the world-class line up."" Chepkemei, who won the six kilometre event three years ago when it was staged in Newcastle, endured an epic battle with Radcliffe in the Big Apple until the Briton outsprinted her in the final 400m. Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia will defend the title she won last year in Tyneside - before the race was moved north of the border. Recently-crowned European cross country champion Briton Hayley Yelling also competes in Edinburgh on 15 January, as does in-form Scot Kathy Butler.",sport
"El Guerrouj targets cross country..Double Olympic champion Hicham El Guerrouj is set to make a rare appearance at the World Cross Country Championships in France...But the Moroccan, who has not raced over cross country for 15 years, will not decide until two weeks before the event which starts on 19 March. ""If I am to compete in it, it is only if I feel I can win,"" said the 30-year-old, who is retiring in 2006. ""Otherwise there is not much point in me going."" El Guerrouj achieved a lifetime ambition last August when he clinched his first Olympic titles over 1500m and 5,000m. But the four-time world 1500m champion is still hungry for more success before calling time on his career. The 30-year-old has set his sights on clinching the world 5,000m crown in Helsinki this summer. And he is aiming to break 10,000m Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele's 5,000m and 10,000m world records...El Guerrouj could meet Bekele in March as the Ethiopian is the defending world cross country champion over both the long and short courses. But the Moroccan will not commit himself to the St Galmier event until he assesses how well his winter training is going. ""The return to training was very difficult because I accepted a lot of invitations these past few months,"" said El Guerrouj. ""I am almost a month behind but I am on the right track.""... - Britain's Paula Radcliffe has also not ruled out competing in the World Cross Country Championships. ""I haven't quite decided what events I will compete in prior to London but the World Cross Country is an event which is also special to me and is a definite possibility,"" said the two-time champion.",sport
"Collins appeals against drugs ban..Sprinter Michelle Collins has lodged an appeal against her eight-year doping ban with the North American Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)...The 33-year-old received the ban last month as a result of her connection to the federal inquiry into the Balco doping scandal. She is the first athlete to be banned without a positive drugs test or an admission of drugs use. CAS has said that a ruling is normally given within four months of an appeal. Collins was suspended by the US Anti-Doping Agency based on patterns observed in her blood and urine tests as well as evidence in the Balco investigation. As well as being hit with the ban, Collins was stripped of her 2003 world and US indoor 200m titles. The San Francisco-based Balco laboratory is at the centre of the scandal which has rocked the sport. The company has been accused of distributing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes.",sport
"Holmes feted with further honour..Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes has been voted European Athletics (EAA) woman athlete of 2004 in the governing body's annual poll...The Briton, made a dame in the New Year Honours List for taking 800m and 1,500m gold, won vital votes from the public, press and EAA member federations. She is only the second British woman to land the title after- Sally Gunnell won for her world 400m hurdles win in 1993. Swedish triple jumper Christian Olsson was voted male athlete of the year. The accolade is the latest in a long list of awards that Holmes has received since her success in Athens. In addition to becoming a dame, she was also named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December. Her gutsy victory in the 800m also earned her the International Association of Athletics Federations' award for the best women's performance in the world for 2004. And she scooped two awards at the British Athletics Writers' Association annual dinner in October.",sport
"Campbell to extend sprint career..Darren Campbell has set his sights on running quicker than ever after deciding not to retire from sprinting...Campbell, who won Olympic 4x100m relay gold, had been unsure about his future. But he told Five Live's Sportsweek: ""I had to get back into training before I could decide because if I didn't have the same hunger I'd have to walk away. ""I've started back and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I'm looking forward to it. I've got to run under 10 seconds (for 100m) and under 20 seconds (for 200m)."" Campbell was part of the British quartet who shocked the Americans to win relay gold in Athens in August...The Newport-based athlete and team-mates Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis were rewarded with MBEs in the New Year Honours List. Campbell's relay triumph made up for his disappointing displays in the individual 100m and 200m events in Athens, when he failed to reach the finals. The 31-year-old, who won Olympic 200m silver in Sydney in 2000, said during the Games that a hamstring injury had stopped him from running at his best...He was criticised at the time by former Olympic champion Michael Johnson, who cast doubt on Campbell's injury claims. ""To go to Athens and finally get the gold I've been trying to get for 24 years was a big relief,"" said Campbell. ""It was a chance for me to prove that if I'd been fit I would have been challenging for the (individual) medals. ""Every season I go and challenge for the medals so why would last season have been any different? ""It's just unfortunate that I picked up that injury just before the Olympics."" Campbell set his 100m personal best of 10.04secs when he won the European title in Budapest in 1998. And he ran 20.13secs in the quarter-finals of the 200m in Sydney on the way to Olympic silver.",sport
"Isinbayeva heads for Birmingham..Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva has confirmed she will take part in the 2005 Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18 February...""Everybody knows how much I enjoy competing in Britain. I always seem to break records there,"" said Isinbayeva. ""As Olympic champion there will be more attention on me this year, but hopefully I can respond with another record in Birmingham."" Kelly Holmes and Carolina Kluft are among other Athens winners competing. The organisers are hoping that Isinbayeva's main rival, fellow Russian Svetlana Feofanova, will also take part in the event. The pair had a thrilling battle in Athens which ended with Isinbayeva finally jumping a world record of 4.91m to claim the gold medal. Isinbayeva, 22, has set 10 world records in the pole vault, three of which have come on British soil.",sport
"2004: An Irish Athletics Year..2004 won't be remembered as one of Irish athletics' great years...The year began with that optimism which invariably and unaccountably, seems to herald an upcoming Olympiad. But come late August, a few hot days in the magnificent stadium in Athens told us of the true strength of Irish athletics - or to be more accurate, the lack of it. Sonia O'Sullivan's Olympic farewell apart, there was little to stir the emotions of Irish athletics watchers. But after the disastrous build-up to the games, we shouldn't have been surprised. At the start of the year, an O'Sullivan had been earmarked as Ireland's best medal prospect but as it turned out, walker Gillian never even made it to the start line because of injury. Less than a week before the Olympics, the sport was rocked by news that 10,000m hope Cathal Lombard had tested for the banned substance EPO. Lombard's shattering of Mark Carroll's national 10,000m record in April had already set tongues wagging but even the most cynical of observers, were surprised when he was rumbled after an Irish Sports Council sting operation. The Corkman quickly held his hands up in admission and was promptly handed a two-year ban from the sport...Back at pre-Olympic ranch in Greece, it must have seemed that things couldn't have got any worse but they very nearly did with walker Jamie Costin lucky to escape with his life after being involved in a car crash near Athens. Once the track and field action began in Athens, a familiar pattern of underachievement emerged although Alistair Cragg's performance in being the only athlete from a European nation to qualify for the 5,000m final did offer hope for the future. Our beloved Sonia scraped into the women's 5K final as a fastest loser and for a couple of days, the country attempted to delude itself into believing that she might be in the medal shake-up. As it happened, she went out the back door early in the final although there was nothing undignified about the way that she insisted on finishing the race over a minute behind winner Meseret Defar. It later transpired that Sonia had been suffering from a stomach bug in the 48 hours before the final although typically, the Cobhwoman played down the effects of the illness. Amazingly, she was back in action a couple of weeks later when beating a world-class field at the Flora Lite 5K road race in London and while her major championship days may be over, it's unlikely that we have seen the last of her in competition. At least Sonia managed to make it to Athens. At the start of the year, several Northern Ireland athletes had genuine hopes of qualifying for the Games but come August, an out-of-form and injured Paul Brizzel was the lone standard bearer for the province. The Ballymena man gave it a lash but his achilles problem, and a bad lane draw, meant a time of 21.00 and an early exit...James McIlroy, Gareth Turnbull, Zoe Brown and Paul McKee all had to be content with watching the Athens action on their television screens. 800m hope McIlroy never got near his best during the summer and a fourth place in the British trials effectively ended his hopes of making the plane. The injury-plagued Turnbull gamely travelled round Europe in search of the 1500m qualifying mark but 3:39 was the best he could achieve, after missing several months training during the previous winter. A lingering hamstring probem and a virus wrecked McKee's Athens ambitions and both he and Turnbull deserve a slice of better fortune in 2005. Pole vaulter Brown had hoped for a vote of confidence from the British selectors after she had achieved the Athens B standard but the call never came. As the summer ended, stalwarts Catherina McKiernan and Dermot Donnelly hung up their competitive spikes. McKiernan had to candidly acknowledge that time had crept up on her after several injury-ravaged years. Donnelly and his Annadale Striders team-mates later suffered tragedy when their friend and clubman Andy Campbell was found dead at his home on 18 December. A large turnout of athletics-loving folk turned out in west Belfast to offer their respects to the Campbell family and Andy's many friends. As only death can, it put the year's athletics happenings in a sharp perspective.",sport
"Sprinter Walker quits athletics..Former European 200m champion Dougie Walker is to retire from athletics after a series of six operations left him struggling for fitness...Walker had hoped to compete in the New Year Sprint which is staged at Musselburgh Racecourse near Edinburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday. The 31-year-old Scot was suspended for two years in 1998 after testing positive for nandrolone. ""I had intended to race but I'm running like a goon,"" said Walker. He told the Herald newspaper: ""I'm not in great shape, after missing about a month of training. ""I missed a big chunk of speed work over about three weeks, and then another week working in America. ""If I'd had a half-decent mark it might have motivated me more, but I won't be racing. ""I still enjoy training, but feel it's time to move on, and concentrate on a career.""",sport
"Bekele sets sights on world mark..Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele is determined to add the world indoor two mile record at February's Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham...The 22-year-old will again be chasing a record held by his compatriot and mentor Haile Gebrselassie, who set the mark at the same meeting in 2003. ""I am still as hungry to do as much as I can in this sport,"" said Bekele. ""And aiming for the two mile world record in Birmingham is the next of those targets."" Gebrselassie's current record stands at eight minutes, 04.69 seconds. And Bekele is no stranger to overhauling world marks at the National Indoor Arena. The Ethiopian broke the world indoor 5,000m record on his debut at the meeting last year. Compatriots Mulugeta Wondimu, Abiyote Abate and Markos Geneti, the world indoor bronze medallist over 3000m, will race against Bekele on 18 February. The meet has already attracted a crop of Olympic talent. Britain's 800m and 1500m champion Kelly Holmes is taking part in the 1000m. Swedish heptathlon gold medallist Carolina Kluft will contest the 60m hurdles. While men's 4x100m relay gold medallists Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis will go head-to-head in the 60m.",sport
"Greek sprinters suspended by IAAF..Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have been suspended after failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics...Athletics' ruling body the IAAF said explanations from the pair and their former coach as to why they missed the tests were ""unacceptable"". It added that Kenteris and Thanou had been ""provisionally suspended pending the resolution of their cases"". They face two-year bans if found guilty by the Greek Athletics Federation. The suspension also covers the athletes' controversial coach, Christos Tzekos. Kenteris, the 2000 Olympic 200m champion, and Thanou, the women's 100m silver medallist from the same Games in Sydney, also face a criminal hearing in Greece over the missed tests. They failed to appear to give samples in Chicago and Tel Aviv shortly before the Athens Games and again in Athens on 12 August, the eve of the opening ceremony. Greek prosecutors have also charged them with faking a midnight motorcycle crash which led to them spending four days in hospital. Some medical staff have been charged with writing false medical reports. Wednesday's statement said the Greek Federation (SEGAS) would convene a disciplinary hearing for the trio to determine whether there had been doping violations...""There will be a final right of appeal from the decision of the Greek Federation to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,"" the IAAF said. Tzekos insisted he and the runners had nothing to hide. ""The IAAF's decision means nothing,"" he said. ""We'll be presenting all our arguments to SEGAS - we're innocent.""",sport
"Athens memories soar above lows..Well, it's goodbye to another Olympic year and as usual there were plenty of highs and lows in Athens...Obviously, there's no getting away from the differing fortunes of Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe. But I want to remind you of a few more events that made 2004 another year to remember - or forget - for athletics.....One of my favourite Olympic moments was Kelly's success in the 800m...Winning that race was the key to her success because if she won that then the 1500m would be a bit of a formality. Kelly had been full of ""should I, shouldn't I?"" thoughts about going for the double in Athens. I thought why wouldn't you do the 800m, it's your best event? It was such good fun to commentate on her 1500m and it was nice to be able to be part of her Athens story.....The victory for the British men's 4x100m relay team was a bit of a surprise but a great climax to the Games. I think the four of them - Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis - knew deep down that it was their best chance of a medal. The lads had run poorly in the individual sprints so maybe they did lift their game when they knew something was really at stake.....Hicham El Guerrouj's Olympic double is a much bigger achievement than Kelly's on a global scale...He was the first man since for 80 years to win both the 1500m and 5,000m titles. As soon as he had added the 5,000m crown and I had finished commentating, I jumped up, ran down the stairs, pushed everyone out the way and just gave him a big hug. He is one of the few African runners who has embraced the tradition of the mile and he loves to hear all the Roger Bannister stories. Hicham is someone I enjoy having a bit of time with, even though my French and his English are not very good.....What happened to Paula in Athens this year is the obvious low on a personal level and for the expectations of the nation as well. There were a set of circumstances around Athens that conspired to produce a very dramatic ending which I think has been greatly misunderstood. Dropping out of the marathon was the right thing to do but starting in the 10,000m five days later was not wise. That was her heart and not her head reacting. Paula had a lot of little things going wrong in her preparation and on the day...Things like niggling injuries, not being able to do all her running sessions and feeling the pressure of the race looming ahead of her. I think she came to the start line in Athens physically and emotionally drained. And if even the smallest thing doesn't feel right when you are preparing to race a marathon, 10 miles down the road it will hit you like a brick wall. The positive thing to take from Paula's Olympics it that she will have learned a lot from it and so will a lot of people - including me.....Purely as a race, Paula's victory in the New York Marathon has to go down as one of the most thrilling. It was so nip-and-tuck between her and Kenya's Susan Chepkemei and you don't usually get that kind of excitement in marathons. It was also a real delight for all athletics fans because, to use one of my favourite words, Paula showed real ""bouncebackability"". And it was a bit of a rarity for me too because I genuinely did not have an inkling how the race was going to pan out.....Kelly and the 4x100m boys' victories papered over the cracks in the general performance of the British team. We should be concerned that we're not producing enough people who are capable of reaching finals at senior level...The only individual men's finalist on the track was Michael East in the 1500m. I am beginning to look down and wonder where are the new breed? And that's where things begin to look even gloomier for British athletics as we did not win any medals at the world junior championships in Italy. Dani Barnes came fourth in the 1500m and she was the highest finisher for Team GB. The thing is if we don't have athletes getting into the finals at junior level then it really doesn't look good for the Beijing Olympics and beyond.....I tell you what I really enjoyed this year, Benita Johnson winning the world cross country championships back in March. In the absence of Paula, we tend to think of the event as something of an African preserve. So to have an Australian come up and deliver such a surprise was something special.....To be honest, I'm getting bored with all the drug scandals, especially Balco. I just wish the whole thing would come to a head so we can move on...Having said that, I'm always pleased when drugs cheats are caught because it shows the sport is standing up to it and not turning a blind eye anymore. And one of the positive things to come out of Balco is people are starting to blow the whistle. We need more people to come forward and help the authorities kick out the cheats. As regards the case against Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, well suspicions have been hanging over Kenteris for a while. The bottom line is we cannot keep letting drugs damage the sport because if we do then it stops everyone enjoying it.",sport
"Collins banned in landmark case..Sprinter Michelle Collins has received an eight-year ban for doping offences after a hearing at the North American Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)...America's former world indoor 200m champion is the first athlete to be suspended without a positive drugs test or an admission of drugs use. Collins' ban is a result of her connection to the federal inquiry into the Balco doping scandal. The 33-year-old was found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs. The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) decided to press charges against Collins in the summer. The sprinter has consistently protested her innocence but the CAS has upheld USADA's findings. ""The USADA has proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Collins took EPO, the testosterone/epitestosterone cream and THG,"" said a CAS statement. ""Collins used these substances to enhance her performance and elude the drug testing that was available at the time."" So far a total of 13 athletes have been sanctioned for violations involving drugs associated with the Balco doping scandal. World record holder Tim Montgomery is also facing a lifetime ban after being charged by the USADA. His hearing before the CSA has been rescheduled for June next year...Drug enforcement chiefs in the US have vowed to crack down on cheats. USADA chief executive officer Terry Madden said the action taken against Collins was further proof of that. ""The CAS panel's decision confirms that those who violate the rules will be sanctioned as part of USADA's ongoing efforts to protect the rights of the overwhelming majority of US athletes that compete drug-free,"" said Madden. The USADA has built its cases on verbal evidence given to the federal investigation into Balco rather than test results. The San Francisco-based Balco laboratory faces steroid distribution and money laundering charges. The trial is expected to open next March.",sport
"Jones doping probe begins..An investigation into doping claims against Marion Jones has been opened by the International Olympic Committee...IOC president Jacques Rogge has set up a disciplinary body to look into claims by Victor Conte, of Balco Laboratories. Jones, who says she is innocent, could lose all her Olympic medals after Conte said he gave her performance-enhancing drugs before the Sydney Olympics. But Rogge said it was too early to speculate about that, hoping only that ""the truth will emerge""...Any decision on the medals would be taken by the IOC's executive board and could hinge on interpretation of a rule stating that Olympic decisions can only be challenged within three years of the Games closing. The Sydney Olympics ended more than four years ago, but World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound said the rule may not apply because the allegations are only coming out now. ""We will find a way to deal with that,"" Pound said. In a statement released through her attorney Rich Nichols, Jones repeated her innocence and vowed she would be cleared. ""Victor Conte's allegations are not true and the truth will be revealed for the world to see as the legal process moves forward,"" she said. ""Conte is someone who is under federal indictment and has a record of issuing contradictory, inconsistent statements.""",sport
"Johnson accuses British sprinters..Former Olympic champion Michael Johnson has accused Britain's top sprinters of lacking pride and ambition...""At the moment, the biggest factor on the mind of British sprinters is to be number one in Britain,"" the world 200m and 400m record holder told Five Live. ""Athletics at the moment is all about international competitions and they need to show a little more pride."" However, Linford Christie countered: ""It's easy to criticise when you haven't gone through the system here."" Johnson was involved in a verbal spat with Britain's Darren Campbell earlier this year. The American had cast doubt on Campbell's claims he had torn a hamstring in the wake of his failure to reach the Olympic 100m and 200m finals...And the American remains highly critical of aspects of British sprinting. ""The only time you see British sprinters getting upset or riled is when there is a debate as to which one is better than the other,"" he claimed. ""Athletes here have to compete more outside the UK. Their focus has to be on being the best in the world and not just on being the top British sprinter."" Speaking at an elite coaches' conference in Birmingham, Johnson also argued that although there has been more investment in the sport in Britain, it had not necessarily reaped the rewards. ""You can't fix everything with money,"" he admitted. ""You contrast the situation here to that of some US athletes who have no funding. ""Those who aren't funded might be hungrier and more motivated because their road to success is a lot more difficult and challenging. ""So when they get to the top they are more appreciative.""",sport
"Radcliffe proves doubters wrong..This won't go down as one of the greatest marathons of Paula's career. But as a test of character, it was the toughest race she's ever taken part in...A win in the New York marathon doesn't make up for the disappointment of Athens in any shape or form, but it will offer hope and reassurance for next year. If Paula's last experience of the year had been Athens, it would have been very difficult to look forward with any optimism. She can now draw a line under this year and make plans about her future. Even if she'd lost this race, there would have been a lot of positives to take out of it. She knows she can dig deep if she needs to. It was a strong field, with a number of the girls going into the race with expectations of winning. And although two hours 23 minutes wasn't one of Paula's best times, it wasn't far off the record on a difficult course...I was speaking to Paula in the lead-up to this race and she said that in many ways she was facing a no-win situation. She thought that if she won, people would say ""why couldn't she do that in Athens?"" And if she lost, people would say her career was over. And a lot of people were wondering what would happen if Paula was forced to drop out of this race, as she did in the marathon and 10,000m in Athens. But that was never on the cards. She might have been beaten, but she would have kept running. The reasons she was forced to pull out in Athens - the niggling injuries, her lack of energy and the oppressive conditions - weren't at play here. The only question was what position she could finish in. Most important of all, despite all the hype in the media ahead of this race, there were never doubts in Paula's mind. If she wasn't confident, she wouldn't have run. After all, if you're the best in the world at an event, you'll always have expectations of winning...Now Paula will take part in the Run London 10km race in London at the end of the year, have a well-earned rest over Christmas and go into next year with a lot of optimism.",sport
"Jones medals 'must go if guilty'..World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief Dick Pound says Marion Jones should be stripped of all her medals if found guilty of taking banned substances...Victor Conte, of Balco Laboratories, claims the American sprinter regularly used drugs to enhance her performance. ""If she is found guilty she should be stripped of all her medals and banned for two years,"" said Pound. Asked if there was a timescale as to what medals could be taken, Pound said: ""That is not an issue at all."" However, under International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules, athletes can only be stripped of their medals if caught within three years of the event. Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Olympics, denies using drugs and says she will take legal action over Conte's allegations. Balco Laboratories is the firm at the centre of a wide-reaching investigation into doping in the US. Pound continued: ""If she has indeed taken drugs it is going to be a big disappointment for a lot of people.""",sport
"Radcliffe tackles marathon tasks..Paula Radcliffe faces arguably the biggest test of her career in the New York City Marathon on Sunday...Back under the spotlight of public scrutiny she will attempt to erase the double disappointment of the Athens Olympics, where she failed to finish the marathon and then the 10,000m. BBC Sport examines the challenges facing Radcliffe ahead of the big race...The ability to run a gruelling 26.2 miles relies largely upon an athlete's belief that they can do it. Every runner will hit the wall at some stage and see written on it, ""Are you strong enough to finish?""..The question could hit Radcliffe hard after she was unable to complete her last two races in high-profile and emotional circumstances. Sports psychologist Hugh Richards says the 30-year-old must draw on her past achievements to conquer a potential crisis of confidence. ""There is an old adage, 'get straight back on the horse that threw you,'"" Richards told BBC Sport. ""Paula has got all those great runs in her history as well as the two upsets in Athens. ""She must not lose faith in what has already been proven is a very effective strategy for distance running. ""If she were to change her preparation and tactics that would be madness. ""She wants to start rebuilding her confidence through performance accomplishment.""..For much of the watching media and public there can only be two possible outcomes in New York - win or lose. If Radcliffe crosses the line first she will have proved her critics wrong. But if she fails to triumph, she risks being labelled a has-been and her profile will suffer. And for any athlete that can have repercussions in terms of sponsorship, appearance fees as well as further self esteem issues...""Athletes need to try and stay focused on their internal controls and ignore external questions,"" explains Richards, who has worked with past Olympians. ""She must not get caught up in someone else's agenda."" Radcliffe's best friend and fellow distance runner Liz Yelling revealed the 30-year-old is already aware she will be exposing herself to more public scrutiny in New York. ""She just thought, 'well, they can't think any worse of me now,'"" Yelling told BBC Sport. ""She's just doing what she wants to do and not thinking about the consequences of it.""..Radcliffe described her decision to enter the New York marathon as ""impulsive"" but she is certain to have a tick-list of personal goals. Her aims could be as simple as completing a race and making sure she is still enjoying running but Richards says she must avoid more emotional targets, such as redemption. ""You can't change history,"" warned Richards. ""Only one person can win the marathon but lots of people can be successful. ""Paula has to figure out what sort of things will she feel satisfied achieving by the end of the race.""..The course from Staten Island to Central Park is renowned as one of the toughest in the world. It is also not the kind of fast course that tends to suit Radcliffe better, with the undulating finish through the park testing the legs' final reserves...Radcliffe has never raced there before and will enter the unknown just 77 days after the Athens marathon. ""It's suggested after a major marathon you take a full month off and start building up again,"" said Yelling, herself a marathon runner. ""But that is only for long-term health and fitness. ""When you finish a marathon you are still very fit and can recover quickly. So physically it is possible for Paula."" Richards also points out conditions in New York will be more conducive to a strong physical display from Radcliffe. ""The heat stress was the primary factor that tripped her up in Athens,"" he said. ""And that just isn't going to be there in New York, that's been taken out of the equation.""....Radcliffe concedes she will probably learn a lot from her bad experiences in Athens in time. And Richards and Yelling agree she could turn the trauma to her advantage, starting in New York. ""How you respond to adversity is what marks you out as elite or not,"" argues Richards...""One of the challenges of massive set backs is how you turn them into opportunities."" And Yelling says: ""I think this will probably make Paula."" ""I think it will drive her on and she'll come out of it a better athlete.""",sport
"Gatlin and Hayes win Owen awards..American Olympic stars Justin Gatlin and Joanna Hayes have been named the winners of the 2004 Jesse Owens Awards, USA Track & Field's (USATF) top honour...Gatlin, 22, won the closest 100m final in Games history with a career-best time of 9.85 seconds in Athens. He also won bronze in the 200m and silver in the 4x100m relay, becoming the only male athlete to win three athletics medals this summer. Hayes, 27, set an Olympic record of 12.37 in winning the 100m hurdles. Established in 1981, the Jesse Owens Awards - named in honour of the late Olympic great who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games - are presented annually to the outstanding US male and female track and field performers...The 2004 awards will be presented on 3 December in conjunction with the USATF annual meeting in Portland. ""It is such a great honour to win the Jesse Owens Award,"" said Gatlin. ""It is one of the biggest honours in track and field and it is a great end to a great year. "" Hayes said: ""Knowing some of the great people who have won this award before me and knowing what it represents, I feel a sense accomplishment and pride which lets me know that everything that I have worked for is and always will be worth it.""",sport
"Radcliffe enjoys winning comeback..Paula Radcliffe made a triumphant return to competitive running with victory in the New York Marathon...The Briton, running for the first time since dropping out of the Olympic marathon and 10,000m, held off Kenyan Susan Chepkemei in a thrilling finish. The pair were locked together for the last few miles before Radcliffe finally sprinted clear to win in two hours, 23 minutes and 10 seconds. ""It's a good way to end the year,"" she said. ""I'm ready for a good rest now."" Radcliffe decided only recently to run in the race and many had doubted whether she had sufficiently recovered from her Olympic ordeal just 11 weeks ago. But the world record-holder was prominent at the head of the field for the whole race as her rivals slowly dropped off the pace. Just Chepkemei and Radcliffe were left in contention as the race came into the final few miles. The Kenyan put in several bursts of speed to throw off Radcliffe but the Briton managed to hang in. Both runners looked to be suffering as they reached the final mile in Central Park. But it was Radcliffe who managed to dredge up a final sprint to see off Chepkemei in the closest finish in the race's history and in the process make a huge step in erasing the disappointment she suffered in Athens...",sport
"Collins named UK Athletics chief..UK Athletics has ended its search for a new performance director by appointing psychologist Dave Collins...Collins, who worked with the British teams at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, takes over from Max Jones. Six candidates were interviewed for the job, including Denise Lewis' coach Charles van Commenee and former British triple jumper Keith Connor. ""We've searched long and hard to ensure we have found the right person,"" said UKA chief executive David Moorcroft. ""We have thoroughly tested the candidates. I believe David will make a great leader and I have great faith in what he will achieve."" Collins said: ""It's a great challenge. Over the next few months I will spend time listening to those who already make a significant contribution to athletics and other elite sports in the UK."" Collins, who has worked with javelin thrower Steve Backley in the past, started his career as a Royal Marine before becoming a PE teacher. He is currently professor of physical education and sport performance at Edinburgh University, where he helps competitors across many sports, including rugby, athletics, judo and football...He has specialised in helping competitors fulfil their potential through psychology and has worked with the Great Britain women's curling team, who won gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Mark Lewis-Francis sought Collins' advice in Athens when he was looking for inspiration before he ran the final leg of Britain's surprise triumph in the 4x100m relay. Collins has played rugby at regional level, was captain of the Great Britain American Football team, and competed at national level in judo and karate. He arrives with British athletics at a crossroads. Despite Kelly Holmes' golden double and the success of the sprint relay squad, the GB team failed to live up to expectations in Athens. Many older competitors have retired or are coming to the end of their careers, and Britain failed to win a single medal at the world junior championships in Italy this year. Collins will not have day-to-day coaching contact with the athletes, but will be expected to make changes to the system and coaching set-up in order to secure medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The appointment of a new performance director was one of the main recommendations in Sir Andrew Foster's review of the sport, which was published in May. It was commissioned by UK Sport and Sport England, which wanted UK Athletics to justify funding of more than £40m from the Government following the failure to hang on to the 2005 World Championships, which are now being held in Helsinki. Van Commenee dropped out of the selection process to take on the same role with the Dutch Olympic Committee, while Connor's application was rejected after an arduous interview process. Foster, however, declared himself satisfied with how the appointment was made. ""The appointment of David Collins, with his strong mix of leadership skills and managerial experience, is testament to the professional and detailed recruitment process,"" he said.",sport
"White admits to Balco drugs link..Banned American sprinter Kelli White says she knowingly took steroids given to her by Bay Area Lab Co-Operative (Balco) president Victor Conte...Conte faces a federal trial next year on charges of distributing steroids and tax evasion, and White said at first he tried to cover up what he was doing. ""He's the one who told me that it wasn't what he said it was,"" White said in the San Francisco Chronicle. But she added: ""It was my decision to go to him, not anybody else's."" White said Conte at first told her the substance was flaxseed oil, only to change his story later. White failed a drugs test after winning the 100m and 200m titles at the 2003 world athletics championships. She was subsequently handed a two-year ban in May this year and has admitted taking the stimulant modafinil. At first, White claimed she took the drug to combat narcolepsy but she now takes full responsibility for her actions...""My whole belief about Victor is that he was selling a product,"" White said in the LA Times. ""Whether it be a good product or a bad product, he was selling a product."" White was introduced to Conte through her coach Remy Korchemy, who is also a defendant in the Balco case. The 27-year-old believes doping is so common in sport she felt compelled to cheat herself if she was to have any chance of winning. ""I have no clue what it's going to take to change that,"" said White. ""I would say I made a mistake and I would never, ever go back. ""I would never recommend anyone to take that route.""",sport
"Trial date is set for Balco case..A US judge has set a preliminary trial date for the Balco steroid distribution case which has rocked athletics...US district court judge Susan Ilston rejected an attempt by the defence team to have the case dismissed at a pre-trial hearing in San Francisco. And she set a March date for the case of the four men accused of distributing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes to be heard. A firm decision on whether the trial takes place is expected in January. The judge said that she may conduct hearings in January into whether federal agents illegally searched the Balco headquarters and wrongfully obtained statements from the company's founder Victor Conte and its vice-president James Valente. The two men - along with personal trainer Greg Anderson and athletics coach Remy Korchemny - were all indicted earlier this year but have pleaded their innocence. The outcome of those hearings could result in some or all of the charges being dismissed. Conte said that he would be telling his side of the story on an American TV show on Friday...""The world deserves to know the truth about performance-enhancing drugs,"" he said. Balco (The Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative) is the company at the centre of the scandal. The company has been accused by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) of being the source of the banned steroid THG and modafinil. The USADA claims that 10 athletes have received sanctions for testing positive for THG and modafinil. Former double world champion Kelli White and Olympic relay star Alvin Harrison have both been banned on the basis of materials discovered during the Balco investigation. Britain's former European 100m champion Dwain Chambers is currently serving a two-year ban after testing positive for THG in an out-of-competition test in 2003.",sport
"Radcliffe eyes hard line on drugs..Paula Radcliffe has called for all athletes found guilty on drugs charges to be treated as criminals...The marathon world record holder believes more needs to be done to rid athletics of the ""suspicions and innuendoes"" which greet any fast time. ""Doping in sport is a criminal offence and should be treated as such,"" the 30-year-old told the Sunday Times. ""It not only cheats other athletes but also cheats promoters, sponsors and the general public.""..Radcliffe's comments come at a time when several American sports stars are under suspicion of steroid use. ""Being caught in possession of a performance-enhancing drugs should carry a penalty,"" she added...""The current system does not detect many of the substances being abused by athletes. ""This means that often athletes do not know if they are competing on a level playing field, if their hard work and sacrifice is being trumped by an easier scientific route. ""Often, when an athlete puts in a good performance, they are subjected to suspicions and innuendoes instead of praise. ""Having been on the receiving end of accusations like this I can testify as to how much this hurts.""",sport
"Kenteris denies faking road crash..Greek sprinter Kostas Kenteris has denied claims that he faked a motorbike crash to avoid a doping test days before the start of the Olympics...Kenteris and fellow sprinter Katerina Thanou are set to learn if they will face criminal charges this week. Part of the investigation has centred on whether they staged the crash. Kenteris insisted: ""The accident happened. I went crazy when I found out I had supposedly missed a test and I wanted to rush to the Olympic village."" Kenteris, speaking on Greece's Alter Television station, also claimed that he asked to be tested for banned substances in hospital after the crash. ""I told the hospital, which was an Olympics-accredited hospital, to call the IOC and have me tested on the spot but no-one came.""..After a drama which dominated newspaper headlines in Greece as Athens prepared for the start of the Athens Games, Kenteris and Thanou eventually withdrew. But Kenteris has continually protested his innocence - and on Sunday blamed Greek Olympic Committee officials and his former coach Christos Tzekos for failing to inform him of the test. The 31-year-old insisted he will be happy if he is charged so he can clear his name. ""If a decision is taken to have charges filed against me, I will accept it gladly. ""A prosecution means that the case will be cleared... I want to go to the end and then we'll see who's right and who isn't."" Kenteris, a Greek hero after winning gold in the 200m at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, also confirmed that he was due to light the flame at the Athens opening ceremony. ""I had even rehearsed lighting the cauldron,"" he said.",sport
"Greek pair set for hearing..Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou will fight the provisional two-year bans imposed on them by the IAAF at an independent tribunal this weekend...Athletics' ruling body took action against the pair for failing to take drugs tests before the Athens Olympics. An independent tribunal of the Greek Track and Field Federation will meet to decide whether to ratify the sanction. The sprint duo face charges of failing to give information on their location and refusing to submit to a drugs test. Kenteris' lawyer Gregory Ioannidis told BBC Sport: ""We refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical. ""There have been certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the sporting authorities and their officials, and these procedural breaches have also violated my client's rights. ""There is also evidence that proves the fact that my client has been persecuted."" Ioannidis, who is a law lecturer at the University of Buckingham, added: ""One of the important rights and foundations of law and justice - that the accused should be presumed innocent unless proved otherwise - has been tarnished."" The panel will also decide on the two-year ban imposed on the athletes' controversial coach Christos Tzekos by the IAAF. Kenteris, the 2000 Olympic 200m champion, and Thanou, the women's 100m silver medallist from the same Games in Sydney, quit the Olympics on 18 August after failing to give samples on the eve of the opening ceremony...Testers could not find them at the Olympic village and the duo were later admitted to hospital after claiming to have been involved in a motorcycle accident. They also missed tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens before the Games. In imposing two-year suspensions on the duo on 22 December, the IAAF described their explanations for missing the tests as ""unacceptable"". Whatever the findings of the independent tribunal, all parties will have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The tribunal hearing will take place at the Hellenic Olympic Committee building. It will start at 1200 GMT on Saturday and is expected to finish early next week. The tribunal panel will consist of five members - president Konstantinos Panagopoulos and Panagiotis Dimakos, Haralabos Hrisanthakis, Stilianos Perakis and Ioannis Karmis. Kenteris and Thanou also face criminal charges in Greece for allegedly faking the motorcycle accident. Eight criminal charges have been laid against the sprinters as well as Tzekos, an eyewitness to the accident and hospital officials. But there has been speculation that the charges could be dropped.",sport
"Jones files Conte lawsuit..Marion Jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Balco boss Victor Conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs...The Sydney Olympic gold medallist says Conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. Conte, whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation, made the claims in a US television programme. He and three others were indicted in February by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. In an email to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Conte said: ""I stand by everything I said"". Jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in Sydney in 2000. Her lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in San Francisco, said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she ""has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs"". Conte's statements, the suit added, were ""false and malicious"". After the ABC television program earlier this month, Jones' lawyer Richard Nicholls said: ""Marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ""Victor Conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment, while Marion Jones is one of America's most decorated female athletes. Mr Conte's statements have been wildly contradictory. ""Mr Conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television, while Marion Jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination...""Mr Conte is simply not credible. We challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that Marion Jones passed."" The sport's ruling body, the IAAF, is taking a cautious approach to Conte's allegations but contacted the US Anti-Doping Agency. Communications director Nick Davies said the IAAF would seek to contact Conte ""for further information"". But Davies stressed it would be up to the American authorities to decide whether they will take action against Jones in light of Conte's television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. ""If it is felt there is case to answer, it would be for its national governing body (USA Track and Field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action,"" he added. ""The US Anti-Doping Agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. ""And I am sure, like ourselves, they will be watching the television programme with great interest."" Jones, who is under investigation for steroid use by the US Anti-Doping Agency, has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the Balco scandal, although she praised a zinc supplement Conte marketed. Jones, who did not win any medals in Athens in August, has never failed a drugs test. Meanwhile, Conte, who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering, is due to face trial in March.",sport
"IAAF awaits Greek pair's response..Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou are yet to respond to doping charges from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)...The Greek pair were charged after missing a series of routine drugs tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens. They have until midnight on 16 December and an IAAF spokesman said: ""We're sure their responses are on their way."" If they do not respond or their explanations are rejected, they will be provisionally banned from competition. They will then face a hearing in front of the Greek Federation, which will ultimately determine their fate. Their former coach Christos Tzekos has also been charged with distributing banned substances. Under IAAF rules, the athletes could receive a maximum one-year suspension. Kenteris and Thanou already face a criminal trial after being charged with avoiding a drug test on the eve of the Athens Olympics and then faking a motorcyle crash...No date for the trial has yet been set and again Tzekos is also facing charges. The IAAF issued an official warning to the trio last year after they were discovered training in Qatar rather than in Crete, where they had said they would be. All athletes must inform their national federations where they are at all times, so they can be available for out-of-competition drugs tests. But Kenteris and Thanou then went on to skip tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago, when they decided to fly back to Greece early. Then just before the Olympics, the pair dramatically missed another test in Athens and withdrew from the Games.",sport
"IAAF to rule on Greek sprint pair..Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou are expected to find out on Wednesday if they will be banned for missing drugs tests this summer...The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) council held a conference call on Tuesday and are set to announce their decision. Kenteris and Thanou could be suspended for up to two years. The duo withdrew from the Olympics after missing a test but claimed they had suffered a motorcycle crash. The Greek authorities have also brought criminal charges against the sprinters for avoiding a drugs test and faking an accident. Their former coach Christos Tzekos is also facing charges and all three are awaiting a trial date...However, the IAAF will determine the sprinters' future on the track after carefully considering all the evidence. The sport's ruling body is expected to direct the Greek federation in what action it should take against the sprinters. Kenteris and Thanou can appeal against any decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The sprinters both sent written explanations to the IAAF, which have been taken into account. The IAAF sent an official warning to the sprinters and coach Tzekos after they were discovered training in Qatar rather than in Crete, where they had said they would be. But Kenteris and Thanou then went on to skip tests in Tel Aviv and Chicago, when they decided to fly back to Greece early. Just before the Olympics, the pair dramatically missed another test in Athens before withdrawing from the Games. Kenteris, 31, won gold in the 200m at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, where Thanou, 29, won silver in the 100m.",sport
"Holmes starts 2005 with GB events..Kelly Holmes will start 2005 with a series of races in Britain...Holmes will make her first track appearance on home soil since winning double Olympic gold in January's Norwich Union International in Glasgow. She will also run in the Grand Prix in Birmingham in February and may defend her indoor AAA 800m title in Sheffield earlier that month. ""I am still competitive and still want to win,"" she said. ""I'm an athlete and I can't wait to get back on the track."" She added: ""These events are also a great opportunity to thank the British public for the enormous levels of support they have given me from the moment I stepped off that plane from Greece."" The Glasgow meeting will see Holmes compete over 1500m in a five-way match against Sweden, France, Russia and Italy.",sport
"Gebrselassie in London triple bid..Double Olympic 10,000m champion Haile Gebrselassie will race in the London Marathon for the next three years...The Ethiopian legend won Sunday's Almeria half-marathon in Spain on his return from an operation on his Achilles tendon. He was third in London in 2002 in his first serious attempt at the marathon. ""It is a coup for us to secure Haile's presence for the next three years and it guarantees a quality race,"" said race director David Bedford. Gebrselassie will face Olympic champion Stefano Baldini, world champion Jaouad Gharib, and arch-rival Paul Tergat, the current world record holder. ""If I didn't think I could win I would not be here,"" said Gebrselassie, who has set world records on 18 occasions in his illustrious career and is keen to add the marathon record to his collection. ""There are a lot of fantastic runners in the race but I shall be doing my utmost to upset them.""",sport
"Thanou bullish over drugs hearing..Katerina Thanou is confident she and fellow sprinter Kostas Kenteris will not be punished for missing drugs tests before the Athens Olympics...The Greek pair appeared at a hearing on Saturday which will determine whether their provisional bans from athletics' ruling body the IAAF should stand. ""After five months we finally had the chance to give explanations. I am confident and optimistic,"" said Thanou. ""We presented new evidence to the committee that they were not aware of.""..The athletes' lawyer Grigoris Ioanidis said he believed the independent disciplinary committee set up by the Greek Athletics Federation (SEGAS) would find them innocent. ""We are almost certain that the charges will be dropped,"" said Ioanidis...""We believe that we have presented [a case] that the charges are unreasonable."" Thanou, the 2000 Olympic women's 100m silver medallist, and Sydney 200m champion Kenteris were suspended by the IAAF for missing three drugs tests. The third was supposed to take place on the eve of the Athens Games last August, but the pair could not be found in the athletes' village. They were later taken to hospital after claiming to have been involved in a motorcycle accident. Thanou's coach Christos Tzekos was also suspended by the IAAF. ""We were asked [by the disciplinary committee] all kinds of questions about the night of 12 August,"" said Tzekos. ""We did not leave any gaps. As far as I am concerned there is no such issue [of refusing to be tested], and I am very optimistic."" Tzekos, Thanou and Kenteris, who have all denied the charges, can expect a decision within a month. ""Deliberations will start after some additional documents are brought in by Thursday,"" said committee chairman Kostas Panagopoulos. ""I estimate that the final ruling will be issued by the end of February.""",sport
"Holmes is hit by hamstring injury..Kelly Holmes has been forced out of this weekend's European Indoor Athletics Championships after picking up a hamstring injury during training...The double Olympic champion said: ""I am very disappointed that I have been forced to withdraw. ""I can hardly walk at the moment and I won't be able to do any running for two or three weeks although I'll be keeping fit as best I can."" Holmes will have now have intensive treatment in South Africa...The 34-year-old made a cautious start to the season but looked back to her best when she stormed to the 1,000m title at the Birmingham Grand Prix 10 days ago. After that race and more progress in training, Holmes revealed she had decided to compete at the European Indoors before her plans were wrecked last weekend. ""On Saturday night I pulled my hamstring running the last bend on my final 200m of the night,"" said Holmes. ""I was going really, really well when I felt a massive spasm in my left leg and my hamstring blew. ""I saw the doctor here and he has said it is not serious but it's frustrating missing Madrid when I knew I was in great shape."" Holmes has now been advised by her coach Margot Jennings not to rush back into training and it is unlikely she will compete again until the summer. Helen Clitheroe now goes to Madrid as the only British competitor in the women's 1500m while there will be no representative in the 800m.",sport
"Kluft impressed by Sotherton form..Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft was full of admiration for Britain's Kelly Sotherton as the pair prepared to clash in Birmingham...Both will be in action on Friday in the 60m hurdles and long jump ahead of the European Indoor Championships later this month in Madrid. Sotherton finished third behind the Swede in Athens, and Kluft said: ""I knew about her, she's a great girl. ""She looked very good early in the season and was competing really well."" Kluft showed impressive early-season form on Tuesday in Stockholm's GE Galan meeting, winning the sprint hurdles, the long jump and the 400m. Sotherton has also displayed promise, with a new high jump personal best in Sheffield at the combined Norwich Union European trials and AAA Championships, and a second place in the long jump behind Jade Johnson.",sport
"What now for Kelly Holmes?..Last April, Kelly Holmes spoke to the BBC Sport website about her loneliness, her fight to stay fit and her decision not to contest both the 800m and 1500m at the Olympics...It just goes to show even the most meticulous and measured athletes cannot predict what fate has in store for them. Four months later, Holmes stormed to double Olympic gold and has since been made a Dame, won the BBC Sport Personality of the Year and written a book whilst still finding time to coach aspiring athletes. With so much time spent in the spotlight, Holmes has increasingly dropped hints that her ambition on the track has begun to wilt. And when asked about her plans for both the indoor and outdoor seasons ahead, the 34-year-old has repeatedly chosen to tick the ""don't know"" box. Holmes has now pulled out of this weekend's European Indoor Championships, where she was selected for both the 800m and 1500m, because of a hamstring injury. But should we be surprised if the Olympic champion over both those distances decides she just does not feel like racing anymore? ""Well, it's a lot easier being the double Olympic champion, being feted by everybody, than training to be at the top in middle distance running,"" points out former Olympian and BBC pundit Steve Cram. ""You have to have a real strong desire to carry on doing it even if you're very talented.""..Holmes' drive and determination have always been unquestionable - that is the reason she has battled back from a string of injuries that threatened to see her finish her career empty-handed. But alarm bells start ringing when the Kent athlete begins questioning herself. ""Will I have as much commitment, desire and energy to go through a major championship?"" Holmes asked in the New Year. ""That is what I don't know."" At 34, Holmes will also be aware that time is running out. US 400m and 200m legend Michael Johnson, a five-time Olympic gold medallist, retired shortly after his 34th birthday as did Britain's double Olympic champion decathlete Daley Thompson. The physical demands of the day-to-day grind will only get harder for Holmes, who has already admitted she ""doesn't like the training anymore."" Whilst out on the circuit the allure of defeating a double Olympic champion will spur her opponents on. Holmes will not want to needlessly suffer the indignity of being beaten. Unless she is certain she has a strong chance of winning any race, she will not step onto the track. But if the Kent athlete finds the form that fuelled her ambitions last summer, there are more prizes up for grabs. The day after completing her double in Athens, the 34-year-old revealed she would still like to win her first indoors title...Holmes' wish could easily be met in Madrid before she goes on to prepare for the outdoor season where there are still scores to be settled, such as a first gold at the World Championships in Helsinki. There is just one small truth which could gnaw away at Holmes' motivation - the realisation that no matter how hard she trains, nothing she wins now can surpass her achievements in Athens. On the other hand, if those achievements cannot be matched shouldn't they be at least shared and celebrated? ""You don't get the chance very often in your career to step onto the track as the double Olympic champion,"" agreed Cram. ""You want to be able to take your bow in front of the fans because it's a fantastic feeling. ""I think deep down Kelly wants to run. I think she will compete and run races on the circuits but whether or not she runs in the major championships is much less certain.""..Athletics fans had every reason to believe they would see the new-look Kelly Holmes tearing up the track again. After her Olympic glory she emphatically denied she planned to retire. So, why is Holmes dragging her heels about making a decision on where, when or whether to even bother competing again? ""That's just Kelly,"" explains Cram. ""She's always been like that. ""She enjoys people trying to guess what she is going to do next. She knows every time she makes a pronouncement now it's headline news. ""Kelly has to figure out for herself what it is she wants and that will be based on athletics decisions, whether she can be competitive, if she is fit enough to put her neck on the line. ""And if she decides not to run again, no-one is going to turn round and say 'you're making the wrong decision.'""",sport
"Gardener battles to narrow win..Jason Gardener fought all the way to the line to narrowly claim the men's 60m title at the Norwich Union Indoor trials and AAAs Championships...The world 60m champion got off to a rolling start and had to dig deep to dip ahead of Mark Findlay and Darren Chin, who both set personal bests. ""It was a close race,"" admitted Gardener. ""I stumbled out the blocks but my experience told through. ""I still feel there's more life in me and I believe I can go faster."" Gardener's performance in Sheffield could have been affected by the news, which he heard before his semi-final, that his European record had been broken Frenchman Ronald Pognon, who will be a real threat at the European Championships, set a new time of 6.45, one-hundreth of a second faster than Gardener's previous mark. Favourite..delivered a powerful performance to take the women's 60m title in 7.27 seconds. ""You'll see me in Madrid and I feel there is a lot more to come along,"" said the 22-year-old. Katherine Endacott battled hard to take second and dip under the European qualifying mark. Defending champion Joice Maduaka had pulled out of the final with a chest infection...was on record-breaking form as she stormed to the women's 60m hurdles crown. The 25-year-old set a new British record for the second time in seven days, clocking 7.96 seconds to finish ahead of rival Diane Allahgreen. ""I'm so happy,"" a tearful Claxton told BBC Sport. ""All the years I've been running and I'm getting recognition."" Claxton's time was also good enough to qualify for the European Championships...The men's 800m went to form in Sheffield as..dominated the race from start to finish. The Northern Ireland athlete went off at a startling pace but had to hold off the challenge of Welshman Jimmy Watkins over the final 200m to win in one minute, 47.96 seconds. Both McIlory and Watkins, who set a life-time best of 1:48.32, had already booked their places in Madrid and were again well within the qualifying time. ""I had to go out and go through all the gears before the Europeans and I won't run again until then,"" said McIlroy...could not reach the European mark in the women's race as she crossed the line to win in 2:04.45. Olympic bronze heptathlon medallist..rounded off a useful weekend with two more personal bests in Sheffield. The 28-year-old reached 1.80m in the high jump and clocked 8.47secs in the heats of the 60m hurdles. ""I've surprised myself,"" said Sotherton. ""I'm starting to thrive on the pressure but if I don't perform then it's not the end of the world."" Pole vaulter..made a winning return to major competition after a drugs ban. The Trafford athlete, who has served a two-year ban after testing positive for anabolic steroids, clinched the title with a championship record 4.25m...also set a new championship mark in the men's triple jump title in Sheffield. The 26-year-old, who has been training in Australia over the winter, landed 17.30m with his final effort - the longest leap in the world this year. ""I didn't have a clue,"" said Idowu. ""I've not jumped indoors before and I just wanted the qualifying mark. ""But this isn't a bad start and hopefully I'll come back from Madrid with a gold medal."" Nathan Douglas continued his steady progress this season as he set a life-time best of 16.76m in second while Jonathan Moore took third...and..resumed their rivalry in the long jump competition, both achieving the European standard. Commonwealth champion Morgan reached a personal best of 7.96m on his very first jump and then promptly retired with a bruised heel. Olympian Tomlinson tried to play catch up with his six jumps but had to settle for a season's best jump of 7.91m. ""I was advised not to jump by my doctor and so I'm pleased to come here and get the qualifying mark,"" said Tomlinson..., now based at Loughborough, sprinted past front runner Catherine Murphy in the final 100m to steal the women's 400m title. The 21-year-old ran a personal best of 53.45 seconds to win her first indoor title. Wall's time was just short of the qualifying mark - something Murphy already has. Ireland's..took the men's title in 46.46 ahead of promising Channel Islands decathlete Dale Garland. Sudanese 18-year-old Rabah Yusuf, who is seeking British citizenship, showed his raw talent as he burst through in third...cleared the required 1.90m to qualify for the European championships and claim the AAAs title in the women's high jump. In the men's 3,000m,..powered to a new personal best of seven minutes, 56.86 seconds to defend his AAAs title in style. It was the first time in 11 years the eight-minute barrier has been broken at the championships and was just within the European mark...took the women's 1500m AAAs title in the absence of Kelly Holmes. Her time of 4:19.11 was not good enough to qualify for Madrid but Ovens had already opted out of the championships. The men's race was won by.., who had to fight off a closing pack to claim the title in 3:45.87.",sport
"European medal chances improve..What have the European Indoor trials told us? Well, I think we could be heading to the European Championships with half a dozen medal prospects...It was good to see athletes beginning to make steps forward, to see a few new faces and there were lots of personal bests kicking around...The best performance on the track for me was Sarah Claxton's win in the 60m hurdles. Running sub-eight seconds twice in a week puts her right up there and if she repeats that in Madrid she will be close to picking up a medal. But what was great about Sunday's performance was that she was under pressure to produce the goods when it counted. Diane Allahgreen has been our best hurdler for some time now and I think she was surprised to be beaten by Sarah. And knowing that she got the better of Diane in a head-to-head race will give Sarah confidence. In the men's race on Saturday, Allan Scott was right in there and there is definitely more to come from him. In fact, the men's 60m hurdles is so strong, I think the selectors will pick three hurdlers to go to Madrid...Phillips Idowu lit up the field events, not only with his hair, but also with his leap of 17.30m, which puts him at the top of the world rankings. I had a chat with him before the competition and he was really looking forward to getting out there. He feels he is in great shape and has some big jumps inside him - but then Phillips always has. A lot of the athletes said the runway was not very helpful, so for Phillips to jump like that is a good performance. He is such a huge talent but just needs some consistency - and if he does that then the big jumps will get even further. Across the board I thought Kelly Sotherton had a great weekend and continued to show she is developing. She picked up three personal bests in the long jump, high jump and 60m hurdles and you can't ask for more than that. Kelly will be up against Carolina Kluft in the pentathlon at the European Championships but she has every chance of a medal on the basis of what we've seen so far...She has a complicated training regime where different people help her with different disciplines but it seems to be working really well. It wasn't all good news in Sheffield. I thought both the 60m races were disappointing in different ways. Jason Gardener may have won but he wasn't at his best. I chatted to him afterwards and he knows it was an off-day for him. He's there to be shot at and the other lads nearly got a big scalp out there. In the women's race, Jeanette Kwayke was hoping to run against defending champion Joice Maduaka. The pair are enjoying a bit of rivalry but Joice had to pull out with a chest infection. If she had made the final I think Jeanette would have gone a bit quicker...Janine Whitlock competed well in the pole vault on her return following a two-year drugs ban. But the most disappointing thing in the wider view is that she is our best pole vaulter by a long way and that shouldn't be the case. The event has moved on immensely since Janine has been away and if there was more domestic competition I think that would help her. A couple of other interesting topics to look out for are the citizenship issues surrounding Mark Findlay and Rabah Yusuf. Findlay is a Londoner who has chosen to represent Trinidad and Tobago but has never run for them so he could still compete for Great Britain. Yusuf, who came third in the 400m, is from the Sudan but is trying to gain British citizenship. He came to Britain as a high jumper but damaged his toe, started doing more running and found his talent. So we shall have to see what happens to both of them.",sport
"McIlroy wins 800m indoor title..James McIlroy motored to the AAA's Indoor 800m title in Sheffied on Sunday in a time of one minute, 47.97 seconds...The Larne athlete dominated the race from start to finish although he had to hold off a late challenge from Welshman Jimmy Watkins in the final 100 metres. ""I had to go out and go through all the gears before the Europeans and I won't run again until then,"" said McIlroy. ''I though if I got lucky I'd get close to the British record but I blew up in the end.'' McIlroy has been in superb form at the start of the season and will now start his build-up for the European Indoors at Madrid on 4-6 March. Meanwhile, Paul Brizzel and Anna Boyle reached the semi-finals of the 60m hurdles with Boyle setting a season's best of 7.48. In the women's 60m final, Ailis McSweeney broke Michelle Carroll's long-standing Irish record by clocking 7.37 which left her in third place. David Gillick showed that he is a genuine medal contender in the European Indoor Championships by claiming an impressive 400m victory. Gillick was more than half-a-second clear when taking gold in 46.45 - .02 outside his personal best set in Saturday's semi-finals...The Irishman is now the fastest European this season. Derval O'Rourke broke her own Irish 60m hurdles record by clocking 8.06 which left her third behind new British record holder Sarah Claxton (7.96). James Nolan (3:46.04) took second in the men's 1500m behind Neil Speaight (3:45.86) but the Offaly man was outside the European Indoor standard. Colin Costello was seventh in the 1500m final in 3:48.82). Deirdre Ryan was second in the women's high jump with a clearance of 1.87m while Aoife Byrne took silver in the 800m in a personal best of 2:06.73. Lisburn's Kelly McNeice Reid (4:31.34) was seventh in the women's 1500m while Gary Murray (8:11.22) was 11th in the men's 3000m. Meanwhile, Stephen Cairns and Jill Shannon claimed the individual titles at Saturday's Northern Ireland Cross Country Championship in Coleraine. Cairns came in ahead of Paul Rowan and Allan Bogle in the men's race. Willowfield claimed their first men's team title in 72 years while Shannon helped Lagan Valley win the women's team honours.",sport
"Johnson edges out rival Sotherton..Jade Johnson edged out rival Kelly Sotherton with her last effort to claim the AAAs long jump title at the Norwich Union European Indoor trials...Olympic heptathlon bronze medallist, Sotherton, led the event with her first leap of 6.43m - a personal best. But Johnson, who has not competed indoors for five years, leapt to a life-time best of 6.50m in her last jump, after four fouls. Both Johnson and Sotherton passed the European Championships qualifying mark. Although Sotherton's main aim in Madrid next month will be the pentathlon where she will take on Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft. Ireland's..delivered a shock in the men's 200m as he stormed to his first major title in 21.01 seconds. British favourite Chris Lambert had to settle for second place while defending champion Ireland's Paul Brizzel took third. There was some consolation for Lambert as he set a personal best of 20.94 in the first round - good enough to qualify for Europe...Two-time AAAs champion Allyn Condon and Ian Mackie had no such luck as they were disqualified in the heats. There was plenty of hot action in the men's 60m hurdles where Scotland's..was vying for top spot with Olympian Andy Turner. Scott, 22, smashed his personal best on the way to the final, where he broke it again to win the AAAs title in 7.58 seconds. Turner finished second in 7.82 after previously setting a personal best on the 7.83 in the semi-finals, while Damien Greaves did not finish the final. The trio of athletes have reached the European qualifying mark this season though one of them is set to miss out on a call-up to the British squad...comfortably defended her 3,000m title, clocking eight minutes, 49.87 seconds to easily surpass the European qualifying mark. The European cross country bronze medallist is ranked number one in Europe this season and will go to Madrid with high hopes. Helen Clitheroe was agonisingly close to the 9:05.00 qualifying mark as she claimed the runners-up spot in a personal best of 9:05.73. In the men's 800m heats,..qualified fastest in the 800m heats to lay down a challenge to in-form... The Welsh runner attacked the last 200m to come through ahead of James Thie in one minute, 49.87 seconds. McIlroy, who is third in the European rankings, eased across the finish in 1:50.87 to set up a showdown in Sunday's final in Sheffield. Both Watkins and McIlroy have already achieved the European qualifying mark. Scotland's Susan Deacon stole..'s thunder in the final of the women's 200m. Fraser became the fastest British woman over the distance this season when she qualified for the final in 23.68 seconds - though that time is outside the European standard. But Deacon claimed her first AAAs title over the distance, edging Fraser into second in 23.67. In the women's shot put veteran..claimed her fourth AAAs title with a throw of 15.27m. But that mark was not good enough for the 39-year-old to book her place at next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid. Sotherton finished fifth after producing two throws of 13.77m. In the absence of injured British number one Carl Myerscough,..claimed the men's shot put title with a throw of 17.64m, which was below the qualifying mark...Sale's Robert Mitchell climbed to a season's best of 2.20m - just 3cm short of the European standard - to claim the British indoor high jump title...could only clear 2.16m to finish in fourth but the 27-year-old's disappointment will be tempered as he had already achieved the qualifying mark at a meeting in Slovenia on Tuesday. There was bad luck for British number one..in the pole vault as he failed to clear the bar after deciding to come in at 5.45m. The AAAs indoor title went instead to Ashley Swain, who climbed to a season's best of 5.25m And Ireland's Taniesha Scanlon set a new national record of 13.28m in the women's triple jump.",sport
"Brizzel to run AAA's in Sheffield..Ballymena sprinter Paul Brizzel will be among eight of Ireland's European Indoor hopefuls competing in this weekend's AAA's Championships...US-based Alistair Cragg and Mark Carroll are the only Irish athletes selected so far for the Europeans who will not run in Sheffield. Brizzel will defend his 200m title in the British trials. In-form James McIlroy will hope to confirm his place in the British team for Madrid by winning the 800m title. McIlroy has been in tremendous form on the European circuit in recent weeks. He is one of the fastest 800m runners in the world this winter and already seems assured of a place in Madrid. Corkman Mark Carroll confirmed in midweek that he would join Cragg in the European Championships. Carroll is ranked number three in the world 3000m ranking at the moment with Cragg occupying top spot. Meanwhile, nine-times champion Dermot Donnelly will not be coming out of retirement to compete in the Northern Ireland Cross Country Championships in Coleraine on Saturday. An injury crisis in the Annadale Striders squad led to Donnelly being entered by coach John McLaughlin but the athlete told BBC Sport on Friday evening that he would not be running. Willowfield's Paul Rowan will go in as individual favourite but Annadale could have a tough job holding on to their team title as Andrew Dunwoody and Noel Pollock are unlikely to run.",sport
"Holmes urged to compete at Worlds..Jolanda Ceplak has urged Britain's Kelly Holmes to continue competing at the major championships...Double Olympic gold medallist Holmes has strongly hinted she will not run in this year's Worlds and is undecided about next month's European Indoors. But World Indoor 800m record holder Ceplak said: ""There is never an easy race when she is in the field. There is only excitement at what might happen. ""It is good for the sport. She always fetches the best out of everyone."" Ceplak has been a great rival of Holmes' during the Briton's career and the pair fell out when Holmes questioned the manner of the Slovenian's runaway 800m victory at the 2002 European Championships. But the controversy has since been forgotten, with Ceplak acting as pacemaker for Holmes' failed attempt on the British Indoor 1500m record at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham in 2003...Ceplak added: ""I like running against her - you know the race is always going to be fast. ""That is the sort of competition that I like. She is special to me. She was like my idol from the beginning of my career."" Meanwhile, Ceplak will be looking to follow up last Saturday's win in Boston with a fast time and victory in Friday's Night of Athletics in Erfurt, Germany. Britain's Jason Gardener had been expected to defend his 60m title in Erfurt but instead he will save himself for a competition in Leipzig on Sunday. Gardener's decision means Scotland's 400m man Ian Mackie will carry British hopes in what looks sure to be a tough preparation for next weekend's Norwich Union European trials in Sheffield.",sport
"McIlroy continues winning streak..James McIlroy stormed to his second international victory in less than a week, claiming the men's 800m at the TEAG indoor meeting in Erfurt...The Northern Ireland runner set a new personal best of one minute, 46.68 seconds - a time good enough to qualify for the European Indoor Championships. ""I'm qualified now and that's what matters most,"" said the 28-year-old. McIlroy is now hoping to gain a late entry into Sunday's international indoor meeting in Leipzig. The Northern Irishman is hoping manager Ricky Simms can swing it for him to compete after he initially withdrew after contracting a cold. After three successive wins over the past fortnight, McIlroy is brimming with confidence. ""I've been waiting over six years for this to happen and now I'm certain my career has turned the corner."" On Friday, McIlroy delivered an impressive run despite suffering from his bad cold. The AAA indoor and outdoor champion accelerated away from the field in the final 300m, beating German Wolfram Mulle by 0.90 seconds. McIlroy set a world-leading mark for 1,000m at the Sparkassen Cup in Stuttgart last weekend. And his time in Erfurt makes him third fastest over 800m in the world this year.",sport
"Radcliffe will compete in London..Paula Radcliffe will compete in the Flora London Marathon this year after deciding her schedule for 2005...The 31-year-old won the race in 2002 on her marathon debut, defended her title 12 months later and will now seek a third title in the 17 April race. ""It doesn't get any better than this for the 25th anniversary,"" said race director David Bedford. ""After announcing the greatest men's field ever we now have the greatest women's distance runner ever."" Three years ago Radcliffe smashed the women's world record in two hours 18 minutes 15 seconds...The Bedford star returned to London 12 months later, lowering her mixed-race world record of 2:17:18, which she set in Chicago in October 2003, by one minute 53 secs. Radcliffe's career took a setback when she failed to complete the Olympic marathon and later dropped out of the Athens 10,000m last August. But the 31-year-old bounced back to win the New York Marathon in November. Radcliffe, however, passed up the chance to go for the ""Big City"" marathon grand slam. With wins in Chicago, London and New York, only the Boston Marathon remains to be conquered but that takes place a day after London. ""Boston is definitely a race I want to do at some point, but London is very special to me,"" said Radcliffe. ""I don't pick races thinking about things like pressure. I pick the ones in my heart I really want to do. ""I love the atmosphere, crowds and course and know it will always be a great quality race. ""It is also the 25th anniversary this year which adds to the occasion.""",sport
"Britain boosted by Holmes double..Athletics fans endured a year of mixed emotions in 2004 as stunning victories went hand-in-hand with disappointing defeats and more drugs scandals...Kelly Holmes finally fulfilled her potential by storming to double gold on the track at the Olympic Games. Holmes helped erase the gloom hanging over Team GB after their biggest medal hope, Paula Radcliffe, dropped out of the marathon and then the 10,000m. Britain's men's 4x100m relay team also did their bit by taking a shock gold. Holmes had started the year in disappointing style, falling over in the final of 1500m at the World Indoor Championships where she was favourite. Her Olympic build-up was clouded by self doubt but that proved unfounded as she overhauled rival Maria Mutola to win the 800m - her first global title. Just five days later, the 34-year-old made it double gold in the 1500m. It was the first time in 84 years a Briton has achieved the Olympic middle-distance double. While Holmes left Athens as the star of Team GB, it was Radcliffe who carried expectations before the August Games...The 30-year-old marathon world record holder went into the Athens event as favourite but an exhausted Radcliffe dropped out after 23 miles in tears. Her decision to enter the 10,000m five days later also backfired as she again pulled out with eight laps remaining...But Radcliffe helped put her Olympic trauma behind her with a thrilling win in November's New York Marathon. The 4x100m team grabbed some last-gasp glory for the British men's Olympic squad after a poor start to the Games...It seemed as though Athens would be the first Games where the men would fail to win a medal with Michael East the only individual track finalist in the 1500m. But Darren Campell, Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis made amends in the sprint relay. The quartet held off favourites the USA to win Britain's first relay medal since 1912 in 38.07 seconds. Gardener added the Olympic relay crown to his World Indoor title over 60m and, just like Holmes, finally lived up to his promise in 2004. Kelly Sotherton completed Team GB's athletics medal haul in Athens with a surprise bronze in the heptathlon. The 28-year-old won her first championship medal since becoming a full-time athlete in 2003...But it was a different story for Britain's defending champion Denise Lewis, who withdrew on day two of the competition after some poor results. Lewis, who was troubled by injury, has ruled out retiring while Sotherton is tipped to build on her success. The Athens Olympics proved to be a landmark occasion for Steve Backley, who retired from competition after finishing fourth in the javelin. The battling 35-year-old leaves the sport with a vast medal haul including two silvers and one Olympic bronze...And Backley's departure was balanced by the return of injury-hit decathlete Dean Macey, who came fourth in Athens...The continued improvement of sprinter Abi Oyepitan and long jumper Chris Tomlinson also boosted Team GB. Sadly, the 2004 Olympics did not escape the problems of drugs misuse. On the eve of the Games, Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou missed a drugs test and claimed to have been involved in a road crash...Kenteris, the 200m champion in 2000, and Thanou have since been charged by the Greek authorities and await trial. At the Games, Adrian Annus (hammer), Robert Fazelas (discus) and Irina Korzhanenko (shot) were all stripped of their titles because of doping issues. Hungarian compatriots Annus and Fazelas both refused to give urine samples while Russian Korzhanenko tested positive for the steroid stanozolol...The fallout from the THG scandal, which rocked the sport in 2003, continued to impact in Olympic year. Britain's 4x100m team took gold without the services of Dwain Chambers, who was handed a two-year ban in February after testing positive for steroid THG...American Kelli White was suspended and stripped of her world 100m and 200m titles after failing a drugs test. And world 400m champion Jerome Young landed a life ban from US chiefs after a second doping offence. Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva provided some light relief by smashing the world record seven times on her way to the World Indoor and Olympic titles. Her rivalry with compatriot Svetlana Feofanova livened up the field events. Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj also delighted fans by racing to a historic Olympic double in the 1500m and 5,000m...And though there was no Paula Radcliffe in the London Marathon, there was plenty of drama as Kenyans Evans Rutto and Margaret Okayo took the titles. Rutto held on to win despite slipping on some cobblestones and tumbling into a barrier. Okayo also had to battle back after mistiming her tactics but clinched victory on her debut.",sport
"Lewis-Francis eyeing world gold..Mark Lewis-Francis says his Olympic success has made him determined to bag World Championship 100m gold in 2005...The 22-year-old pipped Maurice Greene on the last leg of the 4x100m relay in Athens to take top honours for Team GB. But individually, the Birchfield Harrier has yet to build on his World Junior Championship win four years ago. ""The gold medal in Athens has made me realise that I can get to the top level and I want to get there again. It can happen, I don't see why not,"" he said. Lewis-Francis has still to decided what events will feature in his build-up to the worlds - with one exception. He has confirmed his participation in the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18 February, where he will take on another member of Britain's victorious men's relay team - Jason Gardener - over 60m. He added: ""It's a bit too early to make any predictions for Helsinki, but I have my eyes open and I know I can be the best in the world.""",sport
"GB select Holmes for double bid..Kelly Holmes has been chosen for both the 800m and 1500m at next month's European Indoor Championships - despite not yet confirming her availability...The double-Olympic champion is still undecided about whether to compete in her first European Indoors in Madrid. But UK Athletics chief Max Jones believes it is likely Holmes will race. He said: ""It's worth a punt, isn't it? She's gone back to training. If she's confident she will pick one (distance). The programme does not permit both."" If Holmes does take her place in the GB side, she has already indicated that 1500m will be her favoured distance. Under championship rules, she does not have to decide until 24 hours before the event begins in Madrid on 4 March. Jones added: ""She was pleased with her run in Birmingham (at last weekend's Grand Prix). ""I am inclined to think she will (compete). It could depend on how training goes and she will have to be close to top form."" And he admitted Holmes' presence would be a great boost to the rest of the Norwich Union GB team. ""She is a very good team member and is very good to have there,"" he added. Meanwhile, there is no surprises in the rest of the Great Britain team announced on Tuesday...Defending 60m champion Jason Gardener is included and will be chasing his third successive gold medal. He will be joined in the event by Mark Lewis-Francis - runner-up behind him three years ago in Vienna - and new boy Darren Chin. Kelly Sotherton has been invited by championship organisers to compete against Carolina Kluft in the pentathlon. Sotherton finished third in the Olympic heptathlon in Athens, where the Swede took gold. There are 16 newcomers at this level of competition in GB's 46-strong team. The championships will be the last to be attended by Jones before he retires to be succeeded by Dave Collins. Jones said: ""The Olympic Games is the overwhelming target for UKA and therefore it is beneficial to start the next four-year cycle with a not-so-pressurised major games. ""The European Indoor Championships always provide a chance for the young and inexperienced to make a name for themselves and the current indoor season has produced some exciting new talent. ""Madrid is the first small step on a long journey to Beijing and the 2008 Olympics but for some of the emerging athletes, this will be a very important step.""..60m: D Chin (Belgrave Harriers), J Gardener (Wessex and Bath), M Lewis-Francis (Birchfield Harriers)...T Abeyie (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies), C Lambert (Belgrave Harriers)...D Garland (Channel Islands AC)...J McIlroy (Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow AC), Jimmy Watkins (Cardiff AAC)...Ed Jackson (Aldershot, Farnham and District), N Speaight (Belgrave Harriers), J Thie (Cardiff AAC)...A Baddeley (Harrow AC), M Farah (Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow AC), J Mayock (Barnsley AC)...D Greaves (Newham and Essex Beagles), A Scott (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers), A Turner (Notts AC)...B Challenger (Belgrave Harriers). Pole vault: N Buckfield (Crawley AC)...N Morgan (Birchfield Harriers), C Tomlinson (Newham and Essex Beagles)...L Achike (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers), N Douglas (Oxford City AC), P Idowu (Belgrave Harriers)...D Cossins (Birchfield Harriers), R Davenport (Gloucester AC), D Garland (Channel Islands AC), R Preddy (Gloucester AC), G Warburton (Cardiff AAC)...K Endacott (City of Plymouth AC), J Kwakye (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies), J Maduaka (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies)...K Wall (Basildon AC)...K Holmes (Ealing, Southall and Middlesex AC)...H Clitheroe (Preston Harriers), K Holmes (Ealing, Southall and Middlesex AC)...J Pavey (Exeter Harriers)...D Allahgreen (Trafford AC), S Claxton (Belgrave Harriers)...J Crane (Sale Harriers Manchester), S Jones (Trafford AC)...J Whitlock (Trafford AC)...J Johnson (Herne Hill Harriers)...K Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers)...D Fraser (Croydon Harriers), L McConnell (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers), C Murphy (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies), M Purkiss (Southampton AC).",sport
"Holmes back on form in Birmingham..Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes was back to her best as she comfortably won the 1,000m at the Norwich Union Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix...The 34-year-old, running only her second competitive race of the season, shook off the rust to win in two minutes, 35.39 seconds. But she is still undecided about competing in the European Championships in Madrid from 4-6 March. ""I'll probably be entered and make my mind up at the last minute,"" she said. ""My training hasn't gone as well as expected but I've got two weeks to decide. ""I need to take my time and make sure I feel good about what I'm doing. ""I felt very good here but with the crowd behind you, you feel like you can do anything."" American..was the eventual winner of the men's 60m race which almost ended in farce. Three athletes were disqualified for false starting, including Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis, who was the first man guilty of coming out of his blocks too quickly. World 100m champion Kim Collins clinched second spot ahead of world 60m record holder and Scott's training partner Maurice Greene. Jason Gardener's unbeaten run came to an end as he came fifth and he will need to improve if he is to defend his European title in Madrid. ""You can't win them all,"" said Gardener afterwards. ""And I was very disappointed as I know I'm capable of doing better."" Russian..was back on record-breaking form in the pole vault at the National Indoor Arena...The Olympic champion set a new world mark of 4.88m to break her own record - which she set just six days ago - and beat Russian rival Svetlana Feofanova. It was Isinbayeva's 11th world record - indoors or out - since July 2003. ""I'm so happy and I will do my best to break the 5m barrier soon,"" the 22-year-old told BBC Sport. Jamaica's..stormed to a personal best of 7.13 seconds to claim the women's 60m sprint. Belgian Kim Gevaert, who will be one of the favourites for next month's European title, took second while American Muna Lee was third. There was disappointment for British pair Jeanette Kwakye and Joice Maduaka who finished seventh and eighth respectively...Jamaican..stretched her unbeaten record to 25 races as she effortlessly claimed the 200m. The Olympic champion set a new indoor personal best of 22.38 seconds - the fastest time in the world this season...fought off fellow Briton Tim Abeyie to take the men's 200m in a personal best of 20.88...continued her outstanding start to the season, beating a strong international field, which included two-time Olympic 100m hurdles bronze medallist Melissa Morrison, to claim the women's 60m hurdles. The 25-year-old Briton clocked 7.98 seconds while pre-European Championships favourite Russian Irina Shevchenko finished down in sixth. Ethiopia's..failed in her bid to smash compatriot Berhane Adere's world 3,000m record but still won the event in emphatic style. The Olympic 5,000m champion was inside record pace but dropped off over the final third, finishing in eight minutes, 33.05 seconds - the fourth fastest time ever recorded for the event. Britain's Jo Pavey bravely decided to go with Defar as she strode away from the field and took second in a season's best 8:41.43. Kenyan..also missed out on the indoor 1500m world record, which Hicham El Guerrouj has held for the last eight years...Lagat settled for silver behind El Guerrouj in Athens and was almost four seconds short of the Moroccan's world best, clocking 3:35.27 in Birmingham. And..was still struggling to find his form after the death of his fiancee this year. The Olympic 10,000m champion had comfortably led the men's two mile race after his younger brother Tariku had set the pace. But fellow Ethiopian..appeared ominously on Bekele's shoulder with two laps to go before surging past him at the bell to win in 8:14.28. Jamaican..made the most of a blistering start to take the men's 400m title in 45.91 seconds. World indoor champion, Alleyne Francique, faded badly and finished in fourth while American duo Jerry Harris and James Davis took second and third respectively. Swede..showed her class in the long jump as she stole top spot from Jade Johnson with the very last jump of the competition. The Olympic heptathlon gold medallist reached 6.66m to better Johnson's mark of 6.52m - her second personal best inside a week. ""I was quite surprised because I didn't think I'd end up with second place,"" said Johnson, who wore London's 2012 Olympic bid slogan, ""Back the Bid"", on her shorts. ""But I'm pleased and hopefully I'll get a bit better for the Europeans. I really want to win a medal.""..won the men's event with a season's best of 7.95m, taking the scalp of world indoor champion Savante Stringfellow of the USA.",sport
"Record fails to lift lacklustre meet..Yelena Isinbayeva may have produced another world pole vault record, but her achievement could not hide the fact it was not the best meet we have ever seen in Birmingham...And hey, there are not many meets that go by without the Russian breaking a world record...Apparently, Isinbayeva has cleared five metres in training and I would just love her to put us out of our misery and have a go at it rather than extending the indoor record by one centimetre at a time. Athletics to me is all about pushing the barriers and being the best you can, and I would like to see her have a go at 5m in competition. Mind you, every time she breaks the record she gets $30,000 so she can afford to be deliberate about it. World records aside, I thought it was a very encouraging evening's work for Kelly Holmes. She looked good and was very positive. Agnes Samaria, who came second, is in very good shape and is in the world's top three 800m runners this season. Yes, Samaria let Kelly get away, but there was no coming back over the last 200m as Kelly dominated the race, so beating Samaria is a bit of a benchmark for Kelly. My gut feeling is that Kelly would like to run in the European Indoor Championships, but she just hasn't convinced herself she is fit enough to do so. On the other hand, I think Jason Gardener is struggling to come near what is going to be required to win the men's 60m in Madrid. He started well in the final but still could not stay with the front-runners. Jason has a lot of experience indoors but for some reason he is struggling to maintain his pace through to the finish...It would have been nice to see what Mark Lewis-Francis could have done in the final, if only he hadn't got himself disqualified. He was blatantly playing the false-start game to his advantage, but it tripped him up and made him look a bit silly. My view is you're meant to go when the gun goes and not before. And if you try to unsettle your rivals by employing the false-start tactic you have to remember not to false start yourself again. Having said that, Mark is looking in much better shape. But I haven't seen anything from Mark or Jason yet which suggests France's Ronald Pognon - who has run 6.45 seconds - will be under threat at the Europeans. From a British point of view, Sarah Claxton's victory in the 60m hurdles was the best thing to come out of the meet...Something else that probably went unnoticed was Melanie Purkiss winning the women's national 400m race in a new personal best of 52.98 seconds. AAAs champion Kim Wall came second in another lifetime best so we have a very strong 4x400m squad going to the European Championships. Scotland's Lee McConnell is probably going to run too, so we have a real prospect of a medal. From an international perspective, I thought Meseret Defar was disappointing in the 3,000m, but I don't think the pace-making was great. Canadian Heather Hennigar set a fast early pace but could not maintain it and if Jo Pavey had been in last year's shape she would have given Defar a real run for her money. She had a go but just could not hang in there. We were also expecting a bit more from Bernard Lagat in the men's 1500m. But he has only just come over from the USA, so he may not be that sharp and I still think he is in great shape. As for Kenenisa Bekele, he was well beaten by Markos Geneti. But we only had half expectations for Bekele as he has been struggling this season. It was very hot in the National Indoor Arena and I felt uncomfortable in the commentary box. I think those conditions affected the distance runners and in fact Defar complained to her coach after the race that she could not get her breath properly.",sport
"Tomlinson stays focused on Europe..Long jumper Chris Tomlinson has cut his schedule to ensure he is fully fit for the European Indoor Championships...The 23-year-old has a minor injury and has pulled out of international meets in Madrid and Lievin this week as well as warm-weather training in Lanzarote. ""It's nothing serious,"" said his coach Peter Stanley. ""He strained a muscle in his abdomen at the Birmingham meeting but is back in full training."" Sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis will also not compete in Madrid on Thursday. The Birmingham athlete, who clocked a season's best of 6.61 seconds over 60m in Birmingham last week, also prefers to focus his attentions on next month's European Indoor Championships...Lewis-Francis, who was runner-up to British team-mate Jason Gardener at the Europeans three years ago, will continue his training at home. Meanwhile, Tomlinson is still searching for this first major medal and this season he has shown he could be in the sort of form to grab a spot on the podium in Madrid. The Middlesbrough athlete jumped a season's best of 7.95m at the Birmingham Grand Prix - good enough to push world indoor champion Savante Stringfellow into second.",sport
"Running around the Olympics..It was back to official duties last week in my role as an ambassador to London's 2012 Olympic bid. But I still managed to do all my marathon training...All the sporting people on the capital's bid team think I'm mad to be taking part in the London Marathon. The bid chairman, Lord Coe, admitted he would never dream of running a marathon, even though he was an Olympic middle-distance runner...Kelly Holmes, former hurdler Alan Pascoe and former sprinter Frankie Fredericks - who is now an IOC member - all wanted to know why anyone would want to run that far. You'd have thought all these athletes, who have been running for most of their lives, wouldn't think it would be that bad. But the only person who was positive about my intentions was Tanni Grey Thompson, who has won the London Marathon wheelchair race six times. Even though it was a very busy week entertaining the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Evaluation Commission, I actually found my running schedule easier to follow. When I'm at home, I get distracted by all sorts of things but for the five days I was in London, I was in a pressurised situation, but I found it easy to relax by running...On Wednesday, the presentations to the IOC team did not finish until the early evening, so I just managed to squeeze in a 45-minute run. We had an early start on Thursday because we had to visit all the Olympic sites around London, that was pretty shattering, but when we got back to the hotel, I got back on the treadmill. On Friday evening I went along to the special dinner at Buckingham Palace which was a nice occasion. I never feel guilty about eating, especially when I'm exercising. And because it was a rest day I didn't have to feel bad about missing my training either. Anyway, I managed to do another quick run on Saturday ahead of the final IOC presentations, before heading home for my daughter's birthday...When I was in London I did all of my runs on the treadmill, which isn't the same as exercising outdoors. One of the IOC's technical staff from Australia ran alongside me one day. We talked about the Sydney Olympics and that made the time go past more quickly. I do find it quite comfortable running in the gym because there is more cushioning. But when you're gearing up to running on the road you need your body to get used to that jarring feeling when your feet hit the pavement. It was good to get out on the road for my long run on Sunday. After the week I'd had I was a bit concerned I wouldn't be able to complete it. But I coped with it very well and, even though it was bitterly cold, I put in 15-and-a-half miles - only another 11 to go then...- This year Steve will donate all the proceeds from his London Marathon efforts to victims of the tsunami.Steve will be writing a regular column on the ups and downs of his marathon training for the BBC Sport website.He will be raising money through the Steve Redgrave Trust which supports the Association of Children's Hospices, the Children With Leukaemia charity, and the Trust's own project which aims to provide inner-city schools with rowing equipment.",sport
"Johnson uncertain about Euro bid..Jade Johnson is undecided about whether to contest next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid despite winning the AAAs long jump title on Saturday...The 24-year-old delivered a personal best of 6.50m to win the European trials but had to wait until her final jump after four failures. ""I don't want to go if I am not going to get a medal,"" said Johnson. ""I will have to see how I am jumping in the next competition and I'll have to have a conversation with my coach."" Johnson, who finished seventh in last year's Olympic Games, has not competed indoors since 2000. And the Commonwealth and European silver medallist believes her lack of experience in the early part of the season has knocked her confidence. ""It's the stress,"" said Johnson. ""I am not used to feeling this, this early. I am just used to training. ""But if I'm doing this kind of thing, then I will have to see how it goes."" Johnson next competes in the high-class Birmingham Grand Prix on 18 February.",sport
"Pavey focuses on indoor success..Jo Pavey will miss January's View From Great Edinburgh International Cross Country to focus on preparing for the European Indoor Championships in March...The 31-year-old was third behind Hayley Yelling and Justyna Bak in last week's European Cross Country Championships but she prefers to race on the track. ""It was great winning bronze but I'm wary of injuries and must concentrate on the indoor season,"" she said. ""Because of previous injuries I don't even run up hills in training."" Pavey, who came fifth in the 5,000m at the Athens Olympics, helped the British cross country team win the team silver medal in Heringsdorf last week. She is likely to start her 3,000m season with a race in either Boston or Stuttgart at the end of January.",sport
"Gardener wins double in Glasgow..Britain's Jason Gardener enjoyed a double 60m success in Glasgow in his first competitive outing since he won 100m relay gold at the Athens Olympics...Gardener cruised home ahead of Scot Nick Smith to win the invitational race at the Norwich Union International. He then recovered from a poor start in the second race to beat Swede Daniel Persson and Italy's Luca Verdecchia. His times of 6.61 and 6.62 seconds were well short of American Maurice Greene's 60m world record of 6.39secs from 1998. ""It's a very hard record to break, but I believe I've trained very well,"" said the world indoor champion, who hopes to get closer to the mark this season. ""It was important to come out and make sure I got maximum points. My last race was the Olympic final and there was a lot of expectation. ""This was just what I needed to sharpen up and get some race fitness. I'm very excited about the next couple of months.""..Double Olympic champion..marked her first appearance on home soil since winning 1500m and 800m gold in Athens with a victory. There was a third success for Britain when..edged out Russia's Olga Fedorova and Sweden's Jenny Kallur to win the women's 60m race in 7.23secs. Maduaka was unable to repeat the feat in the 200m, finishing down in fourth as..took the win for Russia. And the 31-year-old also missed out on a podium place in the 4x200m relay as the British quartet came in fourth, with Russia setting a new world indoor record. There was a setback for Jade Johnson as she suffered a recurrence of her back injury in the long jump. Russia won the meeting with a final total of 63 points, with Britain second on 48 and France one point behind in third...led the way for Russia by producing a major shock in the high jump as he beat Olympic champion Stefan Holm into second place to end the Swede's 22-event unbeaten record...won the triple jump with a leap of 16.87m, with Britain's Tosin Oke fourth in 15.80m...won the men's pole vault competition with a clearance of 5.65m, with Britain's Nick Buckfield 51cm adrift of his personal best in third. And..won the women's 800m, with Britain's Jenny Meadows third. There was yet another Russian victory in the women's 400m as..finished well clear of Britain's Catherine Murphy. Chris Lambert had to settle for fourth after fading in the closing stages of the men's 200m race as Sweden's..held off Leslie Djhone of France. France's..won the men's 400m, with Brett Rund fourth for Britain...took victory for Sweden in the women's 60m hurdles ahead of Russia's Irina Shevchenko and Britain's Sarah Claxton, who set a new personal best. Italy grabbed their first victory in the men's 1500m as..kicked over the last 200 metres to hold off Britain's James Thie and France's Alexis Abraham. A botched changeover in the 4x200m relay cost Britain's men the chance to add further points as France claimed victory.",sport
"African double in Edinburgh..World 5000m champion Eliud Kipchoge won the 9.2km race at the View From Great Edinburgh Cross Country...The Kenyan, who was second when Newcastle hosted the race last year, was in front from the outset. Ethiopian duo Gebre Gebremariam and Dejene Berhanu made last-gasp efforts to overtake him, but Kipchoge responded and a burst of speed clinched victory. Gavin Thompson was the first Briton in 12th place while Nick McCormick held of his British rivals to win the 4km race. The Morpeth Harrier led from the end of the first lap and ended Mike Skinner and Andrew Baddeley's hopes with a surge in the lasp lap. ""My training has gone so well I wasn't really worried about the opposition asI knew I was in great shape,"" said McCormick, who now hopes to earn a 1,500m place in the British team for the World Championships in Helsinki. In the women's race, Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba won a battle with world cross country champion Benita Johnson to retain her title. Australian Johnson, who shocked her African rivals in Brussels last March, looked to be on course for another win in the 6.2km race. But world 5000m champion Dibaba make a telling strike for the finishing line in the final 20 metres. Britons Kathy Butler and Hayley Yelling were out of contention early on.",sport
"Yelling takes Cardiff hat-trick..European cross-country champion Hayley Yelling completed a hat-trick of wins in the Reebok Cardiff Cross Challenge in Bute Park on Sunday afternoon...The part-time maths teacher beat Irish international Jolene Byrne by 40 metres in the six-kilometre race. Another Great Britain international, Louise Damen, finished third as part of the contingent representing England. Peter Riley, who secured bronze for the GB men's team at last month's European Championships, won the men's 9km race. Riley, representing England, moved away over the last two kilometres to win by 25 metres from Ireland's Gary Murray. Glynn Tromans - the reigning UK Inter-Countries and England Cross-Country champion - came in third place as he continues his comeback from a five-month injury lay-off.",sport
"Butler strikes gold in Spain..Britain's Kathy Butler continued her impressive year with victory in Sunday's 25th Cross Internacional de Venta de Banos in Spain...The Scot, who led GB to World Cross Country bronze earlier this year, moved away from the field with Ines Monteiro halfway into the 6.6km race. She then shrugged off her Portuguese rival to win in 20 minutes 38 seconds. Meanwhile, Briton Karl Keska battled bravely to finish seventh in the men's 10.6km race in a time of 31:41. Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia - the reigning world long and short course champion - was never troubled by any of the opposition, winning leisurely in 30.26. Butler said of her success: ""I felt great throughout the race and hope this is a good beginning for a marvellous 2005 season for me."" Elsewhere, Abebe Dinkessa of Ethiopia won the Brussels IAAF cross-country race on Sunday, completing the 10,500m course in 33.22. Gelete Burka then crowned a great day for Ethiopia by claiming victory in the women's race.",sport
"Wada will appeal against ruling..The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) will appeal against the acquittal of Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou on doping charges, if the IAAF does not...The pair were cleared of charges relating to missing dope tests by the Greek Athletics Federation last week. Wada chairman Dick Pound said: ""I am convinced the IAAF will appeal against the decision, and we will support them. ""But if they accept the federation's ruling we will go before the Court of Arbitration for Sport,"" he added. Kenteris's lawyer, Gregory Ioannidis, reacted angrily to Pound's comments. ""Comments like these only help to embarrass the sporting governing bodies, create a hostage situation for the IAAF and strengthen our case further,"" he told BBC Sport. Kenteris, 31, and Thanou, 30, had been charged with avoiding drugs tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens and failing to notify anti-doping officials of their whereabouts before the Olympics. They withdrew from the Athens Games after missing a drugs test at the Olympic village on 12 August...But an independent tribunal ruled that the duo had not been informed that they needed to attend a drugs test in Athens...However, their former coach Christos Tzekos was banned for four years by the tribunal. Kenteris and Thanou still have to face trial on charges brought separately by Greek prosecutors of missing the drugs tests and faking a motorcycle accident to avoid testing at the Athens Games.",sport
"Greek sprinters 'won't run again'..The careers of sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou are over, says the boss of the organisation that cleared them of missing a drugs test...Greek Athletics Federation boss Vassilli Sevastis told the country's parliament: ""I believe Kenteris and Thanou won't race again. ""The damage to their commercial interests has been done,"" he added. Athletics bosses are considering its reponse to the ruling, while the athletes face a trial in a Greek court. Greek prosecutors have brought spearate charges of missing the drugs test and faking a motorcycle accident. Speaking to the Greek Parliament on Tuesday, Sevastis said that the evidence sent by the International Olympic Committee and athletics governing body the IAAF was not strong enough for the Greek Association to find the sprinters guilty...""We were given the task of getting the snake out if its hole but we were not given any evidence to do it with,"" he said. ""So how can you as a Greek with your hand on your heart try the athletes?"" he added. The athletes are technically free to compete while the IAAF reviews its response to the decision to clear Kenteris and Thanou. But Sevastis said: ""It does not matter if they are found guilty at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the current decision is reversed.""",sport
"IAAF will contest Greek decision..The International Association of Athletics Federations will appeal against the acquittal of Greek athletes Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou...The high-profile duo were cleared of doping offences by the Greek Athletics Federation (Segas) last month. Now the IAAF will lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and has suspended both athletes. An IAAF statement said: ""The Doping Review Board concluded that the decision is erroneous."" The statement continued: ""Both athletes' cases will be refered to arbitration before the CAS. The decision in both cases will be final and binding.""..Segas said the IAAF appeal was ""expected"" and ""understandable."" ""Now we are going to await the final result, which we cannot prejudge,"" said Segas chairman Vassilis Sevastis. Kenteris, who won Olympic 200m gold at the 2000 Olympics, and Thanou were suspended by the IAAF last December after failing to take routine drugs tests before the Athens Games. However, the independent tribunal overturned those bans, clearing the sprinters of avoiding tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens and failing to notify anti-doping officials of their whereabouts before the Olympics...Kenteris' lawyer Gregory Ioannidis described the IAAF's decision as ""not unexpected"" but told BBC Sport he did not expect the organisation to take action so quickly. ""The IAAF's timing is extremely surprising and it creates concerns and questions,"" said Ioannidis. ""The IAAF has not yet received the complete file of proceedings which include statements, testimonies, the closing speeches of defence counsel... and nine audio tapes...""We have the evidence and it is time the world discovered the truth."" Kenteris and Thanou dramatically withdrew from last summer's Olympics after missing a drugs test at the Olympic Village on 12 August. The pair then spent four days in a hospital, claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. It was the International Olympic Committee who demanded the IAAF investigate the affair. Thanou and Kenteris still face a criminal trial later this year for allegedly avoiding the test and then faking a motorcycle accident",sport
"Greek duo cleared in doping case..Sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have been cleared of doping offences by an independent tribunal...The duo had been provisionally suspended by the IAAF for allegedly missing three drugs tests, including one on the eve of the Athens Olympics. But the Greek Athletics Federation tribunal has overturned the bans - a decision which the IAAF can now contest at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The pair's former coach, Christos Tzekos, has been banned for four years. Kenteris, 31, and Thanou, 30, had been charged with avoiding drug tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens and failing to notify anti-doping officials of their whereabouts before the Olympics. They withdrew from the Olympics after missing a drugs test at the Olympic Village on 12 August...The pair then spent four days in a hospital, claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. It was the International Olympic Committee's demand that the IAAF investigate the affair that led to the hearing of the Greek tribunal. The head of that tribunal, Kostas Panagopoulos, said it had not been proven that the athletes refused to take the test in Athens. ""The charge cannot be substantiated,"" he said. ""In no way was he (Kenteris) informed to appear for a doping test. The same goes for Thanou."" Kenteris's lawyer, Gregory Ioannidis, said: ""The decision means Mr Kenteris has been exonerated of highly damaging and unfounded charges which have been extremely harmful for his career...""He has consistently maintained his innocence and this was substantiated by further evidence we were able to submit to the tribunal following its deliberations in January. ""This evidence shows Mr Kenteris was never asked to submit to a test by the International Olympic Committee so he could not possibly have been guilty of deliberately avoiding one. It shows he has no case to answer. ""Mr Kenteris should now be given the opportunity he deserves to rebuild his career in the full knowledge that there is no stain on his character. ""He has suffered greatly throughout this ordeal that has exposed both himself and his family to enormous pressures."" But the IAAF said it was ""very surprised"" by the verdict. Spokesman Nick Davies said: ""We note the decision of the Greek authorities with interest. ""Our doping review board will now consider the English version of the decision.""",sport
"Johnson too strong for GB runners..Britain's Kathy Butler and Hayley Yelling were no match for Benita Johnson in the 51st Cross International Zornotza in Amorebieta, Spain...Butler and Yelling finished fourth and fifth as Australian world champion Johnson romped to a five-second victory in the 6km race ahead of Edith Masai. Masai's fellow Kenyan Alice Timbilil finished third. Johnson said: ""I ran comfortably for the first 3km and then I tried to leave the others but it wasn't an easy task."" Butler clocked a time of 22 minutes 45 seconds - 22secs behind the winner but four ahead of Yelling, who last month succeeded Paula Radcliffe as European champion. Johnson, will be one of the star attractions at the Great EdinburghInternational Cross Country on 15 January.",sport
"Holmes starts 2005 with GB events..Kelly Holmes will start 2005 with a series of races in Britain...Holmes will make her first track appearance on home soil since winning double Olympic gold in January's Norwich Union International in Glasgow. She will also run in the Grand Prix in Birmingham in February and may defend her indoor AAA 800m title in Sheffield earlier that month. ""I am still competitive and still want to win,"" she said. ""I'm an athlete and I can't wait to get back on the track."" She added: ""These events are also a great opportunity to thank the British public for the enormous levels of support they have given me from the moment I stepped off that plane from Greece."" The Glasgow meeting will see Holmes compete over 1500m in a five-way match against Sweden, France, Russia and Italy.",sport
"Tulu to appear at Caledonian run..Two-time Olympic 10,000 metres champion Derartu Tulu has confirmed she will take part in the BUPA Great Caledonian Run in Edinburgh on 8 May...The 32-year-old Ethiopian is the first star name to enter the event. Tulu has won the Boston, London and Tokyo Marathons, as well as the world 10,000m title in 2001. ""We are delighted to have secured the services of one the most decorated competitors the sport has ever seen,"" said race director Matthew Turnbull. ""Her record speaks for herself and there are few other women distance runners who would dare compare their pedigree with Tulu's,"" he added. ""She might be 33 next month, but that didn't stop her winning the Olympic 10,000m bronze medal last summer. She's an ultra-consistent championships racer.""",sport
"Disappointed Scott in solid start..Allan Scott is confident of winning a medal at next week's European Indoor Championships after a solid debut on the international circuit...The 22-year-old Scot finished fourth in the 60m hurdles at the Jose M Cagigal Memorial meeting in Madrid. ""It was definitely a learning curve and I certainly haven't ruled out challenging for a medal next week,"" said the East Kilbride athlete. The race was won by Felipe Vivancos, who equalled the Spanish record...Sweden's Robert Kronberg was second, with Haiti's Dudley Dorival in third. Scott was slightly disappointed with his run in the final. He won his heat in 7.64secs but ran 0.04secs slower in his first IAAF Indoor Grand Prix circuit final. ""I should have done better than that,"" he said. ""I felt I could have won it. I got a poor start - but I still felt I should have ran faster."" Vivancos slashed his personal best to equal the Spanish record with a time of 7.60secs while Kronberg and Dorival clocked 7.62secs and 7.63secs respectively.",sport
"GB quartet get cross country call..Four British athletes have been pre-selected to compete at the World Cross Country Championships in March after impressive starts to the season...Hayley Yelling, Jo Pavey, Karl Keska and Adam Hickey will represent Team GB at the event in France. Yelling clinched the women's European cross country title last month and Pavey followed up with bronze. Keska helped the men's team to overall third place while Hickey finished in 10th place on his junior debut. ""Winning the European cross country title meant so much to me,"" said Yelling. ""And being pre-selected for the Worlds means that I can focus on preparing in the best way possible."" The 32-year-old will race alongside Olympic 5,000m finalist Pavey in the women's 8km race on 19 March. Keska, who has made a successful return from a long-term injury lay-off, contests the men's 12km race on 20 March, while 16-year-old Hickey goes in the junior men's 8km on the same day. The rest of the team will be named after the trials at Wollaton Park in Nottingham, which take place on 5 March.",sport
"Jones files lawsuit against Conte..Marion Jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Balco boss Victor Conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs...The Sydney Olympic gold medallist says Conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. Conte, whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation, made the claims in a US television programme. He and three others were indicted in February by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. In an email to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Conte said: ""I stand by everything I said"". Jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in Sydney in 2000. Her lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in San Francisco, said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she ""has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs"". Conte's statements, the suit added, were ""false and malicious"". After the ABC television program earlier this month, Jones' lawyer Richard Nicholls said: ""Marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ""Victor Conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment, while Marion Jones is one of America's most decorated female athletes. Mr Conte's statements have been wildly contradictory. ""Mr Conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television, while Marion Jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination...""Mr Conte is simply not credible. We challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that Marion Jones passed."" The sport's ruling body, the IAAF, is taking a cautious approach to Conte's allegations but contacted the US Anti-Doping Agency. Communications director Nick Davies said the IAAF would seek to contact Conte ""for further information"". But Davies stressed it would be up to the American authorities to decide whether they will take action against Jones in light of Conte's television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. ""If it is felt there is case to answer, it would be for its national governing body (USA Track and Field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action,"" he added. ""The US Anti-Doping Agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. ""And I am sure, like ourselves, they will be watching the television programme with great interest."" Jones, who is under investigation for steroid use by the US Anti-Doping Agency, has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the Balco scandal, although she praised a zinc supplement Conte marketed. Jones, who did not win any medals in Athens in August, has never failed a drugs test. Meanwhile, Conte, who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering, is due to face trial in March.",sport
"Thanou desperate to make return..Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou says she is eager to compete again after being cleared of missing a drugs test by an independent Greek tribunal...Thanou, 30, was provisionally suspended for missing a test before the Olympics, but the decision was overturned. ""The IAAF will decide if we can compete again in Greece and abroad,"" Thanou told To Vima newspaper in her first interview since the Athens Olympics. ""If given the green light I will run again - that's the only thing I want."" Thanou, 30, and her compatriot Kostas Kenteris were provisionally suspended by the IAAF in December for missing three drugs tests. The third was alleged to have been on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics...But an independent tribunal of the Greek Athletics Federation overturned the provisional ban on 18 March. The IAAF - which said it was ""very surprised"" by the decision of the Greek tribunal - is deciding whether to appeal against the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. However, Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Authority, has said he will appeal against the decision if the IAAF does not. And Thanou and Kenteris face a criminal trial later this year for allegedly avoiding the test and then faking a motorcycle accident. Thanou said: ""I can see how people can think the accident seemed like a childish excuse. ""I cannot deny that we made a lot of mistakes during that time. I always said we needed a PR person. ""An athlete would have to be very stupid to take illegal substances when he or she knows that they will undergo tests at any given moment. ""I am a champion. I cannot risk everything I've achieved in such a silly way.""",sport
"Relay squad thrilled with honours..Jason Gardener says being made an MBE in the New Year Honours List underlines the achievement of Great Britain's 4x100m relay squad at the Olympics...Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis have all been awarded MBEs after beating pre-race favourites USA to gold. ""I think this award reinforces what we did on that fantastic night,"" he said. ""This recognition is really inspiring and makes me want to have more success,"" said Lewis-Francis. The British sprint quartet produced a string of faultless baton changes in the final to put pressure on the Americans...And when the USA stumbled with a poor switch between Justin Gatlin and Coby Miller at the 300m stage, Britain edged ahead going into the final bend. Then, on cue, Lewis-Francis ran a textbook final leg, holding off Maurice Greene to bring Team GB home in 38.07 seconds - just one hundredth of a second ahead of their rivals. ""Winning the gold medal was the highlight of my athletics career so far,"" said the Birchfield Harrier. ""This award is not just for me, but for all my friends, family and the people who have helped me to get to this level in my sport."" Gardener added: ""All of us had worked very hard for a long, long time to carry off what most believed was an impossible task. ""Of course this award is very special, but for me nothing will ever take away winning an Olympic gold medal. It's all I ever wanted. ""All my life that is what I dreamed of doing. Life since then has been fantastic."" Campbell agreed receiving the honour capped off what has been a difficult year for the sprinter. ""I think the MBE is important because the people closest to me know my journey,"" said the Newport-based athlete. ""I've not just stumbled upon this. ""It gives me a lot of joy and satisfaction to know the stuff you do for your country does mean something.""..- There was also recognition for James Clarke, chairman of the London Marathon. He becomes an OBE.",sport
"Balco case trial date pushed back..The trial date for the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (Balco) steroid distribution case has been postponed...US judge Susan Illston pushed back a preliminary evidentiary hearing - which was due to take place on Wednesday - until 6 June. No official trial date has been set but it is expected to begin in September. Balco founder Victor Conte along with James Valente, coach Remy Korchemny and trainer Greg Anderson are charged with distributing steroids to athletes...Anderson's clients include Barry Bonds, and several other baseball stars have been asked to appear before a congressional inquiry into steroid use in the major leagues. The Balco defence team have already lost their appeal to have the case dismissed at a pre-trial hearing in San Francisco but will still argue the case should not go to trial. The hearing in June will focus on the admissibility of evidence gathered during police raids on Balco's offices and Anderson's home. Conte and Anderson were not arrested at that point but federal agents did obtain statements from them. The defence are expected to challenge the legality of those interviews and if Ilston agrees she could could reject all the evidence from the raids. Balco has been accused by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) of being the source of the banned steroid THG and modafinil...Former double world champion Kelli White and Olympic relay star Alvin Harrison have both been banned on the basis of materials discovered during the Balco investigation. Britain's former European 100m champion Dwain Chambers is currently serving a two-year ban after testing positive for THG in an out-of-competition test in 2003. And American sprinter Marion Jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs.",sport
"Collins calls for Chambers return..World 100m champion Kim Collins says suspended sprinter Dwain Chambers should be allowed to compete in the Olympics again...Chambers was banned for two years after testing positive for the anabolic steroid THG and his suspension runs out in November this year. But Collins says the British Olympic Association should reverse the decision to ban him from the Olympics for life. ""It was too harsh,"" Collins told Radio Five Live. ""They should reconsider."" Chambers has been in America learning American football but has not ruled out a return to the track. Collins added: ""He is a great guy and I have never had any problems with him. We are friends. ""I would like to see Dwain come back and compete again. He is a good person. ""Even though he made a mistake he understands what he did and should be given a chance once more.""",sport
"Costin aims for comeback in 2006..Jamie Costin should be paralysed...He says so himself in a matter-of-fact way as he recalls the car accident which occurred nine days before he was scheduled to step out into the Olympic Stadium in Athens for the 50K Walk. There is an ironic chuckle as he talks of his immediate thoughts after a lorry, driving on the wrong side of the road, had ploughed into his rental car. ""I was in a lot of pain and I guessed that one of my toes was broken,"" says the Waterford man. ""But I was thinking maybe with a cortisone injection you never know. ""In my back, it felt as though all the muscles had been ripped off my pelvis but I was thinking maybe we could do something with laser therapy and ultra sound and hopefully I'd be able to race."" It took over 10 hours before Jamie knew with certainty that he would not be competing in his second Olympics. ""My back had been broken in two places and with one of my vertebrae, the bottom part had exploded so I'm fierce lucky not be paralysed. ""I'd fractured my big toe as well which was on the brake."" Jamie didn't finally arrive at hospital in Athens until some nine and a half hours after the accident...""For the first nine hours, I had no pain killers which was ridiculous in 35 degrees heat. ""But once I got the scans and saw them it was a case of moving on and thinking:'OK, I've got a different set of circumstances now'."" Within three days he was arriving back in Ireland by air ambulance. Doctors in Athens had wanted to operate on Jamie's back immediately but he insisted on delaying any surgery until he arrived back home - something he is now very relieved about. ""The Greek doctors were going to put three or four inch titanium rods either side of my spinal cord up through my vertebrae. ""That would have fused all my lower back and I would never have been able to race again. They were really putting a lot of pressure on me to agree to the surgery. ""But when I got to the Mater in Dublin they said it was possible for it to heal totally naturally which is giving me the chance to get back into competition which is very important to me. The people at the Mater have been absolutely fantastic."" Jamie had to wear a body cast for three and a half months after the accident and spent most of that time flat on his back...He then progressed to crutches for six weeks until he was finally able to walk unaided on 10 January. ""Walking without the crutches seemed like something finally really measurable in terms of my recovery."" Physio sessions with Johnston McEvoy in Limerick have been a vital part of his recovery. ""Johnston uses an advanced type of acupuncture and it's very effective. ""Needles get put right close up to my spine. A two and a half inch needle went in yesterday and I'm fairly incapacitated today as a result."" Jamie has also travelled to receive treatment at the Polish training centre in Spala where he has trained with triple Olympic champion Robert Korzeniowski over the past five years. ""I was there for over a fortnight earlier this month and underwent a fair extreme treatment called cryotherapy. ""Basically, there's a small room which is cooled by liquid nitrogen to minus 160 degrees centigrade and it promotes deep healing.""..Jamie heads to Poland again on Sunday where he will be having daily cryotherapy in addition to twice-daily physio sessions and pool-work. All these sessions are small steps on the way to what Jamie hopes will be a return to racing in 2006. ""It's all about trying to get mobility in my back. Lying down for three and a half months didn't really help with the strength. ""There's a lot of work involved in my recovery. I'm doing about six hours a day between physio and pool work. ""I'm also going to the gym to lift very light weights to try and build up my muscles. I'm fairly full on with everything I do. ""I'd hope to be training regularly by March. But training is just part of the process of getting back. ""At the moment, every time I go and do a big bit of movement, my whole pelvic area all down my lower back just tightens up. ""It's a case of waiting and seeing how it reacts. Hopefully, after four or five months my back won't tighten up as much.""",sport
"Lewis-Francis turns to Christie..Mark Lewis-Francis has stepped up his preparations for the new season by taking advice from British sprint icon Linford Christie...The 22-year-old is set to compete at Sheffield this weekend and will then take on Maurice Greene and Kim Collins in Birmingham on 18 February. ""Training in Wales and getting advice from Linford Christie is broadening my mind,"" said Lewis-Francis. The sprinter has also shed weight since winning relay gold at the Athens Games. ""Last year I was 91kg, now I am 86.9kg - hopefully my times will come down,"" he said. ""This has been brought about by eating the right foods and cutting out the snacks. It is just discipline and being more focused about what I am doing...""I am still keeping up my weights work and I can see the improvement in my running."" Despite playing his part in Britain's successful 4x100m relay team, Lewis-Francis still feels the frustration of missing out on the individual 100m final at the 2004 Olympics. ""That was heartbreaking, but I had made it to the semi-final and for me, on a personal level, that was an achievement. ""I just have to be patient and build up for the next Olympics. That is my goal and whatever I do between now and then will be geared to making the final.""",sport
"Man Utd stroll to Cup win..Wayne Rooney made a winning return to Everton as Manchester United cruised into the FA Cup quarter-finals...Rooney received a hostile reception, but goals in each half from Quinton Fortune and Cristiano Ronaldo silenced the jeers at Goodison Park. Fortune headed home after 23 minutes before Ronaldo scored when Nigel Martyn parried Paul Scholes' free-kick. Marcus Bent missed Everton's best chance when Roy Carroll, who was later struck by a missile, saved at his feet...Rooney's return was always going to be a potential flashpoint, and he was involved in an angry exchange with a spectator even before kick-off. And Rooney's every touch was met with a deafening chorus of jeers from the crowd that once idolised the 19-year-old. Everton started brightly and Fortune needed to be alert to scramble away a header from Bent near the goal-line. But that was the cue for United to take complete control with a supreme passing display on a Goodison Park pitch that was cutting up. Fortune gave United the lead after 23 minutes, rising to meet Ronaldo's cross from eight yards after the Portuguese youngster had been allowed too much time and space by the hapless Gary Naysmith. United dominated without creating too many clear-cut chances, and they almost paid the price for not making the most of their domination two minutes before half-time. Mikel Arteta played a superb ball into the area but Bent, played onside by Gabriel Heintze, hesitated and Carroll plunged at his fee to save. United almost doubled their lead after 48 minutes when Ronaldo's low drive from 25 yards took a deflection off Tony Hibbert, but Martyn dived to save brilliantly. And Martyn came to Everton's rescue three minutes later when Rooney's big moment almost arrived as he raced clean through, but once again the veteran keeper was in outstanding form. But there was nothing Martyn could do when United doubled their lead after 57 minutes as they doubled their advantage. Scholes' free-kick took a deflection, and Martyn could only parry the ball out for Ronaldo, who reacted first to score easily. Everton's problems worsened when James McFadden limped off with an injury. And there may be further trouble ahead for Everton after goalkeeper Carroll required treatment after he was struck on the head by a missile thrown from behind the goal. Rooney's desperate search for a goal on his return to Everton was halted again by Martyn in injury-time when he outpaced Stubbs, but once again Martyn denied the England striker...- Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson: ""It was a fantastic performance by us. In fairness I think Everton have missed a couple of players and got some young players out. ""The boy Ronaldo is a fantastic player. He's persistent and never gives in. ""I don't know how many fouls he had He gets up and wants the ball again, he's truly a fabulous player."" Everton: Martyn, Hibbert, Yobo, Stubbs, Naysmith, Osman, Carsley, Arteta, Kilbane, McFadden, Bent. Subs: Wright, Pistone, Weir, Plessis, Vaughan. Manchester United: Carroll, Gary Neville, Brown, Ferdinand, Heinze, Ronaldo, Phil Neville, Keane, Scholes, Fortune, Rooney. Subs: Howard, Giggs, Smith, Miller, Spector. Referee: R Styles (Hampshire)",sport
"Van Nistelrooy set to return..Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy may make his comeback after an Achilles tendon injury in the FA Cup fifth round tie at Everton on Saturday...He has been out of action for nearly three months and had targeted a return in the Champions League tie with AC Milan on 23 February. But Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson hinted he may be back early. He said: ""There is a chance he could be involved at Everton but we'll just have to see how he comes through training."" The 28-year-old has been training in Holland and Ferguson said: ""Ruud comes back on Tuesday and we need to assess how far on he is. ""The training he has been doing in Holland has been perfect and I am very satisfied with it."" Even without Van Nistelrooy, United made it 13 wins in 15 league games with a 2-0 derby victory at Manchester City on Sunday. But they will be boosted by the return of the Dutch international, who is the club's top scorer this season with 12 goals. He has not played since aggravating the injury in the 3-0 win against West Brom on 27 November. Ferguson was unhappy with Van Nistelrooy for not revealing he was carrying an injury. United have also been hit by injuries to both Alan Smith and Louis Saha during Van Nistelrooy's absence, meaning Wayne Rooney has sometimes had to play in a lone role up front. The teenager has responded with six goals in nine games, including the first goal against City on Sunday.",sport
"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.""",sport
"Ronaldo considering new contract..Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo said he is close to agreeing to a new contract at Old Trafford...The Portugal star, who joined in August 2003 on a five-year-deal, is a regular in the United first-team. ""The United board have already made an offer to renew the contract but I'm trying not to think about it,"" he told the News of the World. ""My agent has spoken with the club and it will be resolved soon. I think we'll reach a good agreement for both sides."" Ronaldo refused to commit his long-term future to the club...""Nobody knows what will come tomorrow. I like being here, but who knows,"" he added. ""There aren't many bigger and better clubs than this one. It's my ambition to be at a big club. I'm happy but nobody knows the future.""",sport
"Smith keen on Home series return..Scotland manager Walter Smith has given his backing to the reinstatement of the Home International series...Such a plan is to be proposed by the new chief executive of the Northern Irish FA, Howard Wells, at the next meeting of the four home countries. The English FA has expressed doubt as to whether the fixtures could be accommodated at the end of each season. But Smith said: ""Bringing it back would add meaning to friendly games and that's something that's needed."" The Home International series was done away with in 1984, with the traditional Scotland-England fixture continuing until 1989. That game is one Smith would be delighted to see reinstated. ""The Scotland v England match was a highlight of the end of the season,"" he added. ""I was in Italy for their friendly with Russia last week and they made seven substitutions while only around 20,000 fans turned up to watch. ""England were criticised for the 0-0 draw against Holland - the way Scotland were slammed in the past for poor results in friendlies. ""You have to put a performance on in friendly games. If you don't, they can be de-motivating. ""It can be a dangerous road to go down, if players don't apply themselves in the manner they should. ""So I would support the return of the home internationals - the only problem would be fitting them in to the fixture schedule.""",sport
"Mido makes third apology..Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam has made another apology to the Egyptian people in an attempt to rejoin the national team...The 21-year-old told a news conference in Cairo on Sunday that he is sorry for the problems that have led to his exclusion from the Pharaohs since July last year. Mido said: ""There isn't much I have to say today, all there is to say is that I came specially from England to Egypt to rejoin the national team and to apologise for all my mistakes."" Mido was axed by former coach Marco Tardelli after failing to answer a national call-up, claiming he had a groin injury. But he then played in a friendly for his club AS Roma within 24 hours of a World Cup qualifying match at home to Cameroon last September. Mido added: ""It's not my right to give orders and say when I want to play ... at the same time I will always make sure that I put the national's team's matches as my top priority. ""I feel that the national players are playing with a new spirit as I saw them play against Belgium (Egypt won 4-0 on Wednesday) and I simply want to add to their success. ""I do confess that I was rude to the Egyptian press at times but now I have gained more experience and know that I will never go anywhere without the press's support. ""Many of the international stars like David Beckham and (Zinedine) Zidane had the press opposing them. ""So I'm now used to the fact that the press can be against me at times and I don't have to overreact when this happens. Meanwhile, Egypt FA spokesman Methat Shalaby welcomed the apology and said no one had exerted pressure on Mido to apologise. ""Mido's apology today does not negatively affect Mido in anyway, on the contrary it makes him a bigger star and a role model for all football players,"" Shalaby said. Shalaby earlier said that after an apology Mido would be available for the national side if coach Hassan Shehata chose him. Mido joined Tottenham in an 18-month loan deal near the end of the January transfer window, scoring twice on his debut against Portsmouth.",sport
"Man City 0-2 Man Utd..Manchester United reduced Chelsea's Premiership lead to nine points after a scrappy victory over Manchester City...Wayne Rooney met Gary Neville's cross to the near post with a low shot, which went in via a deflection off Richard Dunne, to put United ahead. Seven minutes later, the unfortunate Dunne hooked a volley over David James' head and into his own net. Steve McManaman wasted City's best chance when he shot wide from three yards in the first half. In the opening 45 minutes United had looked unlikely to earn the win they needed to maintain any chance of catching Chelsea in the title race. Their approach play was more laboured than patient and they managed to fashion just one chance - a Paul Scholes header over the bar. And City seemed to be content to sit back and try and hit their rivals on the break as the game settled into a tepid pattern. Only Shaun Wright-Phillips appeared capable of interrupting the monotony, looking lively down the right and causing Gabriel Heinze problems...Wes Brown also found Wright-Phillips to be a difficult opponent when the tricky winger embarrassed him near the touchline. Wright-Phillips' sublime skill and pace took him past Brown and he delivered a pin-point centre to the feet of McManaman. But the former Liverpool player demonstrated why he has never scored against United by side-footing the easy chance wide. John O'Shea was forced off after an earlier clash with Sylvain Distin and Cristiano Ronaldo came on to replace him. He immediately caused Ben Thatcher some discomfort and looked set to inject some much-needed pace into the United attack. Rooney was being well marshalled by Dunne - but that was all about to change. After the break, United poured forward and there was a renewed urgency about their play. And when Neville delivered a cross in a carbon copy of City's best first-half chance, Rooney showed McManaman how to do it - even if he needed the help of Dunne's leg. Worse was to come for Dunne, who had been having a fine match. On 75 minutes, he scored a horrible own goal when attempting to volley clear Rooney's cross and United seemed home and dry. However, City did fight back and Fowler missed another great chance from close range. And United keeper Roy Carroll saved well from Kiki Musampa. But United could have a had a third late on when substitute Ryan Giggs hit the post...- Manchester City boss Kevin Keegan: ""We had a great chance to take the lead and the first goal was always going to be crucial. ""We started off with a good tempo but then we allowed them to dictate the pace a bit too much. ""But we still had four good chances, two after we'd gone 2-0 down, the one McManaman missed was very similar to the one Wayne Rooney scored from."". - Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson: ""It wasn't our best performance of the last three months but I think we're deserved winners. ""At times, especially in the first half, we didn't play with enough speed. But with (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Ryan) Giggs on, the speed improved. ""Derby games can be like that, they can be scrappy, dull, horrible and it was maybe like that."" Man City: James, Mills (Bradley Wright-Phillips 83), Dunne, Distin, Thatcher, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Barton (Macken 68), Sibierski, McManaman, Musampa, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Weaver, Onuoha, Flood. Booked: Fowler, Sibierski. Man Utd: Carroll, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Heinze, O'Shea (Ronaldo 33), Keane, Fortune, Fletcher (Giggs 64), Rooney, Scholes (Phil Neville 84). Subs Not Used: Howard, Bellion. Booked: Rooney, Scholes, Keane. Goals: Rooney 68, Dunne 75 og. Att: 47,111 Ref: S Bennett (Kent).",sport
"Gerrard plays down European hopes..Steven Gerrard has admitted that Liverpool have little chance of winning the Champions League this season...The 24-year-old Reds skipper spoke out ahead of Tuesday's first leg at home to Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16, which he will miss through suspension. ""Let's be realistic, there are some fantastic teams left in the Champions League,"" he told BBC Radio Five Live. ""We are just going to try to stay in as long as possible but we realise that maybe it is not our year this year."" Gerrard has made no secret of his desire to be involved in Europe's premier club competition...Last season he described qualification for the Champions League as the ""be all and end all"" - and rumours persist that he will leave Anfield if the Reds fail to secure a place in the competition. He has consistently been linked with a move away from Liverpool, with Chelsea the favourites to snap up the England midfielder. And Blues boss Jose Mourinho backed Gerrard's view that Rafael Benitez's team could struggle to progress this season. ""Rafa has still time in front of him to build an even better team, maybe he's a little bit behind (right now),"" he told BBC Radio Five Live...Gerrard, who fired Liverpool into the last 16 of this season's competition with a brilliant goal in December's win over Olympiakos, insisted he was still fully focused on helping Liverpool to glory this season. The Reds are currently fifth in the Premiership table, five points off the crucial fourth spot, which brings Champions League qualification - and they face Chelsea in Sunday's Carling Cup final. ""It's big couple of months for Liverpool,"" he added. ""We're fighting for the fourth spot for the Champions League for next season but we are still involved in two cup competitions, which are very important. ""We are confident we can upset Chelsea in the Carling Cup final and get to the last eight of the Champions League because, financially, it is big for the club and, personally for myself, it is very good.""",sport
"Duff ruled out of Barcelona clash..Chelsea's Damien Duff has been ruled out of Wednesday's Champions League clash with Barcelona at the Nou Camp...Duff sustained a knee injury in the FA Cup defeat at Newcastle and manager Jose Mourinho said: ""He cannot run. His injury is very painful, so he is out."" But Mourinho has revealed defender Willian Gallas and striker Didier Drogba will be in the starting line-up. The Blues boss took the unusual step of naming his side a day before the match, with Jole Cole named in midfield. Mourinho said: ""We have one more session but I think Drogba will play, and Gallas will play. ""Drogba trained on Monday with no problems and will do the same on Tuesday. Gallas feels he can play and wants to play. We are protecting him still but he will be okay to play."" Drogba, Chelsea's £24m striker, has missed the last three weeks through injury...Cech, Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, Gallas, Tiago, Makelele, Lampard, Cole, Drogba, Gudjohnsen.",sport
"Chelsea clinch cup in extra-time..(after extra-time - score at 90 mins 1-1)..John Arne Riise volleyed Liverpool ahead after 45 seconds but Steven Gerrard scored a 79th-minute own goal. Blues boss Jose Mourinho was sent off for taunting Liverpool fans after the goal and he watched on television as his side went on to win the game. Drogba and Kezman scored from close range before Antonio Nunez's header made for a tense finale. It was an amazing climax which gave Mourinho his first silverware as Chelsea manager. Yet it was controversial too, after Mourinho's sending off, apparently for putting his finger to his lips to hush the Liverpool fans. There was no hushing them after the extraordinary opening in which the Reds took a stunning lead inside the first minute...Riise could not have connected any better with Morientes' cross as he smashed a left-foot volley past Petr Cech. The goal, the quickest-ever in a League Cup final, stunned a Blues side whose previously rock-solid confidence had been shaken by consecutive losses to Newcastle and Barcelona in the previous week. The Blues' attacking chances were limited, and Jerzy Dudek was equal to Frank Lampard's powerfully-struck drive and Drogba's low shot. Despite their frustration, Chelsea began to dominate midfield without seriously threatening to break Liverpool's well-organised defence...Joe Cole had a shot blocked and a promising Damien Duff break was halted by a good tackle from Djimi Traore, but the Reds reached half-time without any major scares. The Blues began the second half with more urgency and pegged Liverpool back. Nevertheless, Liverpool were living dangerously and they needed a fantastic double save from Dudek on 54 minutes, first at full stretch from Gudjohnsen's header, then to smother William Gallas' follow-up. And despite Chelsea's possession, it was Liverpool who fashioned the next clear opportunity as Luis Garcia fed Dietmar Hamann whose shot forced a superb save from Cech. And the Blues' increasingly adventurous approach saw Liverpool earn another chance on the break on 75 minutes as Paulo Ferreira denied Gerrard with a last-ditch tackle. But Gerrard was on the scoresheet minutes later - in the most unfortunate fashion - as he inadvertently deflected Ferrerira's free-kick past his own keeper and in off the post to bring Chelsea level. That prompted Mourinho's reaction which saw him sent off, but Chelsea still pressed and Duff had a chance to win the game with seven minutes remaining. Dudek saved bravely at the Irishman's feet, while Milan Baros shot wildly at the other end to ensure extra time. Drogba almost headed Chelsea in front two minutes into extra-time but the striker saw the ball rebound off the post. But seconds after the half-time interval, Drogba made no mistake, picking the ball up from Glen Johnson's long throw inside the six-yard box and sidefooting home. And Kezman appeared to have made the game safe as he netted from close range after Gudjohnsen's cross in the 110th minute. There was still drama as Nunez beat Cech to a high ball with six minutes remaining to head his side level, but despite Liverpool's desperate attacks, Chelsea clung on to win...Dudek, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore (Biscan 67), Luis Garcia, Gerrard, Hamann, Riise, Kewell (Nunez 56), Morientes (Baros 74)...Subs Not Used: Pellegrino, Carson...Hyypia, Traore, Hamann, Carragher...Riise 1, Nunez 113...Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Terry, Gallas (Kezman 74), Jarosik (Gudjohnsen 45), Lampard, Makelele, Cole (Johnson 81), Drogba, Duff...Subs Not Used: Pidgeley, Tiago...Lampard, Kezman, Drogba, Duff...Gerrard 79 og, Drogba 107, Kezman 112...78,000..S Bennett (Kent).",sport
"Newcastle 2-1 Bolton..Kieron Dyer smashed home the winner to end Bolton's 10-game unbeaten run...Lee Bowyer put Newcastle ahead when he fed Stephen Carr on the right flank, then sprinted into the area to power home a header from the resultant cross. Wanderers hit back through Stelios Giannakopoulos, who ended a fluid passing move with a well-struck volley. But Dyer had the last word in a game of few chances, pouncing on a loose ball after Alan Shearer's shot was blocked and firing into the top corner. Neither side lacked urgency in the early stages of the game, with plenty of tackles flying in, but opportunities in front of goal were harder to come by. Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen had to make two saves in quick succession midway through the first-half - keeping out Shearer's low shot and Dyer's close-range header - but that was the only goalmouth action of note. And it was almost out of nothing that the Magpies took the lead on 35 minutes. Bowyer found space with a neat turn on the half-way line and striding forward picked out Carr to his right. He then continued his run and with perfect timing made his way into the box where he met Carr's cross with a downward header into the far corner. Bolton had produced little going forward at this point but they responded well...They were level within six minutes thanks to a smart finish from Giannakopoulos. Jay-Jay Okocha twisted and turned on the edge of the area and after a neat exchange of passes involving Kevin Davies and Gary Speed, the Greek striker found the bottom corner with a first-time strike. The Magpies were opened up again before half-time as Davies set Giannakopoulos in space and Given had to block at his near post. But the home side survived, and they should have re-taken the lead with the first meaningful attack of the second half. Fernando Hierro cynically chopped down Dyer on the edge of the area with the midfielder clean through. But the veteran defender escaped with a booking as there were other defenders nearby, and from the resultant free-kick Laurent Robert curled the ball just wide. Bolton were creating little going forward and they seemed content to frustrate the Magpies. Their strategy seemed to be working until the 69th minute. Alan Shearer's snap-shot was charged down and Dyer reacted first to smash the ball past the despairing Jaaskelainen from six yards...- Bolton boss Sam Allardyce ""I am bitterly disappointed with the result, but I am probably more disappointed with the second-half performance. ""In the first half we had put them under a lot of pressure, and our goal matched theirs in quality. ""I thought it would lift us and that they might be tired after playing a lot of games, but unfortunately we were not up for the battle in the second half. ""We allowed them to heap too much pressure on us, and in the end we cracked."". - Newcastle boss Graeme Souness ""We deserved the win. We had a really good second half. ""Bolton are a difficult side to play. You have to match them physically first but we did that, and then we played some football. ""We had a slow first 45 minutes when we looked a bit tired but we got going after that. The scoreline flattered them and we could have had one or two more goals."" Newcastle: Given, Carr, Boumsong, Bramble, Babayaro, Dyer, Faye, Bowyer, Robert (Jenas 77), Ameobi, Shearer. Subs Not Used: Butt, Harper, Milner, Hughes. Goals: Bowyer 35, Dyer 69. Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Hunt (Fadiga 14), N'Gotty, Ben Haim, Candela, Giannakopoulos, Okocha (Vaz Te 77), Hierro (Campo 64), Speed, Gardner, Davies. Subs Not Used: Jaidi, Poole. Booked: Ben Haim, Hierro. Goals: Giannakopoulos 41. Att: 50,430 Ref: S Dunn (Gloucestershire).",sport
"Middlesbrough 2-2 Charlton..A late header by teenager Danny Graham earned Middlesbrough a battling draw with Charlton at the Riverside...Matt Holland had put the visitors ahead in the 14th minute after his shot took a deflection off Franck Queudrue. But Middlesbrough peppered the Charlton goal after the break and Chris Riggott stroked home the equaliser. Shaun Bartlett's strike put Charlton back in front but that lead lasted just six minutes before Graham rushed onto Queudrue's pass to head home. The match burst to life from the whistle and Charlton defender Hermann Hreidarsson had sight of an open goal after just six minutes. Hreidarsson received Danny Murphy's free-kick from the right but he crashed his free header wide of the far post. The Iceland international looked such a danger the Boro bench could be heard issuing frantic instructions to mark him...Charlton's early pressure paid off when Bartlett received a long ball from Talal El Karkouri in the box and laid it off to Holland who buried his right-footed strike. Szilard Nemeth, recalled in place of Joseph-Desire Job, was twice denied his chance to get Middlesbrough back on level terms by Dean Kiely. The striker played a great one-two with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink only to see Kiely get down well to smother his shot before directing a header straight into the keeper's arms. Boro had plenty of time on the ball but the Addicks comfortably mopped up the pressure - with Kiely tipping a Hasselbaink header over the bar - to take their lead into half-time...It was all one-way traffic after the break at the Riverside as Middlesbrough poured forward and Kiely even saved Hreidarsson's blushes when he palmed the ball away to prevent a Charlton own goal. But the Addicks keeper could do nothing about Riggott's equaliser in the 74th minute. The Boro defender looked suspiciously offside as he got on the end of Gareth Southgate's misdirected effort, but despite the Charlton protests his goal stood. The Addicks did not let their heads drop and Bartlett left the Boro defence standing, picking up Hreidarsson's cross to easily sink his right-footed strike. But substitute Graham was on hand to grab a share of the points for the home side. The 19-year-old striker nodding home the equaliser - and his first Premiership goal - with five minutes left on the clock...""I felt we did enough to win the game even though the first half was lacklustre. ""We dominated after the break, the players showed a fantastic response and we should have gone on to win. ""But for (Charlton goalkeeper) Dean Kiely, who made three tremendous saves, we could have scored five or six.""..""To take the lead and then to get penned back, it feels a little bit like a defeat,"" admitted Kiely. ""We were winning but Middlesbrough kept knocking on the door. But we stood up and credit to us we didn't capitulate. ""We'll kick on now. Our short-term ambition is to progress from the seventh place finish from last year.""..Nash, Reiziger (Graham 82), Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue, Parlour (Job 86), Doriva, Nemeth (Parnaby 87), Zenden, Downing, Hasselbaink...Subs Not Used: Cooper, Knight...Riggott 74, Graham 86...Kiely, Hreidarsson, Perry, El Karkouri, Young, Konchesky, Murphy (Euell 78), Holland, Kishishev, Thomas (Johansson 72), Bartlett...Subs Not Used: Fish, Jeffers, Andersen...Konchesky, Hreidarsson, Perry...Holland 14, Bartlett 80...29,603..M Riley (W Yorkshire).",sport
"Dundee Utd 4-1 Aberdeen..Dundee United eased into the semi-final of the Scottish Cup with an emphatic win over Aberdeen...Alan Archibald prodded United ahead in 19 minutes and James Grady made it two from close range 10 minutes later. Richie Byrne's header gave Aberdeen a way back into the game, but Stevie Crawford restored United's lead from 18 yards before half time. The scoring was completed by Grady just after the break - a superb shot on the turn making it 4-1. Tony Bullock in the United goal was called into action for the first time with just over a quarter-of-an-hour on the clock. Noel Whelan laid the ball off to Jamie Winter on the edge of the box, but his first-time effort was gathered by the United keeper. Moments later though, the home side took the lead. Barry Robson whipped in a free kick from the right, which Stevie Crawford caught on the volley. Russell Anderson failed to deal with it and Whelan's clearance off the line landed kindly at the feet of Archibald, who poked the ball into the net. United doubled their lead after 29 minutes when Grady tapped the ball into an empty net after Robson had headed Mark Wilson's cross off the angle of post and bar. But only three minutes later Aberdeen clawed their way back into the match. A free kick from the left by Winter was met powerfully by the head of Byrne at the back post, leaving Bullock helpless...United restored their two-goal lead four minutes before the end of a highly entertaining first half. Jason Scotland played a perfectly-weighted pass into the path of the onrushing Crawford and he coolly beat Ryan Esson from 18 yards. United ended the game as a contest just two minutes after the interval. Grady received a pass from Crawford with his back to goal on the edge of the box and after taking one touch, he spun to volley the ball past the despairing dive of Esson. The home side were in complete control and it required a good stop from Esson to keep out Robson's drive after 62 minutes. The keeper denied the same player again 10 minutes later, beating away his fierce shot from the left of the penalty area. Robson saw another long-range effort tipped round the post before a cute lob was headed off the line...Bullock, Duff, Wilson, Ritchie, Archibald, Scotland (Samuel 63), Brebner, Kerr (Cameron 87), Robson, Crawford, Grady...Colgan, Dodds, Kenneth...Brebner...Archibald 19, Grady 29, Crawford 41, Grady 47...Esson, Hart, Anderson, Diamond, Byrne (Morrison 75), McNaughton, Heikkinen (Foster 27), Winter, Clark (Stewart 51), Mackie, Whelan...Blanchard, McGuire...: Anderson, Diamond...Byrne 33...8,661..K Clark",sport
"Clyde 0-5 Celtic..Celtic brushed aside Clyde to secure their place in the Scottish Cup semi-final, but only after a nervy and testing first half...The home side's Craig Bryson had a goal chopped off before Stan Varga headed Celtic into the lead. Alan Thompson scored from the penalty spot at the start of the second half after Shaun Maloney had been fouled. Stilian Petrov slid in a third, Varga tapped in his second and Craig Bellamy completed the rout with a fine drive. Bryn Halliwell was the busier keeper early on, saving from Bellamy, Chris Sutton and Juninho. Clyde had the ball in the net after half-an-hour through a tremendous strike from Bryson, but the referee had already blown for a foul by Petrov. From the resulting free kick, Darren Sheridan curled the ball round the Celtic wall only for the post to deny him. Back at the other end, Halliwell did well to come off his line and block Bellamy's effort to lift the ball over him. The keeper misjudged a corner that Stephane Henchoz headed wide, but a similar scenario five minutes before the break led to the opening goal. The ball was delivered from the left and Halliwell was left floundering as Varga glanced the ball into the net...Maloney replaced the injured Sutton at half time and he marked his first competitive appearance after a year out injured by helping his side take a two-goal lead just after the break. The young striker fired a free kick straight into the Clyde wall but as he collected the rebound, he was tripped by Bryson and Thompson converted the penalty. Sheridan and Bellamy were involved in something of a flare-up that led to both being booked after the intervention of the assistant referee. Juninho brought out another good save from Halliwell and then Petrov saw a tremendous effort come off the top of the bar. But Petrov and Juninho combined brilliantly to allow the Bulgarian to make it 3-0 on the hour mark - a quick one-two giving him the time and space to steer the ball past Halliwell from 12 yards. Varga got his second goal of the game as Celtic drove home their advantage - Thompson whipped in a corner from the right and the unmarked defender simply tapped the ball over the line from a couple of yards out. Celtic were utterly dominant by this stage and Bellamy opened his scoring account for the club after a fine move involving Aiden McGeady, Jackie McNamara and Maloney culminated in the Welshman hammering the ball into the net. Halliwell kept the deficit at five by pushing a McGeady shot wide as the game petered out...Halliwell, Mensing, Bollan, Balmer, Potter, Sheridan (Burns 61), Arbuckle (Gilhaney 61), Gibson, Bryson (Jones 78), Malone, Harty...Morrison, Wilson...Mensing, Sheridan...Douglas, Henchoz, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Juninho Paulista, Thompson, Lennon (Lambert 70), Sutton (Maloney 45), Petrov (McGeady 70), Bellamy...Marshall, Laursen...Thompson, Bellamy...: Varga 40, Thompson 48 pen, Petrov 60, Varga 68, Bellamy 72...8,200..C Thomson",sport
"Hearts 2-1 Livingston..Hearts wrapped up their Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against Livingston with two goals in the first 10 minutes...Lee Miller scored inside the opening 60 seconds, heading over Colin Meldrum and into the net from a Jamie McAllister free kick. McAllister himself scored the second when he met Saul Mikoliunas' cross at the back post to put the game beyond the visitors. Craig Easton headed in a controversial goal after an hour but Hearts held on. The opening goal came after Gus Bahoken had clumsily fouled Miller 35 yards from goal. McAllister floated the free kick into the Livi box and Miller outjumped the static visiting defence to loop his header from 10 yards over Meldrum. With just 10 minutes on the clock, the home side doubled their lead. Mikoliunas sprinted down the right, crossed to the back post where McAllister raced in to head past Meldrum. Moments later Miller came close to grabbing his second with a first-time drive from 16 yards, which skimmed the bar...Then McAllister picked up a pass from Stephen Simmons and drove an angled shot from 20 yards narrowly past Meldrum's far post. The impressive Mikoliunas twice went close before half time - a low drive was comfortably gathered by Meldrum and then he curled a left-footed shot past the keeper's right-hand post. Livi manager Richard Gough made three changes at the interval, bringing on defender Goran Stanic, midfielder Gabor Vincze, and striker Ferenc Horvath for Bahoken, Derek Lilley and Mark Wilson. But, in the opening stages of the second period, little changed. However, the West Lothian side gave themselves a lifeline with a controversial goal. Eric Deloumeaux sent Jason Dair away on the right and he tried to give the ball to McPake, who looked to be in an offside position. The Livi striker ignored the pass, however, and Dair ran on to it and played Easton in at the back post and he headed home from close range. The home side called for offside against McPake but referee Alan Freeland ignored their claims and pointed to the centre-circle. Livi went all out for the equaliser. In the 87th minute, Burton O'Brien was hauled back at the edge of the box by Neil MacFarlane, but Dair sent his shot just inches wide...Gordon, Webster, Miller, Hartley, Neilson, McAllister, Simmons (MacFarlane 64), Berra, Burchill (Wyness 82), Mikoliunas (Cesnauskis 77), Wallace...Moilanen, Kizys...Berra, Webster...Miller 1, McAllister 10...Meldrum, McNamee, Bahoken (Stanic 45), Deloumeaux, Strong, Dair, Easton, Mark Wilson (Vincze 45), Lilley (Horvath 45), O'Brien, McPake...McKenzie, Hand...: Vincze, Horvath...Easton 60...9,796..A Freeland",sport
"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.",sport
"Bridge could miss rest of season..Chelsea left-back Wayne Bridge could miss the rest of the season with a suspected broken ankle...The England international, 24, was hurt in an innocuous challenge with Alan Shearer during the Londoners' FA Cup defeat at Newcastle on Sunday. ""We think it's a big injury,"" said Jose Mourinho, whose Chelsea team this week meet Barcelona in the Champions League and Liverpool in the Carling Cup final. William Gallas and Damien Duff could also miss the Barcelona game. France defender Gallas and Ireland winger Duff both picked up their injuries in the closing stages of Chelsea's 1-0 defeat at St James' Park...With Bridge having gone off after Mourinho used all three substitutes, those knocks plus Carlo Cudicini's red card meant Chelsea finished the game with seven able-bodied players. Cudicini would not have played against Barcelona, but had been promised a game in the Carling Cup final, although he will now miss the Cardiff showpiece through suspension. The manager is not planning to add any new names to his squad ahead of the trip to Barcelona, even though he has few options to replace Bridge at left-back...Celestine Babayaro left the club in January, ironically to join Newcastle, and although Gallas has deputised at left-back before, he is struggling to be fit himself. It could be that Paulo Ferreira, usually a right-back, is switched to left-back with Glen Johnson, who ended the Newcastle game in goal, playing on the right. Youngsters Ben Hudell, Joe Keenan and Sam Tillen would be options should Mourinho decide to call up a replacement, but it is unlikely he would risk an untried prospect in a Champions League tie. Bridge's injury also means Mourinho, who reportedly wants to sign Ashley Cole from Arsenal, will not have a specialist, senior left-back for the run-in to the season...""He (Bridge) has no chance of playing against Barcelona, probably will not play against Liverpool (in the Carling Cup final) and maybe not for the rest of the season,"" he said. ""The medical department will try to do everything to recover Gallas and Duff. We will have to wait and see, but I won't cry about injuries because we will have 11 players to play on Tuesday."" Shearer said he was unsure what caused Bridge's injury. ""I don't know what happened."" he said. ""It was just a shame. I don't think we even touched each other. ""By all accounts it's pretty serious. I went into the dressing-room after the game and wished him all the best."" Mourinho, whose team are chasing three trophies, has already lost winger Arjen Robben to a serious injury.",sport
"Parry firm over Gerrard..Listen to the full interview on Sport on Five and the BBC Sport website from 1900 GMT...But Parry, speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, also admits Gerrard, who has been constantly linked with Chelsea, will have the final say on his future. He told BBC Five Live: ""Steven is above money. He is the future of Liverpool. ""It doesn't matter if it's £30m, £40m or £50m, we will not accept offers. But we are also realistic enough to know we can't keep Steven against his will."" On the subject of Liverpool's finances, Parry also revealed the club is ready to explore the possibility of a sponsorship deal for its proposed new stadium...And responding to criticism from BBC Sport pundit and former Liverpool stalwart Alan Hansen, he insisted talks on new investment are ongoing, but added the door has not closed on shareholder and lifelong fan Steve Morgan. Parry joined Liverpool as chief executive in July 1998 from a similar role at the Premier League. There have been several highs and lows during his time in charge at Anfield - and he had a busy summer, overseeing the arrival of new manager Rafael Benitez and managing to hold on to Steven Gerrard...On the subject of Liverpool's captain and prize asset, Parry revealed Real Madrid..did..ask for an option on the England midfield man during negotiations for striker Fernando Morientes. He said: ""They were looking for ways of saying they got more out of the deal for Fernando Morientes, but the response to Real Madrid was the same - Steven is not for sale."" But when asked if Gerrard would be a Liverpool player on the first day of next season, Parry said: ""I sincerely hope he will be. Steven knows my views. He knows Rafa's views. ""We have re-affirmed recently to Steven that we are trying to build a team around him. We crave success as much as he does. We know he's ambitious and nobody can argue with that...""I think Steven would dearly love to win things with Liverpool more than he'd like to do anything else. ""We all want to see progress by next season. He's not alone in that. There are a lot of other players who feel the same, so we all have a common aim."" It is expected Chelsea will test Liverpool with a £30m-plus bid in the summer - but Parry claims he will be in no mood to listen. ""There have been a lot of open secrets about Steven, most of which have been complete myths. It is suggested we had a deal tied up last summer. We didn't had an offer last summer,"" Parry explained. ""We had told Chelsea that as far as we were concerned he was not for sale and we didn't want to sell him. In reality it didn't go beyond that. ""Maybe there will be an offer in the summer. Maybe there won't...""Our position is we want Steven to stay, but we are also realistic enough and have enough respect for Steven - and he has enough respect for us - to know that it is his decision that will be crucial. ""You are not going to keep a player like Steven against his will. That just doesn't work, but any idea we are going to accept offers for Steven and then tell him 'by the way we've decided to sell you' is not on the agenda. You can forget that."" Parry is currently in the process of finalising funding for Liverpool's new stadium in Stanley Park, which is set to open in 2007. And he confessed Arsenal's £100m deal with Emirates to sponsor their new ground - complete with naming rights - has given the Anfield club serious food for thought. He said: ""I have to say historically it is something I have been against, and I have been on record as saying that, but I think the size of the Arsenal deal is a real eye-opener...""I would say in the past deals have been done frankly far too cheaply and it just hasn't even been worth contemplating. ""But the Arsenal deal is the sort of deal that causes you to draw breath and say 'wow - that's interesting.' ""My personal point of view is that I would find it a hell of a lot more palatable than a shared stadium."" Some Liverpool fans would find such a move highly controversial, but Parry countered: ""I recognise it would be an emotive issue for many supporters, but you look at the amount of money available and it could go into the team. ""If it was the right partner how strong an issue is it? Time will tell. ""I think the stadium will always be Anfield, not least because of where it is, but do we need to investigate the possibilities of sponsorship? I think it would be remiss not to. ""That's not to say we have made a decision that we will go down that road, but I think it is clearly something we have to explore.""..On the subject of possible new investment, Parry revealed Liverpool are still in negotiations with a mystery investor, with rumours of interest from the Middle East. That prompted the withdrawal of tycoon Steve Morgan, who got frustrated by failed bids and what he claimed was indecision by the board. He also accused Liverpool of using him as ""a stalking horse"" to attract other bids, but Parry explained: ""Steve has never been used as a stalking horse. There's no need, and that is not the way we do business. ""We had discussions with Steve over the course of 2004. I think we came close to concluding a deal in the summer but it didn't happen. ""Quite genuinely, the new interest did appear relatively late in the day just prior to the AGM in December, and as I have said it was of such potential magnitude, and that potential is so exciting, we felt we had to evaluate it. We are still evaluating it. ""Steve's interest was taken very much on its own merits. His enthusiasm for the club is there for all to see and who knows what the next few months will hold? ""The door isn't closed on anything. We had a perfectly sensible dialogue with Steve last year. ""We have a common interest in making Liverpool successful. That's a dream we all share, so as far as I'm concerned the door is not closed.""..I would take £50m if we had no investment, but if we did, keep him. As for the stadium, if it gets us cash what difference does it make really?..£50m for Gerrard? I don't care who you are, the Directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. We cannot let that sum of money go, despite Gerrard's quality...Through a cleverly worded statement, the club has effectively forced Gerrard to publicly make the decision for himself, which I think is the right thing to do...Critical time for Liverpool with regards to Gerrard. Ideally we would want to secure his future to the club for the long term. I am hoping he doesn't walk out of the club like Michael Owen did for very little cash...£50m realistically would allow Rafa to completely rebuild the squad, however, if we can afford to do this AND keep Gerrard we will be better for it. I would however be happy with Gerrard's transfer for any fee over £35m...Parry's statements are clever in that any future Gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their best players. Upping the ante is another smart move by Parry...I would keep Gerrard. No amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and determination to succeed...The key is if Gerrard comes out and says that he is happy. Clearly, if he isn't, then we would be foolish not to sell. The worrying thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-Champions League football.",sport
"Wright-Phillips to start on right..England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has revealed Shaun Wright-Phillips will start against the Netherlands...But Wright-Phillips will not make his first start for England playing on the left, as had been widely expected. ""Shaun Wright-Phillips will probably start the game,"" said Eriksson. ""But I'm not going to start Wright-Phillips on the left."" Eriksson also revealed that Wes Brown will start alongside Jamie Carragher in the injury-hit centre of defence. When asked if Brown and Carragher would start Eriksson replied: ""I could tell you yes. ""It's a blow that four or five central defenders are away because of injuries. ""On the other hand it's good for Carragher and Brown to show what they can do at this level. That's positive."" The England coach said that he had been impressed by Wright-Phillips' form for Manchester City. ""He deserves his chance. He has been playing well all season and I look forward to seeing him."" And he added that Andy Johnson and Stewart Downing - the other two new players in the squad - would also get a chance to impress. ""Wright-Phillips, Downing and Johnson will start or get the chance to play some part. ""Johnson was not in my plans a year ago but he is doing a great season and scoring a lot of goals. ""Downing is another one making a great season. He is young, talented and there are not too many left-footed players in the squad.""",sport
"Robben sidelined with broken foot..Chelsea winger Arjen Robben has broken two metatarsal bones in his foot and will be out for at least six weeks...Robben had an MRI scan on the injury, sustained during the Premiership win at Blackburn, on Monday. ""Six weeks is the average time to heal this injury and then I need a few more weeks to be completely fit again,"" he told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. ""I had a feeling it was serious but because of the swelling it was impossible to make a final diagnosis."" The 21-year-old missed the first three months of the season with a similar injury after a challenge with Roma's Olivier Dacourt. And he added: ""It felt different then last summer when I had the same injury on my other foot. ""Then I could walk already after three days but I stayed sidelined for a long period. I hope that it will now take me six to eight weeks."" Chelsea physio Mike Banks was hopeful that Robben could return at some point in March. ""The fractures are tiny and he could be playing next month,"" Banks told the club's website. ""One is a chip on the side of his foot, the other is a small break on the third metatarsal. ""But this is not the traditional metatarsal that has become so famous since the last World Cup and which has kept Scott Parker out for two months.""..David Beckham suffered a broken metatarsal in the build up to the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan. Robben, who has been a key part of the Blues' push for four trophies, claims he knew instantly something was wrong when he was felled by Blackburn midfielder Aaron Mokoena. ""I felt my leg go,"" he said. ""I felt it straight away after Mokoena hit me with a wild kick on my left foot.""",sport
"Giggs handed Wales leading role..Ryan Giggs will captain Wales as he wins his 50th cap in Wednesday's friendly against Hungary in Cardiff...John Toshack, in his first game as coach after succeeding Mark Hughes, admits he is surprised that Giggs has only just reached the landmark. ""With the games he's played for United, proportionately it doesn't seem that many for Wales,"" Toshack said. ""But he's one of the greatest of all Welsh internationals and on his 50th cap it's appropriate he's captain."" Giggs admits he had briefly considered retirement from the international game, but is now targetting playing for Wales in the 2008 European Championships. The Manchester United wing revealed how club manager Sir Alex Ferguson talked him into extending his Wales career. ""I briefly discussed my international future with Sir Alex, but he urged me to carry on,"" Giggs said. ""He feels, like myself, that I have no weight problems and keep myself fit, so in three or four years' time I will be able to play in the European finals if we get there. ""The manager has always wanted me to play for my club and country and he was keen for me to continue because I am fit enough.""..Giggs admits he was wavering and considering joining the likes of former Wales skipper Gary Speed and United team-mate Paul Scholes in committing the remaining years of his career to club football. But Giggs is now focussed on making the Toshack era even more successful than the time Hughes spent at the helm. The Manchester United winger won his first cap as a 17-year-old in 1991, an away loss to Germany, and now faces his landmark appearance at the age of 31. With Giggs leading Wales out against Hungary, there is every chance that he will become the permanent successor to Speed. However, Toshack refused to reveal whether he sees Giggs as a long-term option. ""For this particular game I think it is appropriate that Ryan Giggs will be captain, it's his 50th cap and he's known for some time about that,"" Toshack said. On Wednesday night Toshack takes charge of his first match since replacing Hughes, and Giggs said: ""It's my 50th cap and I am looking forward to it, and I hope to play a lot more times from here on in. ""It's important to be here, all the players feel the same. It's a new start and all the top players certainly see it as important. ""I see myself leading by example, it is something I have taken on for Wales as well as United these past few seasons. ""The way John is looking at things, he is aiming to build his side around the experienced lads right up to the next tournament, the Euro 2006 event. ""I have told John I will be around for the next European tournament, by then I will be 35 so hopefully I will still be okay. ""A lot can happen, but I'm hoping to be around."" Giggs' own personal future at Old Trafford is still up in the air as he has yet to reach agreement on a new contract, with Manchester United offering one extra year and Giggs seeking two. ""I have put the contract thing to the back of my mind at the moment,"" said Giggs. ""It is an important period for the club and I am just concentrated on that. ""I've heard the suggestions, hopefully there is a two-year deal about to be offered because that is what I am looking for, to get it sorted out. ""I'm enjoying my football, the way United have been playing and my own form, you have to enjoy it. ""We have massive games coming up: Manchester City this week, then the Everton cup tie, followed by AC Milan in the Champions League, and my first Wales game under John Toshack, so it's an important time.""",sport
"Bosvelt optimistic over new deal..Manchester City's Paul Bosvelt will find out ""within a month"" whether he is to be offered a new one-year deal...The 34-year-old Dutch midfielder is out of contract in the summer and, although his age may count against him, he feels he can play on for another season. ""I told the club I would like to stay for one more year. They promised me an answer within the next month so I am waiting to see,"" he said. ""The main concern is my age but I think I have proved I am fit enough. Bosvelt joined City from Feyenoord in 2003 and at first he struggled to adapt to life in England. But his professionalism and dedication impressed manager Kevin Keegan. ""He realised the pace of the game was faster than anything he was used to but he drove himself back into the team. He is an unsung hero,"" said Keegan.",sport
"Sociedad set to rescue Mladenovic..Rangers are set to loan out-of-favour midfielder Dragan Mladenovic to Real Sociedad, despite the closure of the January transfer window...Sociedad have been given special permission by the Spanish FA to sign a player due to an injury crisis. Mladenovic will effectively replace former Rangers midfielder Mikel Arteta, who has been loaned to Everton. Sociedad say they will pay Rangers £150,000, with an option to buy the Serbia & Montenegro international. Mladenovic's loan move is subject to him passing a medical. The 28-year-old, who joined Rangers from Red Star Belgrade for £1.2m in the close season, is expected in San Sebastian later this week following his national side's game against Bulgaria. Sociedad are in 15th place in the 20-strong Primera Liga, just two points above the relegation zone. Special permission from the Spanish FA came after an injury to central defender Igor Jauregi. The versatile Mladenovic can also play in the back four. His agent said last month that Rangers had told him to find the player a new club. Mladenovic's time at Ibrox has been plagued with injury and he has made just six starts in six months with the Glasgow club.",sport
"Parry relishes Anfield challenge..BBC Sport reflects on the future for Liverpool after our exclusive interview with chief executive Rick Parry...Chief executive Parry is the man at the helm as Liverpool reach the most crucial point in their recent history. Parry has to deliver a new 60,000-seat stadium in Stanley Park by 2007 amid claims of costs spiralling above £120m. He is also searching for an investment package of a size and stature that will restore Liverpool to their place at European football's top table. But it is a challenge that appears to sit easily with Parry, who has forged a reputation as one of football's most respected administrators since his days at the fledgling Premier League...Liverpool have not won the championship since 1990, a fact that causes deep discomfort inside Anfield as they attempt to muscle in on the top three of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. Throw in the small matter of warding off every top club in world football as they eye captain Steven Gerrard, and you can see Parry is a man with a lot on his plate. But in the comfort of a conference room deep inside Liverpool's heartbeat - The Kop end - Parry spoke to us with brutal honesty about the crucial months ahead. He only dodged one question - when asked to reveal the name of the mystery investor currently courting Liverpool, a polite smile deflected the inquiry. But to his credit, he met everything else head on in measured tones that underscore the belief that Liverpool still mean business...By business he means becoming title challengers again, and locking the pieces together that will help return the trophy to Liverpool is Parry's mission. Parry has already successfully put one of those planks in place in the form of new manager Rafael Benitez. And his enthusiasm for the Spaniard's personality and methods is an indication of his clear feeling that he has struck gold. Benitez's early work has given Parry renewed optimism about the years ahead. But it remains a massive task at a club with a unique history and expectations. This will not come as news to Parry, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, but his quiet determination suggests he is no mood to be found wanting.....Captain Gerrard is central to Liverpool's plans and Parry's insistence that all offers will be refused is a firm statement of intent. As ever, the player will have the final say, and Parry acknowledges that, but he is determined to provide the framework and environment for Liverpool and Gerrard to flourish...In terms of the search for new investment, Hawkpoint were appointed as advisors to flush out interest in March 2004. Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shiniwatra came and went, while the most serious statement of intent came from tycoon and lifelong fan Steve Morgan. Morgan had a succession of bids rejected, having come close in the summer only for talks to break down over potential costs for the new stadium. BBC Sport understands Morgan is still ready and willing to invest in Liverpool, and Parry has kept the door ajar despite currently seeking investment elsewhere...Morgan, however, has had no formal contact with Liverpool or their advisors since last December, blaming indecision at board level as he publicly withdrew his £70m offer. He was also convinced his interest was being used to lure in others, so any new approach would now have to come from Liverpool. Morgan will certainly not be making another call. So speculation continues about the new benefactor, with trails leading to the Middle East and America, but all met with an understandable veil of secrecy from Anfield...Parry meanwhile sees the new ground as crucial to Liverpool's future, but is refusing to become emotionally attached to the idea. He is determined the ground will only be built on an affordable basis and will not make future Liverpool management hostages to the new stadium. Parry will pull back the moment the figures do not stack up, but there has been a vital new development in North London that has re-shaped Liverpool's thinking...Liverpool have publicly refused to entertain the idea of stadium sponsorship and potential naming rights - but the realism of Arsenal's stunning £100m deal for their new Emirates Stadium at Ashburton has changed the landscape. Parry labelled the deal ""an eye-opener"" and admits Liverpool would be missing a trick not to explore the possibilities. He knows some traditionalist Liverpool fans will reel at any attempt to call the new stadium anything other than just 'Anfield', but the maths of modern-day football decree that multi-millions for stadium and team could ease the pain...I would take £50m if we had no investment, but if we did, keep him. As for the stadium, if it gets us cash what difference does it make really?..£50m for Gerrard? I don't care who you are, the Directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. We cannot let that sum of money go, despite Gerrard's quality...Through a cleverly worded statement, the club has effectively forced Gerrard to publicly make the decision for himself, which I think is the right thing to do...Critical time for Liverpool with regards to Gerrard. Ideally we would want to secure his future to the club for the long term. I am hoping he doesn't walk out of the club like Michael Owen did for very little cash...£50m realistically would allow Rafa to completely rebuild the squad, however, if we can afford to do this AND keep Gerrard we will be better for it. I would however be happy with Gerrard's transfer for any fee over £35m...Parry's statements are clever in that any future Gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their best players. Upping the ante is another smart move by Parry...I would keep Gerrard. No amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and determination to succeed...The key is if Gerrard comes out and says that he is happy. Clearly, if he isn't, then we would be foolish not to sell. The worrying thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-Champions League football.",sport
"Time to get tough on friendlies?..For an international manager, a friendly provides an important opportunity to work with your players...The only problem is that the game itself can often be a farce. Some people have been saying it would be better to get the players together for the week, and do away with the 90 minutes at the end...I would say it's 50-50 whether you should have these games or not, and if you look at it that way you would probably say you're better not doing so. It would certainly keep club managers happy, as it would reduce the risk of players returning to domestic duty injured. But international bosses will tell you that scrapping friendlies is counterproductive because the only way for a team to get better is by playing. The more you play together, the easier it is when it comes to the crunch in games like World Cup quarter-finals against Brazil. Often in friendlies, though, a manager will play his strongest side for the first 45 minutes and then send out an entirely different one in the second half. And it's very difficult for any player to come on as substitute in a side with a few changes, let alone a whole team's worth. The debate will rage on, and I'm not sure there is a satisfactory solution. One manager who has got it right this week is Walter Smith. The new Scotland manager has decided to have a training camp instead of a friendly for his first international week since replacing Berti Vogts. It is the sort of move you would expect from Walter, who is a canny manager...The players have had such a hard time recently that he is better off getting them together in a relaxed atmosphere and trying to generate some team spirit before the next World Cup qualifiers. If he had sent them out on Wednesday and they had been badly beaten, it would have done them no good whatsoever. John Toshack has his first game in charge of Wales, and it will be important for him to get a decent result against Hungary. He will have his own ideas on individuals and how to play and will probably look more at the performance, but the public wants results. It's extremely difficult to get the balance for friendlies. If you win, people forget them, but if you lose it becomes a stat that can be used against you. England's game against Holland is a good example. It looks like a good opportunity to try out players like Middlesbrough winger Stewart Downing or Crystal Palace striker Andy Johnson. But you have got to remember Sven-Goran Eriksson's side were given a lesson by Spain in the last game they played...The injury problems in defence should at least give the likes of Wes Brown and Jamie Carragher a chance to impress. For the club managers, it will simply be a case of waiting at home with fingers crossed.",sport
"Barcelona title hopes hit by loss..Barcelona's pursuit of the Spanish title took a blow on Sunday as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at home to Atletico Madrid...Fernando Torres gave Athletico an ideal start with a goal in the first minute. Ronaldino wasted a second-half chance to equalise for Barca when he put a penalty wide, but Torres made no such mistake with a last-minute spot-kick. The defeat, coupled with Real Madrid's 4-0 win over Espanyol on Saturday, reduces Barca's lead to four points. Former Everton midfielder Thomas Gravesen scored his first goal for Real in the comfortable victory at the Bernabeu. Zinedine Zidane had opened the scoring before Raul bagged a brace. Gravesen, who replaced Zidane, completed the scoring in the 84th minute with a low shot. David Beckham, watched by Sven-Goran Eriksson, came off in the 67th minute with a shoulder injury but should be fit for England's game against Holland. England team-mate Michael Owen came on for Raul after 76 minutes with the game already won. Real have now won six consecutive Primera Liga games since coach Wanderley Luxemburgo took charge.",sport
"Parry puts Gerrard 'above money'..Listen to the full interview on Sport on Five and the BBC Sport website from 1900 GMT...But Parry, speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, also admits Gerrard, who has been constantly linked with Chelsea, will have the final say on his future. He told BBC Five Live: ""Steven is above money. He is the future of Liverpool. ""It doesn't matter if it's £30m, £40m or £50m, we will not accept offers. But we are also realistic enough to know we can't keep Steven against his will."" On the subject of Liverpool's finances, Parry also revealed the club is ready to explore the possibility of a sponsorship deal for its proposed new stadium...And responding to criticism from BBC Sport pundit and former Liverpool stalwart Alan Hansen, he insisted talks on new investment are ongoing, but added the door has not closed on shareholder and lifelong fan Steve Morgan. Parry joined Liverpool as chief executive in July 1998 from a similar role at the Premier League. There have been several highs and lows during his time in charge at Anfield - and he had a busy summer, overseeing the arrival of new manager Rafael Benitez and managing to hold on to Steven Gerrard...On the subject of Liverpool's captain and prize asset, Parry revealed Real Madrid..did..ask for an option on the England midfield man during negotiations for striker Fernando Morientes. He said: ""They were looking for ways of saying they got more out of the deal for Fernando Morientes, but the response to Real Madrid was the same - Steven is not for sale."" But when asked if Gerrard would be a Liverpool player on the first day of next season, Parry said: ""I sincerely hope he will be. Steven knows my views. He knows Rafa's views. ""We have re-affirmed recently to Steven that we are trying to build a team around him. We crave success as much as he does. We know he's ambitious and nobody can argue with that...""I think Steven would dearly love to win things with Liverpool more than he'd like to do anything else. ""We all want to see progress by next season. He's not alone in that. There are a lot of other players who feel the same, so we all have a common aim."" It is expected Chelsea will test Liverpool with a £30m-plus bid in the summer - but Parry claims he will be in no mood to listen. ""There have been a lot of open secrets about Steven, most of which have been complete myths. It is suggested we had a deal tied up last summer. We didn't had an offer last summer,"" Parry explained. ""We had told Chelsea that as far as we were concerned he was not for sale and we didn't want to sell him. In reality it didn't go beyond that. ""Maybe there will be an offer in the summer. Maybe there won't...""Our position is we want Steven to stay, but we are also realistic enough and have enough respect for Steven - and he has enough respect for us - to know that it is his decision that will be crucial. ""You are not going to keep a player like Steven against his will. That just doesn't work, but any idea we are going to accept offers for Steven and then tell him 'by the way we've decided to sell you' is not on the agenda. You can forget that."" Parry is currently in the process of finalising funding for Liverpool's new stadium in Stanley Park, which is set to open in 2007. And he confessed Arsenal's £100m deal with Emirates to sponsor their new ground - complete with naming rights - has given the Anfield club serious food for thought. He said: ""I have to say historically it is something I have been against, and I have been on record as saying that, but I think the size of the Arsenal deal is a real eye-opener...""I would say in the past deals have been done frankly far too cheaply and it just hasn't even been worth contemplating. ""But the Arsenal deal is the sort of deal that causes you to draw breath and say 'wow - that's interesting.' ""My personal point of view is that I would find it a hell of a lot more palatable than a shared stadium."" Some Liverpool fans would find such a move highly controversial, but Parry countered: ""I recognise it would be an emotive issue for many supporters, but you look at the amount of money available and it could go into the team. ""If it was the right partner how strong an issue is it? Time will tell. ""I think the stadium will always be Anfield, not least because of where it is, but do we need to investigate the possibilities of sponsorship? I think it would be remiss not to. ""That's not to say we have made a decision that we will go down that road, but I think it is clearly something we have to explore.""..On the subject of possible new investment, Parry revealed Liverpool are still in negotiations with a mystery investor, with rumours of interest from the Middle East. That prompted the withdrawal of tycoon Steve Morgan, who got frustrated by failed bids and what he claimed was indecision by the board. He also accused Liverpool of using him as ""a stalking horse"" to attract other bids, but Parry explained: ""Steve has never been used as a stalking horse. There's no need, and that is not the way we do business. ""We had discussions with Steve over the course of 2004. I think we came close to concluding a deal in the summer but it didn't happen. ""Quite genuinely, the new interest did appear relatively late in the day just prior to the AGM in December, and as I have said it was of such potential magnitude, and that potential is so exciting, we felt we had to evaluate it. We are still evaluating it. ""Steve's interest was taken very much on its own merits. His enthusiasm for the club is there for all to see and who knows what the next few months will hold? ""The door isn't closed on anything. We had a perfectly sensible dialogue with Steve last year. ""We have a common interest in making Liverpool successful. That's a dream we all share, so as far as I'm concerned the door is not closed.""..I would take £50m if we had no investment, but if we did, keep him. As for the stadium, if it gets us cash what difference does it make really?..£50m for Gerrard? I don't care who you are, the Directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. We cannot let that sum of money go, despite Gerrard's quality...Through a cleverly worded statement, the club has effectively forced Gerrard to publicly make the decision for himself, which I think is the right thing to do...Critical time for Liverpool with regards to Gerrard. Ideally we would want to secure his future to the club for the long term. I am hoping he doesn't walk out of the club like Michael Owen did for very little cash...£50m realistically would allow Rafa to completely rebuild the squad, however, if we can afford to do this AND keep Gerrard we will be better for it. I would however be happy with Gerrard's transfer for any fee over £35m...Parry's statements are clever in that any future Gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their best players. Upping the ante is another smart move by Parry...I would keep Gerrard. No amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and determination to succeed...The key is if Gerrard comes out and says that he is happy. Clearly, if he isn't, then we would be foolish not to sell. The worrying thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-Champions League football.",sport
"Bees handed potential Man Utd tie..Brentford face a home tie against holders Manchester United in the FA Cup sixth round if they can come through their replay against Southampton...The League One side held the Saints at St Mary's in their fifth-round tie and were rewarded with a potential draw against Sir Alex Ferguson's side. Newcastle will be at home to either Tottenham or Nottingham Forest. Bolton host Arsenal or Sheffield United and Leicester will visit the winners of the Burnley and Blackburn replay. The ties will be played on the weekend of 12-13 March...was delighted to be paired with United, although he admitted they still have plenty of work to do to set up a dream tie. ""We've got our work cut out next Tuesday but you can't deny it's exciting,"" he said...""It would be a sell-out. It will probably be on television. We have financial problems and the revenue it could bring in would certainly help our situation. ""We're happy to be in the draw but we've still got to beat a Premiership team. ""We've got to beat Southampton first and that's going to be a hard game but if we do there will be some celebration.""..welcomed the opportunity to face United. ""We're not counting on anything yet,"" he said. ""It is obviously going to be a difficult replay judging by the way Brentford came back at us on Saturday and the fact that United have come out of the hat will give them even more incentive. ""But I've been drawn against United so many times in cups and beaten them at both Bournemouth and West Ham. ""There are no easy ties in the FA Cup and I'm sure nobody is counting on one.""..Newcastle v Tottenham or Nottingham Forest..Southampton or Brentford v Manchester United..Bolton v Arsenal or Sheffield United..Burnley or Blackburn v Leicester",sport
"England's defensive crisis grows..England's defensive worries have deepened following the withdrawal of Tottenham's Ledley King from the squad to face Holland...Chelsea's John Terry and Wayne Bridge are also out, leaving coach Sven-Goran Eriksson with a real problem for Wednesday's match at Villa Park. Injured Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell were both left out of the squad, and Matthew Upson has already pulled out. Wes Brown and Jamie Carragher are likely to be the makeshift partnership. Terry, the captain of Chelsea as they push for the Premiership title, would have been a certain starter in the absence of Campbell and Ferdinand. But now he has pulled out with a bruised knee and is likely to be replaced by Carragher, alongside Brown...Manchester United's Brown last played for England in the defeat by Australia at Upton Park in February 2003. The 25-year-old was only called into the squad on Sunday night as cover following the enforced withdrawal of Upson, who has a hamstring injury. And Brown now looks certain to add to his tally of seven senior appearances for England. King was forced to pull out after his groin injury was assessed by England's medical staff. Eriksson has still not decided whether to call up any further back-up, having already summoned Phil Neville after Bridge pulled out with a foot injury.",sport
"Ferdinand casts doubt over Glazer..Rio Ferdinand has said he is unsure of Malcolm Glazer's motives after the American billionaire launched a new offer to buy Manchester United...The club have confirmed that the Glazer Family Partnership have submitted proposals of a third bid. ""A lot of people want the club's interest to be with people who have grown up with the club and have got its interests at heart,"" said Ferdinand. ""No one knows what this guy will be bringing to the table."" The central defender added on BBC Radio Five Live: ""We will have to wait and see what Glazer comes with. ""I would like to see the situation resolved either way. ""I think people are getting bored with him coming in and out of the news with new proposals. ""The other stuff off the pitch takes the shine off what is going on the pitch.""..Glazer, currently owns a 28.1% stake in the club, and United's statement to the stock exchange said: ""The board has noted the recent press speculation on this subject. ""The board can confirm that it has now received a detailed proposal subject to various pre-conditions which may form the basis of an offer for Manchester United from Glazer. ""A further announcement will be made in due course."" Glazer's previous bids for the club, which United supporters opposed, were rejected by the board because of the high level of debt they would incur. But it is believed that Glazer has substantially reduced the borrowing required for his latest move. He will still need the approval of major shareholders John Magnier and JP McManus, who own 28.9% of the club to succeed. But the Irish duo have cut off talks with Glazer over the proposed sale of their stake, while fans remain opposed to his involvement.",sport
"Premier League planning Cole date..The Premier League is attempting to find a mutually convenient date to investigate allegations Chelsea made an illegal approach for Ashley Cole...Both Chelsea and Arsenal will be asked to give evidence to a Premier League commission, but no deadline has been put on when that meeting will convene. ""It's hard to put a date on it,"" a Premier League spokesman confirmed to BBC Sport. ""It's not a formal situation where they've got so much time to respond."" Arsenal and England defender Cole reportedly met Blues boss Jose Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon in a London hotel 11 days ago. Chelsea have yet to officially confirm or deny the meeting, which would be in breach of Premier League rule K3...Now the Gunners have asked for an inquiry to look into claims that their player has been ""tapped up"". Both clubs have pledged to co-operate with the inquiry which will be conducted on a single day as opposed to being run as an ongoing evaluation. Cole is in negotiations with the Gunners over extending his current deal which ends in 2007. And his Arsenal team-mate Robert Pires has urged the England left-back to stay at Highbury. Pires told the Evening Standard: ""He has been at Arsenal for ever. He is a very attacking left-back and I think he is enjoying his football because at Arsenal he plays in an offensive team. ""I am not sure he will get the same pleasure at Chelsea, even though they are doing so well at the moment. ""I have built a fantastic playing relationship with Ashley. ""We play together so well - we could do it with our eyes shut. ""But you have to respect the decision of the player. Everybody has that right.""",sport
"McCall earns Tannadice reprieve..Dundee United manager Ian McCall has won a reprieve from the sack, with chairman Eddie Thompson calling for an end to speculation over his future...It is understood that McCall would have been sacked if Sheffield Wednesday manager Paul Sturrock had been willing to return to Tannadice. But Sturrock has distanced himself from the position. ""We're in a difficult situation. We must get out of it through the efforts of current personnel,"" said Thompson. ""Ian McCall and I have had a long and detailed talk about a number of areas including the current league position and the manner of the exit from the League Cup,"" he added. ""However, the continuing speculation is doing no one any good, especially as we have several crucial games coming up. ""The minds of the coaching staff and the players have to be on those games and those games only. ""Our season would of course improve considerably if in the next few weeks we achieved some improved league results and there is also the potential of another cup semi-final, subject to the draw...""All that matters at the present time - is us all having a total focus on the games ahead and a positive series of results being achieved."" Dundee United players had expressed their solidarity with McCall after their side's 3-0 Scottish Cup win over Queen of the South. ""We want the boss to stay, we don't want someone else coming in,"" said Jim McIntyre. ""Hopefully now he gets the chance to stay."" Keeper Tony Bullock echoed McIntyre's sentiments. ""I think all the boys are behind Ian McCall,"" he added. ""At the moment it is all speculation and we have got to rise above all that and do a job on the pitch.""..On Saturday, Sturrock insisted that he had unfinished business with Wednesday, who are fourth in League One. ""I've only been here five months and I don't expect to be leaving very, very soon,"" he said. ""I can appreciate the rumours because I've emphasised my thoughts and ambitions to go back to Dundee United. ""I can assure you the timescale is not the right one. ""It (Dundee United) is my team. I had five years there as a coach, six as a player, two years as a manager - once you've done that kind of thing, it's the result you look for. ""The important thing now is I've come here to do a job and I'm going to try to finish it.""",sport
"Kewell waits as injury drags on..Liverpool winger Harry Kewell is struggling to recover from his Achilles tendinitis problem and may not recover until March, claims his agent...Kewell, 26, had hoped to play against Fulham last weekend and to be ready for the Champions League tie against Bayer Leverkusen on 22 February. But Bernie Mandic said: ""He's had scans which don't show anything substantial. ""But despite his best efforts at the moment he simply can't shake off the discomfort and get back on the park.""..Mandic continued in the Sydney Morning Herald: ""Harry's struggling a bit but the club are doing everything they can to get him right. ""Harry was desperate to be fit for the Fulham game as part of his plan to play himself in for the Leverkusen match."" Kewell has not played since December 19 and misses out on international duty this week, with Australia facing South Africa in Durban on Wednesday.",sport
"Smith aims to bring back respect..Scotland manager Walter Smith says he wants to restore the national team's respectability in world football...Smith has joined his first squad for a three-day get-together near Manchester in preference to playing a friendly. While qualification for the 2006 World Cup appears to be beyond Scotland, Smith is anxious that the remainder of the campaign should be positive. ""I think we have got to try to get a bit of respectability back in whatever way we can,"" he said. ""We will have to approach each game differently. Obviously we will have to approach the Italian game away from home in a different manner to Moldova at home. ""We have to meet the challenge of each match."" Smith, meeting a number of his squad for the first time, brought them together on Monday to outline his ideas for improving the nation's fortunes...He said: ""I pointed out how I see the international team going forward and that was the main topic. ""This is a relaxed gathering and I don't think there is a lot of doom and gloom about the squad that a lot of people think exists."" A 25-man squad will spend the next three days based at the Mottram Hall hotel in Cheshire and will train at Manchester United's nearby Carrington complex. Smith will be absent for the final sessions, however, as he is due to fly out to Sardinia on Wednesday to watch Italy's friendly with Russia.",sport
"Injury doubts beset Wales squad..Wales have a clutch of injury worries before Wednesday's international friendly against Hungary in Cardiff...West Ham's Gavin Williams (ankle) looks certain to be out, so uncapped Wrexham defender Stephen Roberts is drafted in. Defenders Danny Gabbidon and Gareth Roberts, plus Ryan Giggs have hamstring concerns, while there are also doubts over Robbie Savage (groin). However, Manchester United winger Giggs is expected to recover in time to earn his 50th cap at the Millennium Stadium. There were also doubts over Gabbidon's fellow Cardiff defender Rhys Weston, but the full-back appears to have shrugged off the knock he picked up in the Bluebirds' 1-0 loss to West Ham on Sunday. The news leaves Wales boss John Toshack short in defence for his first game in charge, with Aston Villa's Mark Delaney injured and James Collins with the Under-21s. That could clear the way for new faces Danny Collins and Dave Partridge to make their Wales debuts...Coyne (Burnley), Jones (Wolves), Roberts (Wrexham), Collins (Sunderland), Edwards (Wolves), Gabbidon (Cardiff), Page (Cardiff), Partridge (Motherwell), Ricketts (Swansea), Roberts (Tranmere), Weston (Cardiff), Davies (Tottenham), Fletcher (West Ham), Giggs (Man Utd), Koumas (West Brom), Robinson (Sunderland), Savage (Blackburn), Williams (West Ham), Bellamy (Newcastle), Earnshaw (West Brom), Hartson (Celtic).",sport
"Weir poised for Sunderland move..Larne's teenage star Robbie Weir is poised to join Sunderland after turning down a move to Stoke City...The 17-year-old Irish League midfielder was also being chased by Rangers and Fulham, but Mick McCarthy's side appear to have won the race. But Larne boss Jimmy McGeough has yet to confirm that Weir is on his way from Inver Park. ""I heard on Sunday that he has joined Sunderland, but not from the lad himself,"" he said. ''Robbie has an agreement with Larne that he can negotiate with interested clubs...''Personally, I would rather see him making an impact at local level to build up his physique before moving into the full-time game. ''He has been on trial with a number of clubs. But it would be great to see him making it at Sunderland.''",sport
"Newry to fight cup exit in courts..Newry City are expected to discuss legal avenues on Friday regarding overturning their ejection from the Nationwide Irish Cup...The IFA upheld its original decision to throw Newry out of the cup following the Andy Crawford registration row. ''A law firm will put a case forward for Newry FC, and see what the legal implications of all this is are,'' said Newry boss Roy McCreadie. ''This is a big issue, now that we have an appeal pending,'' On Wednesday, a fresh IFA hearing into Crawford registration saga, ruled that last week's original verdict had been correct. It meant that Bangor, beaten 5-1 by Newry on the field, will take on Portadown in the sixth round. Newry had claimed they had uncovered ""fresh evidence"", in respect of the dates relating to the registration. But McCreadie is not further annoyed that full details of Wednesday's meeting was not relayed to the club. ''Even to this day, we have as much information about what happened during the meeting on Wednesday as that told to the media. We are being kept in the dark,'' McCreadie told the..News Letter... ''We want an explanation. There is no good sending us the same fax message the press people received. ''It's a real sad case. If we are not back in the Irish Cup after our appeal, and guided by our legal advise, we will seek to lodge an injunction in the courts to stop Bangor playing Portadown.''",sport
"Republic to face China and Italy..The Republic of Ireland have arranged friendlies against China and Italy which will take place at Lansdowne Road in March and August...Brian Kerr's side will face the 54th ranked Chinese on 29 March - just three days after the World Cup qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv. Italy will visit on 17 August in what will be a warm-up game ahead of the autumn World Cup qualifiers. In their last meeting, the Irish beat Italy in the 1994 World Cup Finals. However, that is the Republic's only victory in eight attempts against the Italians who have won all the other seven games. The 29 March game will be the second time the Republic have played China - the previous encounter back in June 1984 with the Irish winning 1-0 in Sapporo, Japan. Brian Kerr said: ""China have made great progress over the last few years and will provide difficult opposition. ""We all witnessed the performances of the Asian teams in the last World Cup, and China play a similar type of football. ""As for Italy, they make a welcome return to Dublin and will be a massive attraction because they are one of the great traditional powers in the world. ""The game will be ideal preparation for the three important World Cup qualifiers in the autumn."" Ireland round off their World Cup campaign with games against France on 7 September, Cyprus on 8 October and Switzerland on 12 October.",sport
"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.""",sport
"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.",sport
"Israeli club look to Africa..Four African players, including Zimbabwe goalkeeper Energy Murambadoro, are all ready to play for Israeli club Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin in the Uefa Cup...Bnei Sakhnin are the first Arab side ever to play in European competition and will play English Premiership side Newcastle United in the first round. Warriors' goalkeeper Murambadoro, who made a name for himself at the African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia, helped Bnei Sakhnin overcome Albania's Partizani Tirana 6-1 in the previous round. Murambadoro moved to Israel recently after a brief stint with South African club Hellenic. The club won the Israeli Cup final last season and are based in Sakhnin, which is near Haifa. The club have a strong ethic and are high profile promoters of peace and co-operation within Israel. The three other Africans at the club are former Cameroon defender Ernest Etchi, DR Congo's Alain Masudi and Nigerian midfielder Edith Agoye, who had a stint with Tunisian side Esperance.",sport
"Iranian misses Israel match..Iranian striker Vahid Hashemian will not travel to Israel for Bayern Munich's Champions League match against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Wednesday...The German club said the player had pulled out because of a back injury. Iran refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist and does not allow its citizens to travel to the country. A Bayern spokesman said on Monday that the decision not to take Hashemian to Israel had been motivated only by his physical condition. ""He's got back pain and he couldn't train,"" the spokesman said. ""It would have made no sense for him to go."" Iran gave judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili a $125,000 reward when he refused to fight an Israeli at the Athens Olympics. The International Judo Federation considered taking action against Miresmaeili but concluded he had been overweight for the fight and could not have taken part.",sport
"Highbury tunnel players in clear..The Football Association has said it will not be bringing charges over the tunnel incident prior to the Arsenal and Manchester United game...Arsenal's Patrick Vieira had earlier denied accusations that he threatened Gary Neville before the 4-2 defeat. Vieira also clashed with opposing skipper Roy Keane and referee Graham Poll had to separate them. ""The referee has confirmed that he is satisfied he dealt with the incident at the time,"" said an FA statement. It means United's win will pass off without further intervention from the governing body, whose new chief executive Brian Barwick was in the Highbury stands...""I didn't threaten anybody. They are big enough players to handle themselves,"" said Vieira. ""I had a talk with Roy Keane and that's it. Gary Neville is a big lad, he can handle himself. ""They just played better than us and deserved to win."" Neville admitted there had been incidents before the game, but insisted it had not distracted his focus. ""There were a couple of things that did happen before the game which disappoint you,"" he said. ""Especially from players of that calibre, but it's a tough game and we've been around a long time."" Neville admitted that he had not enjoyed the match, which was punctuated by fouls and the sending off of Mikael Silvestre for head-butting Freddie Ljungberg . ""I thought it was a horrible game in the first half, and it was not much better in the second,"" he said. ""There is no way that should have happened in a football match.""..After the match, Keane accused Vieira of starting the row. ""Patrick Vieira is 6ft 4in and having a go at Gary Neville. So I said, 'have a go at me',"" he said. ""If he wants to intimidate our players and thinks that Gary Neville is an easy target, I'm not having it."" Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson added: ""Vieira was well wound up for it. ""I've heard different stories. Patrick Vieira has apparently threatened some of our players and things like that.""",sport
"Bellamy under new fire..Newcastle boss Graeme Souness has reopened his dispute with Craig Bellamy after claiming the Welshman was ""not good enough"" for the Magpies. Bellamy left Newcastle to join Celtic on loan after a major row with Souness. Souness - who refused to refer to the 25-year-old by name - said Bellamy did not score enough goals ""The chap that's just gone has scored 9.3 goals a season in his time in senior football - half of those weren't even in the top flight,"" said Souness. ""That's not good enough for a striker at a club like this. ""We need to have two strikers who are near 20 goals on a regular basis.""..Bellamy turned down a move to Birmingham in favour of joining Celtic after a disagreement about the Welsh international playing out of position quickly escalated. Earlier in the week, Souness had said that he risked losing the confidence of the players and damaging his own reputation if he had not taken a hard line after Bellamy accused him of lying...""There are certain things you can forgive and forget,"" said Souness. ""But if I'd been seen to be weak in this case there was no future for me with the players in the dressing room or any job I have after Newcastle."" He could then return to St James' Park - and he says that he wants to. However, it would seem unlikely he will play for Newcastle again as long as Souness remains in charge.",sport
"Chelsea denied by James heroics..A brave defensive display, led by keeper David James, helped Manchester City hold the leaders Chelsea...After a quiet opening, James denied Damien Duff, Jiri Jarosik and Mateja Kezman, while Paul Bosvelt cleared William Gallas' header off the line. Robbie Fowler should have scored for the visitors but sent his header wide. Chelsea had most of the possession in the second half but James kept out Frank Lampard's free-kick and superbly tipped the same player's volley wide. City went into the game with the proud record of being the only domestic team to beat Chelsea this season. And there was little to alarm them in the first 30 minutes as Chelsea - deprived of Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba through injury - struggled to pose much of a threat. Indeed, it was the visitors who looked likelier to enliven a drab opening played at a lethargic pace. Shaun Wright-Phillips - watched by England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson - showed his customary trickery to burst into the right of the area and deliver a dangerous ball, which was blocked by John Terry. But Chelsea suddenly stepped up a gear and created a flurry of chances. First, Duff got round Ben Thatcher and blasted in a shot that James parried to Kezman, who turned the ball wide...Soon afterwards, Jarosik found space in the area to powerfully head Lampard's corner goalwards but James tipped the ball over. Chelsea were now looking more like Premiership leaders and James kept out Kezman's fierce drive before Bosvelt and James combined to clear Gallas' header from Duff's corner. City broke swiftly up the field and the last chance of a frenetic spell should have resulted in Fowler celebrating his 150th Premiership goal. Wright-Phillips raced down the left and crossed to Fowler but City's lone man up front, left free by Terry's slip, contrived to head wide when it seemed a breakthrough was certain. The second half started as quietly as the first, although James was forced to divert a cross from the lively Duff away from Eidur Gudjohnsen's path. There was a nasty moment for Petr Cech, looking for a ninth straight clean sheet in the league, when a series of ricochets saw Fowler chase a loose ball in the area and collide accidently with the Czech Republic stopper. Another quiet spell followed, which Duff interrupted with a surging run that was halted illegally on the edge of the penalty area by Bosvelt. Lampard stepped up to blast a shot through the wall and James somehow blocked it with his legs. Another timely challenge, this time from Richard Dunne in time added on, prevented Gudjohnsen from getting in a shot. There was still time for James to produce a sensational save to tip Lampard's volley round the post...Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Gallas, Terry, Bridge, Jarosik (Tiago 56), Lampard, Makelele, Duff, Gudjohnsen, Kezman (Cole 63)...Subs Not Used: Johnson, Smertin, Cudicini...Makelele, Gudjohnsen...James, Mills, Distin, Dunne, Thatcher, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Bosvelt, Barton, Sibierski (McManaman 85), Musampa, Fowler...Subs Not Used: Macken, Weaver, Onuoha, Jordan...Bosvelt...42,093..H Webb (S Yorkshire).",sport
"Chelsea ridiculed over complaint..Barcelona assistant coach Henk Ten Cate has branded Chelsea's expected complaint to Uefa as ""pathetic""...The Blues are poised to complain about an alleged half-time incident during Wednesday's 2-1 loss at the Nou Camp. The source of Chelsea's anger was an alleged talk between Barca boss Frank Rijkaard and referee Anders Frisk, who later dismissed Didier Drogba. ""To react the way Chelsea have is pathetic. Mourinho lied with the line-ups, and now this,"" Ten Cate said. Uefa has said its own tunnel representative witnessed nothing unusual out of the ordinary during the half-time break. Spokesman William Gaillard said: ""Frisk says Rijkaard greeted him and apologised he had not had the opportunity to say hello before the game. ""We had two Uefa officials there and neither witnessed it. The referee's dressing room was locked and he and his assistants were the only people allowed in."" Indeed, it is the Londoners who could be on the receiving end of any punishment after failing to turn up for the compulsory press conference after the defeat...Uefa delegate Thomas Giordano added: ""The only unusual thing that happened as far as we are concerned is that Chelsea failed to present themselves in the press conference."" The referee is not expected to include any of the alleged incidents in his report to Uefa - weakening Chelsea's case. Rijkaard was critical of Mourinho's decision not to speak to the media after the match. ""There was a lot of talking before the game and now surprisingly there is a lot of talking after the game. It is not good behaviour after a match,"" he said. ""Maybe they want to start something and make it worse than than it is. I really don't understand it. I am very calm about it.""..Barca midfielder Deco, formerly managed by Mourinho at Porto, agreed that it was not typical of his fellow Portuguese to lodge a protest. ""It's not normal behaviour on his part. It was not logical he did not give a news conference,"" he said. Rijkaard added: ""Chelsea is the team which has conceded fewest goals in the English league and they defend very well so I am very pleased with the win. ""My men deserved victory and I am pleased to have won this match. I congratulate my players.""",sport
"Benitez issues warning to Gerrard..Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has ordered captain Steven Gerrard not to play down their Champions League ambitions and be more positive...Gerrard told the BBC Liverpool were unlikely to win the trophy this year. Benitez responded: ""I spoke to Steven and said to him that in future it's better to think we can win the Champions League. Why not?"" He said: ""We need winners here and everyone thinking only of winning. I always want to win.""..Benitez added: ""When we lose I only think of solutions. If you only think about winning the next game, you don't know what the draw will be. ""If we can win the next game, maybe we will draw a side that isn't so strong, or a side with injuries or suspensions."" Benitez is hoping to win his first trophy since arriving at Liverpool from Valencia when they play Chelsea in the Carling Cup on Sunday in Cardiff.",sport
"Owen determined to stay in Madrid..England forward Michael Owen has told the BBC he is happy in Spain and has no plans to quit Real Madrid to return to the Premiership in the near future...But the 25-year-old, who has spent much of his time coming off the bench in La Liga, did not rule out a return to the Premiership at some stage. ""I'm pleased with the start I've made here,"" he told BBC Radio Five Live. ""England is my country. It's definitely part of me but who knows whether, if or when I'll be playing there again."" Owen, who moved to the Bernabeu from Liverpool last summer, has grabbed 11 goals for Real but has been unable to replace Raul or Ronaldo in the starting line-up. However, he said he was delighted with the way his time in Spain was going and dismissed criticism of his decision to join Real. ""When I first came there was a lot of scepticism back in England, any maybe some out here,"" he said. ""People were saying 'fourth-choice striker, what are you going there for? You'll be sat on the bench all the time'...""But as much as our press like to build it up as if I've permanently had my backside on the bench, I've played as many games as anyone else in the team this year. ""For a fourth-choice striker at the start I'm more than happy with the way I've settled in."" Recent speculation has linked Owen with a move back to England, with Newcastle expressing their interest, but the England striker said he is not ready to return home. He added: ""I've got nothing against the Premiership, I mean that's where I first performed, that's where I made my name...""I can't keep my eyes off the Premiership on television when I'm at home."" When asked if it would have to be Liverpool if he returned Owen said: ""I've not really given it much thought. ""I've got great memories of Liverpool. No matter what happens it'll always be a club I have fond memories of and it will always have a place in my heart. ""It's very flattering to be linked to top clubs in England - I'm glad that no-one is forgetting me! ""But I couldn't have wished for a better start in Madrid.""..- Listen to the full interview with Garry Richardson on BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek at 0900 GMT on Sunday.",sport
"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.""",sport
"Souness delight at Euro progress..Boss Graeme Souness felt Newcastle were never really in danger of going out of the Uefa Cup against Heerenveen...An early own goal followed by an Alan Shearer strike earned them a 2-1 win and a place in the Uefa Cup last 16. ""Obviously with winning in the first leg it gave us a great advantage,"" he said after the 4-2 aggregate victory. ""We got our goals early and in the minds of some players the job was done but then they got a goal and perhaps made us a bit nervous."" Shearer's goal moved him within 12 of Jackie Milburn's club scoring record of 200 for the Magpies. But Souness said he did not think beating the record would have any bearing on his decision to retire at the end of the season. ""I think if he got it this year he would want to stay next year anyway,"" he added...""He struck the ball very well - he always has done - and I think it was the power and pace that beat the goalkeeper."" Souness also paid tribute to Laurent Robert, who was at the heart of much of United's attacking play. ""In the first half he did really well and did everything you want from a wide player. More of the same in future please,"" he said.",sport
"Downing injury mars Uefa victory..Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren hopes that Stewart Downing did not seriously damage his hamstring during the 2-1 Uefa Cup win over Graz AK...The winger was carried off on a stretcher in the closing stages as Boro booked their place in the last 16. McClaren said: ""Stewart has tweaked a hamstring, which is a blow for us. We will assess it in the morning. ""But I'm delighted with the match result. They say in sport you can win ugly - and we certainly did."" McClaren was relieved to make it through after a tough encounter at The Riverside...""To be fair to Graz, they had a gameplan - they knocked the ball forward, especially in the first half, and we struggled to deal with it. ""In the second half we were better but it was frustrating because we got the goal - but one slip and they were back in it."" Boro face Sporting Lisbon for a place in the quarter-finals after the Portuguese side saw off Feyenoord on Thursday. And McClaren added: ""Sporting are technically very good - Portuguese sides always are. ""But the journey goes on for us and we will now go to their magnificent stadium - after the first game here - we'll look forward to it."" Goalscorer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink added: ""It wasn't a particularly beautiful match to watch - but they made it difficult for us. ""We didn't play well at all. But you need a little bit of luck and I think we got that when my shot went through the legs of their goalkeeper. ""I would have liked to play in Holland - that would have been a little bit special to me. ""But so is going back to Portugal - I'll be playing against some lads I played with at Boavista.""",sport
"Rangers seal Old Firm win..Goals from Gregory Vignal and Nacho Novo gave Rangers a scrappy victory at Celtic Park that moves them three points clear of the champions...Rangers had rarely threatened until Celtic goalkeeper Rab Douglas let defender Vignal's 25-yard drive slip through his grasp and into the net. Opposite number Ronald Waterreus had been Rangers' hero, saving superbly from Craig Bellamy and John Hartson. Striker Novo secured victory, lobbing Douglas with eight minutes remaining. It ended Celtic's 11-game unbeaten run at home in Old Firm derbies and gave Rangers manager Alex McLeish his first victory at the home of his Glasgow rivals. Celtic had won their last six meetings on their home pitch, including twice already this season. They started confidently, with new signing Bellamy, on loan from Newcastle United, given his Celtic debut up front with Wales international colleague John Hartson and Chris Sutton dropping into midfield. It took Bellamy just four minutes to threaten, taking on Marvin Andrews before delivering a low drive that was held by Waterreus at the second attempt. He had an even better chance after Hartson dispossesed Sotiris Kyrgiakos and sent his strike partner clear with only the goalkeeper to beat. But Waterreus did well to beat away Bellamy's disappointing low drive from 16 yards. Waterreus came to the rescue again when the ball fell to Hartson just inside the box and the Dutch goalkeeper made a brave block. It was an Old Firm return for Barry Ferguson as McLeish stuck by the side that thumped four goals past Hibernian. But Rangers found Celtic harder to break down and Douglas was not threatened until 10 minutes after the break. Dado Prso turned inside Neil Lennon only for the Celtic goalkeeper to beat away his powerful 18-yard drive. A great defensive header by Andrews prevented Hartson pouncing from five yards out. Hartson foxed Vignal at the edge of the Rangers box, but the striker's shot on the turn was again beaten away by Waterreus. Rangers were beginning to dominate the midfield and Vignal, collecting a knock back from Fernando Ricksen, broke the deadlock, Douglas somehow letting the Frenchman's dipping drive slip through his grasp. Novo pounced on a moments' hesitation in the Celtic defence to latch on to a long ball from Ricksen and lob the ball over the advancing Douglas. Ricksen appeared to be hit by a coin, but it could not prevent Rangers' celebrations at the final whistle...: Douglas, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Laursen, Petrov, Lennon, Sutton, Thompson, Bellamy, Hartson...Subs: Marshall, Henchoz, Juninho Paulista, Lambert, Maloney, Wallace, McGeady...: Waterreus, Hutton, Kyrgiakos, Andrews, Ball, Buffel, Ferguson, Ricksen, Vignal, Prso, Novo...Subs: McGregor, Namouchi, Burke, Alex Rae, Malcolm, Thompson, Lovenkrands...: M McCurry",sport
"SFA awaits report over Mikoliunas..The Scottish Football Association is awaiting referee Hugh Dallas's report before acting against Hearts winger Saulius Mikoliunas...Mikoliunas, 20, barged linesman Andy Davis, who had advised Dallas to award Rangers an injury-time penalty in Hearts's 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle. ""He was sent off for violent conduct in the 90th minute but we don't know if he did something else after the whistle. ""We don't know how many red cards he was shown,"" said an SFA statement. Hearts could also face action after three fans were arrested for throwing coins on the pitch. Rangers' striker Dad Prso was also sent off during the same incident when he received a second yellow card for wrestling the ball away from Craig Gordon and leaving the Hearts keeper on the ground. The SFA said: ""Once the referee's report comes in then we'll immediately look at things...""We don't normally get the reports until a couple of days after the game but we're well aware of what happened here. ""Prso was sent off for two cautions, and that will just be a one-match suspension."" The SFA is certain to come down hard on Mikoliunas after Southampton's David Prutton was banned for 10-games on Wednesday by the English FA for shoving referee Alan Wiley. Hearts' boss John Robertson said: ""Mikoliunas has thrown his chest against the assistant referee's chest and got a red card for it. ""The officials have got to take into account the fact he's a young lad. ""But people have got to take into account why he was incensed. Why were 10,000 Hearts fans incensed? ""Why did nobody from the Rangers' bench claim for a penalty kick?"" Rangers' boss Alex McLeish accepted referee Dallas had no option but to send Prso off. McLeish said: ""I'm glad to see the spirit of the players fighting to the very end - literally with Dado trying to get the ball back from Craig Gordon. ""But it was over-zealousness and I don't think Hugh had any option.""",sport
"Palace threat over Cantona masks..Manchester United fans wearing Eric Cantona masks will not be allowed in Selhurst Park on Saturday...United fans are planning to mark the 10th anniversary of Cantona's infamous kung-fu kick on Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons by wearing the masks. But Palace stadium manager Kevin Corner has warned: ""If they wear them inside Selhurst Park they will be immediately rejected on safety grounds. ""And no fans wearing Cantona masks will be allowed entry to the stadium."" United fans had declared Saturday as 'Cantona Day' and had planned to wear masks, that were popular during the Frenchman's time as a player at the Old Trafford club. Cantona received a nine-month ban following the incident and Palace are keen to avoid an incident that would stir up ill feeling between the two sets of supporters. Four months after the Cantona incident a Palace fan, Paul Nixon, was killed prior to an FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park.",sport
"Legendary Dutch boss Michels dies..Legendary Dutch coach Rinus Michels, the man credited with developing ""total football"", has died aged 77...Referred to in the Netherlands as ""the General"", Michels led the Dutch at the 1974 World Cup - when they reached the final only to lose 2-1 to Germany. However, he guided his side to the 1988 European Championship title with a 2-0 win over the Soviet Union in the final. Michels played for Ajax and coached the side to four national titles between 1965-71 and a European Cup in 1971. His 1970s Dutch team was built around Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens and introduced the concept of 'total football' to the world. The strategy was to foster team coherence and individual imagination - with all players possessing the skills to play in any part of the pitch. Cruyff was the on-field organiser of a team whose players rotated in and out of defence at will and was encouraged to play creative attacking football. Michels had recently undergone heart surgery and Dutch football federation (KNVB) spokesman Frank Huizinga said: ""He was one of the best coaches we had in history."" The no-nonsense coach also enjoyed spells at Barcelona, who he took to a Spanish title in 1974, FC Cologne and Bayer Leverkusen. Michels, named coach of the century by world football's governing body Fifa in 1999, also won five caps for the Netherlands as a bruising centre forward. Dutch sports minister Clemence Ross-van Dorp said: ""He was the man who, together with Cruyff, made Dutch football big.""",sport
"Jol joy at 'professional' Cup win..Tottenham manager Martin Jol acclaimed his players for their patience in their 3-0 FA Cup fifth-round victory over a determined Nottingham Forest side...""We had the initiative but it wasn't easy. It was a professional sort of performance,"" the Dutchman said. ""Forest played with a lot of players behind the ball in the first half, but at 2-0 they were dead and buried."" Looking ahead to the quarter-final, Jol said: ""Newcastle have got a very good side and they are always difficult."" However, he added that his side, who are four places above the Magpies in the Premiership, were ""not afraid of anyone"". Robbie Keane, skipper for the night and scorer of the crucial second goal, echoed his manager's sentiments on the last-eight match. ""They're on a high, but we're confident and in the last few games we've played well and hopefully we can go there and get the win,"" he said...He conceded the win over Forest, which included goals from Noe Pamarot and Mido, was not pretty to watch. ""It wasn't the best display but it's all about the result,"" the Irishman said. ""We knew it was going to be difficult with the conditions. The pitch wasn't the best but we still tried to pass it. ""We dug in and the gaffer said to us at half-time to keep being patient and that the goal will come."" Forest manager Gary Megson conceded his team did not deserve anything after a poor performance. ""If you play like we did and concede two goals from corners you're going to have an uphill battle against a very good team,"" he said. ""If we defend in the Championship like we did we'll not get another point. ""We were organised but I felt at times we thought the system would be enough but we didn't look like scoring.""",sport
"Owen delighted with Real display..Michael Owen revelled in his return to the to the Real Madrid starting line-up and inspired a 3-1 win over Real Betis on Wednesday by scoring the first goal...He said: ""I am happy I could play a game from the start again. ""I felt good all though the game and it is obvious that I am happy to have scored another goal. ""People have talked a lot about my performances and I think I have had some months that were not so good and others that were very good."" Owen, starting his third successive La Liga match, converted a low cross from Santiago Solari. Robert Carlos made it 2-0 at the break, smashing home an indirect free-kick. Midfielder Edu reduced the deficit after half-time but Ivan Helguera headed past keeper Antonio Doblas to seal victory for his team. Victory took Real to within six points of leaders Barcelona and Owen is confident Real can close the gap. He added: ""We had several chances against Betis and I think we can get back in touch with Barcelona. ""It is only six points between Barcelona and us and that is nothing. If we can beat them at the Bernabeu (on 10 April), then it will be just three."" Owen has scored nine league goals, one behind Real's top scorer Ronaldo. Real had lost their previous two league games.",sport
"Ferguson fears Milan cutting edge..Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said his side's task against AC Milan would not be made any easier by the absence of Andriy Shevchenko...Milan's talismanic European footballer of the year misses Wednesday's Champions League first-leg tie after fracturing his cheekbone. ""It's a loss (to Milan), but it could be worse if they didn't have such quality to bring in,"" Ferguson said. ""How much they miss him I think they'll know tomorrow night."" Ferguson said Milan's front line would still represent a formidable challenge for his defenders. ""They can play Rui Costa and play Kaka forward. They can bring Serginho in and they can play (Jon Dahl) Tomasson,"" he said. Ferguson's own goalscoring talisman Ruud van Nistelrooy is fit again, but the Scot admitted he was unsure whether to start the Dutchman, who has not played for three months...""Ruud is the best striker in Europe. What I have to judge is whether he will struggle with the early pace after being out for so long,"" he said. ""His ability puts him in with a big shout but it is a major decision."" Ferguson, though, is confident his young players, particularly Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, are up to the task. ""We have an opportunity to win this cup this year, no question about that,"" he declared. ""With the maturity we see every week in Ronaldo and Rooney, the return of Van Nistelrooy and the form of Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, we must have a fantastic chance."" It is a view shared by Rooney, who believes ""if we can get past Milan, we have a great chance"". ""As soon as I knew we were playing Milan, I got excited. Looking at the draw, it is anyone's trophy but we have every chance. ""Hopefully, we can get to that final in Turkey and bring the cup back to Manchester."" Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said his team were looking forward to returning to the venue where they lifted Europe's most prestigious club title two seasons ago. Milan beat Juventus in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 tie at Old Trafford and Ancelotti said: ""We are all very happy to return (to Old Trafford) to play in the Champions League and this will give us great motivation."" Ancelotti said he was aware of the threat United posed to his hopes of Champions League glory. ""It's fundamental that we don't allow them to take control of the game. Our intention is not to adapt to their play but to play our game,"" he said. ""They have great quality in attack, they use the wings a lot and we will have to make sure we stop them.""",sport
"Rush future at Chester uncertain..Ian Rush's future as Chester manager is uncertain after he and assistant Mark Aizlewood refused a severance package...Chester have won only two of their last 10 League games but Chairman Steve Vaughan claims he cannot afford to sack the 43-year-old Liverpool legend. Vaughan said: ""I offered a financial settlement so they could resign with dignity but an obvious action is to dismiss them. ""I haven't because of the finances, so technically they're still employees."" Vaughan claimed that Aizlewood had ""verbally agreed"" to the offer. But the Chester chairman added: ""After they discussed the offer with their solicitor, who also acts as their agent, they decided to withdraw the verbal agreement, which was disappointing."" Rush was appointed at the end of August following the departure of former Liverpool team-mate Mark Wright, who guided Chester to the Conference title last season. Chester were bottom of League Two when Rush took over but the former Liverpool striker enjoyed an impressive start to managerial life, taking the club into the third round of the FA cup and winning the manager-of-the-month award for October. Chester's downturn in form culminated in a 5-0 defeat at Shrewsbury that leaves them hovering just above the League Two relegation zone.",sport
"Reyes tricked into Real admission..Jose Antonio Reyes has added to speculation linking him with a move from Arsenal to Real Madrid after falling victim to a radio prank...The Spaniard believed he was talking to Real Madrid sporting director Emilio Butragueno when he allegedly berated his team-mates as ""bad people"". ""I wish I was playing for Real Madrid,"" the 21-year-old told Cadena Cope. ""Hopefully it could happen. I love the way Madrid play. I'm not happy with the way things are."" The striker joined the Gunners from Seville for £17m at the start of 2004, but it has frequently been reported that he is homesick. He began the season in superb form but has struggled to maintain his high standards as Arsenal have gradually lost the Premiership initiative to Manchester United and Chelsea. ""If I'm not (playing for Real) I'm going to have to carry on playing with some bad people,"" he added...""I'm sure there are none in the Real dressing room. ""I'm happy Madrid is interested in me because it has always been my dream since I was little to play there."" Before the story surfaced, Reyes had moved to play down reports linking him with the Spanish giants, issuing a statement through Arsenal describing the speculation as ""flattering"". ""I have seen the stories in the media linking me with Real Madrid,"" he had said on Thursday lunchtime. ""But not only am I under contract at Arsenal, I am happy here and committed to helping the team win more trophies."" Butragueno, meanwhile, was angry at being impersonated by the radio disc jockey. ""It is a disgrace, there is no foundation to this,"" he said. ""He is an Arsenal player and we have to be respectful. We have to be careful because of the rumours that appear in the news.""",sport
"Benitez joy as Reds take control..Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez was satisfied after his team's 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen despite conceding a goal in the last minute...""Before the game if you had said the score will be 3-1 I would have happily accepted that,"" said Benitez. ""But you must realise that you have to concentrate right to the very last seconds of a game at this level. ""I have confidence that we can complete the task in Germany. I am always confident and we must be positive.""..Benitez defended goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, whose failure to hold on to Dimitar Berbatov's weak drive allowed Franca to score with the last kick of the game - and give the German team a lifeline for the second leg. ""For me it was not Jerzy Dudek's fault,"" added Benitez. ""He had played a very good game - and had we scored our other chances, nobody would be talking about about their goal. It would not have mattered. ""If we had scored our other chances it would not have been worth remembering that last goal. ""In my opinion Jerzy played well, made two very fine saves - and I am happy with him. ""If we lose 2-0 we are out but I think we can score in Germany - certainly one, and that will make all the difference."" And the Liverpool boss is looking forward to having skipper Steven Gerrard, who was suspended for the Anfield leg, back for the return in Germany...""Steven Gerrard is a key player for us,"" said Benitez. ""When he is on the pitch he makes everyone else play better - and the opposition pay special attention to him - which gives space for others. ""Steven is one of the best players in the world, but I need a team that is not about just one player. There must be 11 players on the pitch all doing well.""",sport
"Souness eyes summer move for Owen..Newcastle boss Graeme Souness is lining up a summer move for England and Real Madrid striker Michael Owen...He sees Owen as the ideal replacement for Alan Shearer, who is due to retire in the summer, although he hopes to persuade Shearer to carry on. ""Michael is in the category of players who would excite the fans and we're monitoring him,"" he told BBC Newcastle. ""He is a great centre-forward and only 25 but I don't think we're the only ones monitoring the situation at Real."" Souness has also hinted he thinks Shearer may carry on despite his stated intent to retire at the end of the season. He believes the prospect of breaking Jackie Milburn's club scoring record may influence the striker's decision...Milburn scored 200 league and cup goals between 1946 and 1957, while Shearer currently has 187 goals to his name. ""Without giving too much away, I am confident he will be here next season,"" said Souness. ""I can't imagine him leaving without breaking Jackie Milburn's scoring record."" Souness also revealed he tried to bring back Nolberto Solano during the January transfer window. The Peruvian international was sold to Aston Villa a year ago but in the phone-in for BBC Newcastle, Souness said tried to re-sign him, but Villa were not interested in selling...The former Rangers and Liverpool boss is also looking to bring in a number of new acquisitions once the current campaign has been completed. ""I'm after three, four or five new players in the summer - we have got lots of targets,"" he said. ""Don't think we will wait to the last day of the season to say: `Who are we going to target now?""'",sport
"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.""",sport
"Stam spices up Man Utd encounter..AC Milan defender Jaap Stam says Manchester United ""know they made a mistake"" by selling him in 2001...The sides meet at Old Trafford in the Champions League game on Wednesday and the 32-year-old's Dutchman's presence is sure to add spice to the fixture. ""United made a mistake in selling me,"" Stam told Uefa's Champions magazine. ""I was settled at Manchester United, but they wanted to sell me. If a club want to sell you, there is nothing you can do. You can be sold like cattle."" Sir Alex Ferguson surprised the football world - and Stam - by selling the Dutchman to Lazio for £16.5m in August 2001. The decision came shortly after Stam claimed in his autobiography that Ferguson had tapped him up when he was at PSV Eindhoven. But Ferguson insisted he sold the defender because the transfer fee was too good to refuse for a player past his prime. The affair still rankles with the Dutchman...""I was settled at Manchester United, I had even just ordered a new kitchen, but they wanted to sell me,"" he said. ""In what other industry can a good employee be ushered out the door against their wishes? ""Of course, you can refuse to go, but then the club have the power to put you on the bench. I don't agree that players control the game. ""There have been opportunities to confront them in the newspapers, but I have turned them down. What's the point?""..Wednesday's game at Old Trafford will provide an intriguing confrontation between United's young attackers Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo and Milan's veteran defence of Stam, Paolo Maldini, Cafu and Alessandro Costacurta. Stam says Rooney's teenage stardom is in stark contract to his own start in the game. ""We can't all be Wayne Rooneys - at his age I was training to be an electrician and thought my chance of becoming a professional footballer had gone,"" he said. ""Starting late can be a good thing. Some kids who start early get bored. ""I had my youth - having fun, drinking beers, blowing up milk cannisters. It sounds strange but it's a tradition where I grew up in Kampen - and I had done all the things I wanted to do.""",sport
"Mourinho defiant on Chelsea form..Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has insisted that Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger would swap places with him...Mourinho's side were knocked out of the FA Cup by Newcastle last Sunday before seeing Barcelona secure a 2-1 Champions League first-leg lead in the Nou Camp. But he denied his club was suffering a dip in form which league rivals Arsenal and Manchester United could exploit. ""They cannot speak to us about blips because they're not in a better position than us,"" Mourinho said. ""Do they want to change positions with us? We are top of the league by nine points and in the Carling Cup final. ""The only thing they can say they are in a better position than us in is the FA Cup. ""In the Champions League all three teams can either go through or go out but the one team that is in the best position is still Chelsea.""..Mourinho said it was important to keep his team's results in perspective. ""Don't try to put pressure on me because I am never under pressure,"" he warned. ""We have lost one important game this week - at Newcastle - and we're out of the FA Cup but I don't think a defeat in a first-leg tie is a real defeat. We are just 2-1 down at half-time."" Asked if his Chelsea honeymoon was now over, Mourinho replied: ""I have had 20 years of honeymoons with my wife. ""The day that this club is not happy with me is the day that I go.""",sport
"Hodgson relishes European clashes..Former Blackburn boss Roy Hodgson says the Premiership should follow the rest of Europe and have a winter break - but insists that a gruelling domestic schedule will not damage the English elite's bid for Champions League glory...Hodgson - now in charge at Viking Stavanger - was at Liverpool's clash with Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield on Tuesday as a member of Uefa's technical committee. Hodgson is a fierce advocate of the winter break employed throughout Europe, although not in England - where the Champions League contenders have ploughed through a heavy fixture list. But Hodgson told BBC Sport that while he believes the Premiership should embrace the idea, he does not expect it to cost the English representatives in the last 16 of the Champions League. ""I just feel it is very difficult to say with certainty that teams who have had the break will have a definite edge. ""I am a fervent supporter of the break. It gives players the chance to recharge their batteries midway through the season, which some suggest will give teams an advantage in the Champions League. ""The other school of thought suggests having a break then coming back to it puts you at a disadvantage. ""The bigger discussions around the winter break should be to do with the nature of football today, the needs of football players and the way the Premiership has developed, rather than one or two matches in the Champions League in February."" Hodgson believes a winter break carries many advantages, explaining: ""As I said, it is the perfect chance to recharge batteries...""And certainly if I was still a manager in England I would be supporting any calls for its introduction. ""In pre-season you get a lot of enthusiasm and energy but by the time you get towards Christmas many players, having also played plenty of international matches for club and country and travelled a lot, find themselves getting very jaded. ""The break gives them a chance to recover that energy and enthusiasm and, perhaps more importantly, recover their mental strength during the break and get ready for the games ahead. ""The mental side is by far the most important thing."" Hodgson added: ""The length of breaks can vary. In Italy the break was very short. You just took Christmas and New Year. ""It was so short you didn't do anything. You gave the players a week or 10 days off, then you were training for a week or 10 days and then went into a game. ""If it is longer, it is important those responsible for physical fitness give the players a programme to follow to ensure the physical strength they have accumulated stays with them."" And Hodgson believes a winter break would be a positive step in the Premiership. He said: ""If we talk about football at elite level, which the Premiership is, then I would support a winter break. ""If you examine the demands of the Premier League and, in particular on players who play international football for their club and country, then a break would do them the world of good - physically and mentally.""",sport
"Coach Ranieri sacked by Valencia..Claudio Ranieri has been sacked as Valencia coach just eight months after taking charge at the Primera Liga club for the second time in his career...The decision was taken at a board meeting following the side's surprise elimination from the Uefa Cup. ""We understand, and he understands, that the results in the last few weeks have not been the most appropriate,"" said club president Juan Bautista. Former assistant Antonio Lopez will take over as the new coach. Italian Ranieri took over the Valencia job in June 2004 having been replaced at Chelsea by Jose Mourinho...Things began well but the Spanish champions extended their winless streak to six after losing to Racing Santander last weekend. That defeat was then followed by a Uefa Cup exit at the hands of Steaua Bucharest. Ranieri first took charge of Valencia in 1997, guiding them to the King's Cup and helping them to qualify for the Champions League. The 54-year-old then moved to Atletico Madrid in 1999, before joining Chelsea the following year.",sport
"Cole faces lengthy injury lay-off..Aston Villa's Carlton Cole could be out for six weeks with a knee injury...The striker, who is on a season-long loan from Chelsea, picked up the knock in an England Under-21 match against Holland earlier this month. ""Carlton will be out of action for four to six weeks after a bad challenge,"" said Villa boss David O'Leary. ""I won't be able to tell you whether he will need an operation until maybe next week. Whether he has an operation has got to be left to Chelsea."" Cole, who also struggled with an ankle problem earlier in the season, was unable to rest because O'Leary had a shortage of strikers. The return to fitness of Darius Vassell after four months out with a broken ankle and the emergence of Luke Moore has alleviated some of the Villa's manager's problems in that department.",sport
"Arsenal through on penalties..Arsenal win 4-2 on penalties..The Spanish goalkeeper saved from Alan Quinn and Jon Harley as Arsenal sealed a quarter-final trip to Bolton with a 4-2 victory on penalties. Lauren, Patrick Vieira, Freddie Ljungberg and Ashley Cole scored for Arsenal, while Andy Gray and Phil Jagielka were on target for the Blades. Michael Tonge and Harley wasted chances for the underdogs, but Paddy Kenny was inspired to keep Arsenal at bay. Arsenal, stripped of attacking talent such as Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, partnered 17-year-old Italian striker Arturo Lupoli with Ljungberg up front. It was a revamped Arsenal line-up, and they were almost a goal behind within seconds as Tonge wasted a glorious chance. Gray ran free down the right flank, and his cross left Tonge with the simplest of chances, but he blazed over the top from six yards...Arsenal were barely seen as an attacking force in the opening 45 minutes, although Ljungberg turned a half-chance wide after good work by Cesc Fabregas. Arsene Wenger introduced Quincy Owusu-Abeyie for the ineffective Lupoli at half-time, and the pacy Dutch youngster had an immediate impact. He ran clear after good work by Mathieu Flamini, but his finish was tame and Kenny saved easily. Owusu-Abeyie then fired in a testing cross, which was met by Fabregas, and it needed a desperate clearance by Kenny's legs to save the Blades. Arsenal were now totally dominant, and were desperately unlucky not to take the lead after 62 minutes when Fabregas crashed a rising drive against the bar from 20 yards. It then took a brilliant tackle by Jagielka to deny Ljungberg as he was poised to strike. Arsenal continued to press, and once again Kenny was called into action with eight minutes left, diving low to clutch another close-range effort from Fabregas. Neil Warnock's side almost snatched victory in the dying seconds when Derek Geary's cross found Harley at the far post, but his diving header was brilliantly turned over by Almunia. Owusu-Abeyie's pace was causing all sorts of problems for the Blades, and as extra-time began, another surging run into the penalty area almost set up a chance for Ljungberg. Pascal Cygan missed Arsenal's best chance after 106 minutes, blazing across the face of goal when he was unmarked at the far post. Arsenal sent on Jeremie Aliadiere with seven minutes of extra-time left, and he almost broke the deadlock with his first touch. Kolo Toure's misplaced free-kick landed at his feet, but Kenny once again blocked from a tight angle. Arsenal laid siege to Sheffield United's goal in the dying minutes, but they somehow held on to force penalties. Almunia was then Arsenal's hero as another brave Blades cup campaign came to a losing end...Kenny, Geary, Morgan, Bromby, Harley, Liddell, Montgomery, Jagielka, Thirlwell, Tonge (Quinn 97), Gray...Subs Not Used: Francis, Kabba, Shaw, Haystead...Morgan...Almunia, Lauren, Cygan, Senderos, Cole, Fabregas (Toure 90), Vieira, Flamini (Aliadiere 113), Clichy, Lupoli (Owusu-Abeyie 45), Ljungberg...Subs Not Used: Eboue, Taylor...Clichy, Lauren, Senderos...27,595..P Dowd (Staffordshire).",sport
"Ajax refuse to rule out Jol move..Ajax have refused to reveal whether Tottenham's boss Martin Jol is on the Dutch champions' shortlist to become the Amsterdam club's new coach...Jol, who has coached in his native Holland, has guided Spurs to the Premiership's top eight. An Ajax spokesman told BBC Sport: ""The coach must fit our profile - a coach who understands the Dutch league and offensive and distinctive football. ""We need to find a solution soon, so someone is in place for next season."" Ronald Koeman quit as Ajax boss last week after their exit from the Uefa Cup. Jol has been linked with the vacant post at Ajax, with reports saying he has fallen out with Spurs' sporting director Frank Arnesen. But in a statement on Spurs' website, Jol said: ""I'm happy here, I'm not in discussion with anyone else, I don't want to go elsewhere."" Ajax have enlisted the help of Dutch legend Johann Cruyff, currently a consultant at Barcelona, to help find a new head coach. Cruyff has admitted he has been impressed by the way former RFC Waalwijk coach Jol has turned round Spurs' fortunes since taking over from Jacques Santini. Tonny Bruins Slot and Ruud Krol are currently in charge of Ajax, who are third in the Dutch league.",sport
"Unclear future for striker Baros..Liverpool forward Milan Baros is uncertain whether he remains part of boss Rafa Benitez's plans after being dropped for the Carling Cup final...Baros, who is Liverpool's leading scorer this season, denied reports of a row with Benitez but claims he is mystified at being left on the bench. He told Czech newspaper Daily Sport: ""I don't know why I didn't play on Sunday. I didn't argue with anybody. ""I was disappointed but I am not thinking of leaving right now."" The Czech international came on as a substitute after 74 minutes but could not prevent his side losing 3-2 to Chelsea after extra-time...Baros denied suggestions he wanted to leave the Millennium Stadium before the match upon learning of his omission from the starting line-up. But his admission that he ""guessed something like this was going to happen on Saturday"", will do little to quell claims of a falling-out with Benitez. And although Baros insisted thoughts of quitting Anfield are ""not in my mind right now"", he admitted ""everything is possible"".",sport
"Prutton poised for lengthy FA ban..Southampton's David Prutton faces a possible seven-match ban when he goes before the Football Association...The 23-year-old has admitted two charges of improper conduct following his dismissal against Arsenal. The first charge relates to his failure to leave the field promptly, pushing referee Alan Wiley and remonstrating with assistant referee Paul Norman. And the second charge is for using threatening words and/or behaviour to a match official during the 1-1 draw...Paolo di Canio was given a seven-match suspension when he pushed referee Paul Alcock over in a Premiership game between Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal in 1998. Prutton will be joined at Wednesday's hearing by Saints boss Harry Redknapp, who believes that the FA will throw the book at his player. Redknapp himself sprinted along the touchline to help physio Jim Joyce and coach Denis Rofe shepherd the enraged Prutton away from referee's assistant Norman. ""David has made a big mistake and he knows it. I can't condone what he's done. He was out of order but he knows that,"" said Redknapp. ""He's a decent lad. He over-reacted badly for some reason - he had a rush of blood from somewhere. Off the pitch you couldn't meet a nicer lad."" Prutton has apologised publicly for his actions and to Arsenal's Robert Pires, who was injured in a wild tackle by the Saints' midfield man...He said: ""It's an horrendous situation. I apologise to the ref and linesman, who were only doing their job. ""I've also seen what happened to Pires' leg and I'm sorry for that as well."" ""I apologise for the people who saw it. I know you get lots of kids going to the match now and they don't pay money to see that sort of thing. ""It's not a cop-out, but it was all a bit of a blur. Sometimes you react and it's beyond your control, "" added Prutton.",sport
"Robben plays down European return..Injured Chelsea winger Arjen Robben has insisted that he only has a 10% chance of making a return against Barcelona in the Champions League...The 21-year-old has been sidelined since breaking a foot against Blackburn last month. Chelsea face Barcelona at home on 8 March having lost 2-1 in the first leg. And Robben told the Daily Star: ""It is not impossible that I will play against Barcelona but it is just a very, very small chance - about 10%.""..Robben has been an inspirational player for Chelsea this season following a switch from PSV Einhoven last summer. He added: ""My recovery is going better than we expected a few weeks ago but I think the Barcelona game will come too soon. ""I won't take any risks and come back too soon.""",sport
"Adriano's Chelsea link rejected..Adriano's agent Gilmar Rinaldi has insisted that he has had no contact with Chelsea over the striker...Chelsea were reported to have made inquiries about Inter Milan's 22-year-old Brazilian star. Rinaldi told BBC Sport from Rio de Janeiro: ""I can assure you that Chelsea have had no dealings whatsoever with either me or Adriano. ""Parma and Real Madrid are interested but there's nothing new there. Their interest has been known for some time."" Adriano has scored 14 goals in 20 Serie A appearances this season. And Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho had claimed that he was in Milan talking to Adriano on the day he is alleged to have held a clandestine meeting with Arsenal defender Ashley Cole. Mourinho said he was ""just practising my Portuguese with him because I don't need strikers"". Rinaldi told BBC Sport: ""I have to say that nobody from Chelsea or any other London club has contacted me. ""If they want to, that's fine. I can tell them what the situation is. ""If Chelsea are interested then they must make an offer."" Inter are reported to have slapped a price tag in the region of £40m on the head of Adriano, who joined them just over a year ago from Parma. Real Madrid view him as a natural replacement for compatriot Ronaldo. But Rinaldi said: ""I cannot give you a price that Inter would accept for Adriano. That's something that would have to be negotiated between the interested clubs.""",sport
"FA decides not to punish Mourinho..The Football Association will take no action against Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho following his sending-off in Sunday's Carling Cup final...Mourinho, who was sent from the touchline for appearing to taunt Liverpool fans, has been ""reminded of his responsibilities to the game"". But the FA confirmed: ""There will be no further action taken in this matter."" Mourinho claimed his 'silence' gesture was aimed at the media, although they were on the other side of the ground. The former Porto coach was forced to watch the climax of his side's 3-2 victory over Liverpool on television after being ushered away from the touchline by fourth official Phil Crossley. His gesture came after Chelsea's equaliser on 79 minutes courtesy of a Steven Gerrard own goal. Mourinho still faces an FA investigation into his allegation that Manchester United's players 'cheated' during January's Carling Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge...And Uefa could also launch disciplinary action following Mourinho's failure to attend a compulsory post-match press conference after Chelsea's Champions League defeat at Barcelona last week. In addition, some time this month, Chelsea must also answer a charge of failing to control their players during the Premiership win at Blackburn in February. And a charge of failing to control their supporters following a Carling Cup meeting with West Ham earlier this season is still to be heard. The Premier League is also continuing investigations into allegations Chelsea officials tapped up Arsenal defender Ashley Cole in January.",sport
"Aragones angered by racism fine..Spain coach Luis Aragones is furious after being fined by The Spanish Football Federation for his comments about Thierry Henry...The 66-year-old criticised his 3000 euros (£2,060) punishment even though it was far below the maximum penalty. ""I am not guilty, nor do I accept being judged for actions against the image of the sport,"" he said. ""I'm not a racist and I've never lacked sporting decorum. I've never done that and I have medals for sporting merit."" Aragones was handed the fine on Tuesday after making racist remarks about Henry to Arsenal team-mate and Spanish international Jose Reyes last October...The Spanish Football Federation at first declined to take action against Aragones, but was then requested to do so by Spain's anti-violence commission. The fine was far less than the expected amount of about £22,000 or even the suspension of his coaching licence. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who was fined £15,000 in December for accusing Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy of cheating, believes that Aragones' punishment was too lenient. ""You compare his fine and my fine, and if you consider his was for racist abuse, then you seem to get away with it more in Spain than you should,"" Wenger said. ""He shouldn't have said what he said, and how much money is enough, I don't know but it doesn't look a big punishment."" However, Aragones insists the fine is unjustified and unfair. ""I have been treated like Islero (the bull that killed famous bullfighter Manolete),"" said Aragones on hearing he had been fined for his actions. ""I have not liked one thing about this whole affair and I do not agree with the sanction. They have looked for a scapegoat."" Spain's anti-violence commission must now ratify the Spanish FA's decision and has until next week to announce its verdict. Aragones has 10 days to appeal, and the commission can also appeal. Alberto Flores, president of the Spanish FA's disciplinary committee, said no-one in the committee felt Aragones was a racist nor had ""acted in a racist way."" ""A fine, the highest we could apply, is sufficient punishment. Suspension would have been a bit exaggerated,"" Flores told sports daily Marca.",sport
"Boro suffer Morrison injury blow..Middlesbrough midfielder James Morrison has been ruled out for up to eight weeks after an operation on Tuesday...The 18-year-old, who has played in 13 of the club's last 14 games, had surgery to repair a double hernia. A club spokesman confirmed: ""It is a bilateral sportsman's hernia, which was operated on yesterday."" Morrison was sent for scans after being substituted at half-time during Boro's 2-1 UEFA Cup win over Graz AK in which he scored the equaliser. His injury is the latest blow for the Teessiders, who have been without Gaizka Mendieta, George Boateng and Mark Viduka for extended periods. Meanwhile, the kick-off time for Boro's Uefa Cup match at Sporting Lisbon on 17 March has been brought forward from 2115 GMT to 1945 GMT.",sport
"Mourinho receives Robson warning..Sir Bobby Robson has offered Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho some advice on coping under pressure...The pair worked together at Barcelona and Porto and Robson had a word of warning for his protege. ""It has all gone for him just lately and that is marvellous, but sometimes you have to have a bit of humility and learn how to lose,"" said Robson. ""It is when it goes against you and you get a bit of bad luck that you learn, and he'll get it straight."" Robson was speaking after being formally granted the freedom of the city of Newcastle. ""Jose is doing very well at the moment,"" Robson added of the man who worked for him for six years. ""He has got one pot - possibly two to follow - a big game against Barcelona to come and I cannot see them losing their lead in the Premiership. ""They are in a good position and I would expect them to go on and win it, which is a wonderful achievement...""What has occurred over the last couple of weeks will stand him in very good stead for the future. If he is intelligent, he will take it on board - and he is very intelligent. ""He will have learned more in the last fortnight than the last eight months. Before that, it was all about winning."" Robson also admitted he would relish the chance to get back into management and test his skills against Mourinho. ""I am not in a hurry to take the wrong job, but I am ready to take the right job and I feel there is another job in me,"" he added. ""I know the area I am capable of working in and of course I would like a job in the Premiership if one was available. ""It would not worry me if I had to pit my wits against Jose. ""But it is not just a case of him and me against one another. It would be his team against my team - but I would not be afraid of that.""",sport
"QPR keeper Day heads for Preston..Queens Park Rangers keeper Chris Day is set to join Preston on a month's loan...Day has been displaced by the arrival of Simon Royce, who is in his second month on loan from Charlton. QPR have also signed Italian Generoso Rossi. R's manager Ian Holloway said: ""Some might say it's a risk as he can't be recalled during that month and Simon Royce can now be recalled by Charlton. ""But I have other irons in the fire. I have had a 'yes' from a couple of others should I need them.""..Day's Rangers contract expires in the summer. Meanwhile, Holloway is hoping to complete the signing of Middlesbrough defender Andy Davies - either permanently or again on loan - before Saturday's match at Ipswich. Davies impressed during a recent loan spell at Loftus Road. Holloway is also chasing Bristol City midfielder Tom Doherty.",sport
"Cudicini misses Carling Cup final..Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini will miss Sunday's Carling Cup final after the club dropped their appeal against his red card against Newcastle...The Italian was sent off for bringing down Shola Ameobi in the final minute of Sunday's match. Blues boss Jose Mourinho had promised to pick Cudicini for the final instead of first-choice keeper Petr Cech. The 31-year-old will now serve a one-match suspension commencing with immediate effect...Cudicini kept a club record 24 clean sheets last season for Chelsea, but Petr Cech has established himself as first choice for Mourinho since moving to Stamford Bridge in summer 2004. The 22-year-old Czech Republic international has set a new Premiership record of 961 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal, a mark which is still running. But Mourinho has used Cudicini regularly in the Carling Cup, and the Italian has only let in one goal in his four appearances during Chelsea's run to the final.",sport
"Beattie return calms attack fears..Everton striker James Beattie has been declared fit for training on Tuesday, despite suffering an alleged assault last Saturday...Beattie, 27, is not believed to be as seriously hurt as some reports have suggested after being ""the victim of an unprovoked assault"" in Birmingham. He was on a night out with his girlfriend and two friends following Everton's 3-1 win over Aston Villa. ""He was shaken but not badly injured,"" said Everton spokesman Ian Ross. He added: ""He did speak to the police but will not be pressing charges. ""He has spoken to manager David Moyes about what happened."" Beattie was suspended for the win at Aston Villa after his red card against Chelsea and he will be available again for the Merseyside derby at Liverpool on 20 March.",sport
"Keegan hails comeback king Fowler..Manchester City boss Kevin Keegan has praised striker Robbie Fowler for his landmark return to form...The 29-year-old, out of favour at City earlier this season, took his Premiership goal tally past 150 with a brace in Monday's 3-2 win at Norwich. ""He is still a quality player and knows where the net is - we have just got to supply him with ammunition and, in the end, we did,"" Keegan said. ""He has worked hard to get back to where he is now."" The former Liverpool striker, who moved to City in 2003 after a poor stint at Leeds, has battled back into first-team contention after struggling with fitness at the start of the season...Fowler overtook Les Ferdinand on Tuesday evening to become the third highest scorer of all time in the Premiership, with 151 goals, and he only trails Alan Shearer (250) and Andy Cole (173). And Keegan believes there is still more to come from the former England forward. ""He can get better if we can supply him better,"" added Keegan. ""People want to write him off but if he has kept the articles of those people who have written him off he could throw them back at them and they would be left with a bit of egg on their face."" Fowler's double strike helped City come back from two goals down to clinch a dramatic win at Carrow Road and Keegan sympathised with Norwich boss Nigel Worthington afterwards. ""I feel a bit for Nigel Worthington,"" he said. ""His team have got great character, they have a lot of drive and enthusiasm. ""I know it is a killer blow for Norwich but I really think they have brought something to the Premiership. ""The stadium and the atmosphere is great, it is just a tough league to stay in - as they are finding out and as we know.""",sport
"Thompson says Gerrard should stay..Liverpool legend Phil Thompson has pleaded with Steve Gerrard to reject any overtures from Chelsea...The ex-Reds assistant boss also warned that any honours won at Chelsea would be cheapened by the bid to buy success. He told BBC Radio Five Live: ""Liverpool would think about any bid made but it will all be down to Steve in the end. ""But it wouldn't have that same sweet feeling at Chelsea, where it's all money-orientated and about simply buying the best."" Thompson reacted sharply to some Liverpool supporters, who criticised Gerrard's performance in the Carling Cup final against Chelsea. A number of fans questioned Gerrard's commitment and sarcastically branded his own goal in Liverpool's 3-2 defeat as his first goal for Chelsea...Thompson added: ""I heard those comments from so-called supporters and they were diabolical, absolutely outrageous. ""Stevie carried the club last year and this year. He's always put Liverpool first."" Thompson, who savoured seven title-winning seasons and two European Cup triumphs during his Anfield playing career, is confident that the lure of Champions League football will keep Gerrard at Anfield. ""I hope Champions League football will beckon for Liverpool - either as winners or as finishing fourth in the Premiership - and he will commit himself. ""There has been a lot of soul-searching the way things have gone lately. ""I hope he's hardening to the fact he will have big decisions to make but I hope it is to the benefit of Steven Gerrard and I hope it is worthwhile for Liverpool.""",sport
"Cole refuses to blame van Persie..Ashley Cole has refused to blame Robin van Persie for leaving Arsenal with no fully-fit strikers for the FA Cup fifth round replay at Sheffield United...Van Persie is suspended alongside Dennis Bergkamp and Jose Antonio Reyes after being sent off at Southampton when Arsenal had a numerical advantage. Thierry Henry is ruled out with an Achilles tendon injury but Cole said: ""No-one is putting the blame on Robin. ""It's just something that happens on the spur of the moment."" Cole added: ""I've done it before and I hope they didn't blame me for anything. ""Of course he'll learn. I've been sent off a couple of times now and it's just one of those things when you go a bit crazy for one or two seconds. Freddie Ljungberg is likely to be used in an emergency striking role and will be partnered by either Arturo Lupoli, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie or Jeremie Aliadiere. Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said: ""Freddie is an option but we need a second striker. ""I have to decide whether it will be Aliadiere, Quincy or Lupoli who will start with him up front. Those three will be involved."" Arsenal are also without winger Robert Pires, who sustained an ankle injury at St Mary's. Wenger added: ""It doesn't look like anything is fractured, but it is a good ankle sprain. ""It does not look like Pires will be ready for two to three weeks.""",sport
"Blackburn v Burnley..Ewood Park..Tuesday, 1 March..2000 GMT..Howard Webb (South Yorkshire)..home to Leicester in the quarter-finals..But defender Andy Todd is suspended and could be replaced by Dominic Matteo - if he recovers from a hamstring injury. Burnley have major injury concerns over Frank Sinclair and John McGreal. Michael Duff looks set to continue at right-back with John Oster in midfield and Micah Hyde is expected to recover from a knee injury...- Blackburn boss Mark Hughes: ""Burnley are resolute and have individual talent but I fully expect us to progress. ""I thought we were comfortable in the first game and never thought we were under pressure. ""It's a competition we want to progress in and we are doing okay. If we beat Burnley, we have a home tie against another lower league club (Leicester)."". - Burnley boss Steve Cotterill: ""They will be fresh and we'll be tired. That is an honest opinion but our lads just might be able to get themselves up for one more big game. ""The atmosphere at the last game was very hot - a good verbal contest. ""Our fans will not need whipping up for this game. I just want them to help us as much as they can in a positive way."" KEY MATCH STATS. - BLACKBURN ROVERS against Bolton is part two of an East Lancashire hotpot that didn't turn out to be that spicy when first staged on a Sunday lunchtime the weekend before last, and resulted in a scrappy goalless draw.. - Rovers, who are aiming to win the Cup for a seventh time in their history and first time in 77 years, face another replay against Championship opposition after eventually disposing of Cardiff at Ewood Park in the third round. But they've not been beaten in the competition by a club outside the Premiership for nine years, since Ipswich - then in the second tier - defeated them 0-1 after extra time in a third round replay at Ewood Park on 16 January 1996. History is on Rovers side. When they last met their near neighbours in the FA Cup 45 years ago, it also required an Ewood Park replay, which the home side won 2-0, and when they last met in the League, Rovers did the double. They first won their Nationwide Division One trip to Turf Moor 0-2 four seasons ago, and then thrashed the Clarets on home soil 5-0.. - Manager Mark Hughes, who won the Cup four times as a player, is aiming to steer Rovers into the quarter-finals for the second time in 12 years, and first time since the 2000/2001 season. Success here, and victory home to Leicester in the next round, could see Rovers in the semi-finals without having played Premiership opposition.. - BURNLEY make the eight mile journey to their fierce rivals, determined to send Blackburn the same way as Liverpool in the third round. But having failed to pull off another shock at Turf Moor, it could be that the Championship outfit - 17 places inferior on the League ladder - have missed their best opportunity. Having said that, Burnley are yet to concede a goal in this Cup run.. - Steve Cotterills' Clarets have been knocked out in the fifth round four times in the last seven years, and have made only one appearance in the sixth round in 21 years. That was in the season before last, when they disposed of Premiership Fulham at this fifth round stage.. - While Blackburn have not played since the fifth round tie, Burnley have had two League outings away from home, drawing 1-1 at Derby and losing 1-0 at Preston. That takes their winless run to four games. The combatants from one-time prosperous mill towns, are both founder members of the Football League. HEAD TO HEAD..16th PREM..WINNERS (six times)..13th Championship..WINNERS (once)",sport
"Brentford v Southampton..Griffin Park..Tuesday, 1 March..1945 GMT..Barry Knight (Kent)..home to Manchester United in the quarter-finals..Midfielder Andrew Frampton and striker Deon Burton are both slight doubts with hamstring injuries, but should be fit Saints are missing their entire first-choice midfield of Jamie Redknapp, Graeme Le Saux, Nigel Quashie and David Prutton. Anders Svensson and Matt Oakley are likely replacements with Kevin Phillips also scheduled to start, with Henri Camara rested...- Brentford boss Martin Allen: ""After conceding eight goals in our last three matches, I have to admit I'm not very confident. ""There's no doubt we're the underdogs and after defending so poorly recently it's not looking good. ""Southampton have just drawn with the Premiership champions and that makes our task harder than it was already."". - Southampton boss Harry Redknapp: ""We know they can give us problems. ""Brentford have done well but we are the Premiership side and should have the better players. ""Staying in the Premiership is our priority. We want to win, of course we do. We'll battle but if it comes to a football match I think we'll win."" KEY MATCH STATS. - BRENTFORD are the lowest ranked club left in the FA Cup. They're on their best run in the competition since reaching the quarter-finals for the fourth time in their history 16 years ago. Now they have the carrot of the plum draw in the last eight dangling before them. Victory over Premiership strugglers Southampton, would bring the mighty Manchester United to Griffin Park and a gigantic pay day for the sole League One survivors.. - Martin Allen's brave side came back from two goals down at St Mary's to earn a deserved replay. Southampton striker Henri Camara scored twice from close range to put the Saints in command, but Isaiah Rankin hit back just before half time, and Sam Sodje headed past a creaky defence on 58 minutes.. - The Londoners have conceded six goals in their two subsequent League outings - three each in losing away to Hartlepool and drawing at home to Sheffield Wednesday. But they haven't lost in six League and Cup games on home turf - winning three and drawing three since the reverse to Torquay on Boxing Day.. - SOUTHAMPTON go into this tie on the back of an eventful Premiership match with Arsenal on Saturday. An angry David Prutton pushed referee Alan Wiley after being shown the red card, but his side still came back to draw 1-1. It was Saints' fourth stalemate in succession in all competitions, but didn't lift them out of the relegation zone. The retention of their ever present Premier League status must be the number one priority, irrespective of the rewards that success against Brentford would bring.. - Victory here would set up a repeat of the 1976 final, when Saints astounded the football world by defeating Tommy Docherty's Manchester United courtesy of Bobby Stokes' famous winner. They also knocked out the Red Devils in 1991 on penalties in the fourth round. But to write another chapter in their FA Cup history, the Solent side must avoid succumbing to lower division opposition for the first time since Rotherham, from the second level, beat them 2-1 in a third round tie at Millmoor on 16 January 2002. Southampton were last humbled by a club from the third tier six years ago. Fulham were then in the Second Division, when they won a third round replay at Craven Cottage 1-0 on 13 January 1999.. - To get to within two matches of a second visit to the Millennium Stadium in three years for the final, Harry Redknapp must guide his side past a club 36 places inferior on the League ladder, and a manager 19 years his junior, who played under him at West Ham. HEAD TO HEAD..10th League One..QUARTER-FINALS (four times)..18th PREM..WINNERS (once)",sport
"Desailly backs Blues revenge trip..Marcel Desailly insists there is no chance of history repeating itself when Chelsea take on Barcelona on Wednesday...The French star was part of the Chelsea side crushed 5-1 at the Nou Camp in the Champions League quarter-final second leg in 2000. ""Things will be totally different this time,"" he told BBC Sport. ""Now everyone knows about Chelsea and is a little bit afraid of them. They are one of the major clubs in Europe and the pressure will be on Barcelona."" Chelsea have not played Barcelona since that quarter-final tie five years ago. The Blues had looked destined to progress after winning the first leg at Stamford Bridge 3-1, courtesy of two goals from Tore Andre Flo and one by Gianfranco Zola. But they collapsed in the second leg, going down to strikes from Rivaldo (2), Luis Figo, Dani and Patrick Kluivert...Former Chelsea captain Desailly, who is now playing for Al-Gharafa in Qatar, says there is no comparison between that side and the current Blues team, who are top of the Premiership. ""Mentally they are much stronger, even though a lot of their players are young,"" the 36-year-old said. ""We made some mistakes at the Nou Camp in 2000 - a lot of them were individual mistakes. ""It would not happen now. This team has a new motivation and a different mentality."" World Cup winner Desailly saw huge changes during his time at Stamford Bridge. He was signed for £4.6m from AC Milan in 1998 by Ruud Gullit and went on to play under Gianluca Vialli and Claudio Ranieri. But the biggest change occurred when billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. Desailly says the Russian's arrival helped to instil a winning mentality at the club as well as a demand for success. ""The whole of Chelsea is different now - the chairman, the manager and all the players,"" he said...""Everything is new and there is a huge determination to win. ""Since that game in 2000, Chelsea have gained more experience in Europe and were very close to reaching the Champions League final last season."" Desailly is one of the most decorated players in the history of football. He won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship with France, the Champions League in 1993 with Marseilles and 1994 with AC Milan, two Serie A titles and the FA Cup in 2000 with Chelsea. He is now winding down his career in Qatar, alongside the likes of Frank Lebeouf, Josep Guardiola, Titi Camara, Gabriel Batistuta and Christophe Dugarry. So he is full of admiration for two of his colleagues from the great Milan side of the mid-90s who are likely to line up against Manchester United on Wednesday - Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta. ""I'm happy that they have managed to play so long at a high level,"" he said. ""I made a vow to Costacurta that as long as he plays, I will continue to play. ""And it's amazing that Paolo has managed to play at such a high level for such a long time.""",sport
"Desailly backs Blues revenge trip..Marcel Desailly insists there is no chance of history repeating itself when Chelsea take on Barcelona on Wednesday...The French star was part of the Chelsea side crushed 5-1 at the Nou Camp in the Champions League quarter-final second leg in 2000. ""Things will be totally different this time,"" he told BBC Sport. ""Now everyone knows about Chelsea and is a little bit afraid of them. They are one of the major clubs in Europe and the pressure will be on Barcelona."" Chelsea have not played Barcelona since that quarter-final tie five years ago. The Blues had looked destined to progress after winning the first leg at Stamford Bridge 3-1, courtesy of two goals from Tore Andre Flo and one by Gianfranco Zola. But they collapsed in the second leg, going down to strikes from Rivaldo (2), Luis Figo, Dani and Patrick Kluivert...Former Chelsea captain Desailly, who is now playing for Al-Gharafa in Qatar, says there is no comparison between that side and the current Blues team, who are top of the Premiership. ""Mentally they are much stronger, even though a lot of their players are young,"" the 36-year-old said. ""We made some mistakes at the Nou Camp in 2000 - a lot of them were individual mistakes. ""It would not happen now. This team has a new motivation and a different mentality."" World Cup winner Desailly saw huge changes during his time at Stamford Bridge. He was signed for £4.6m from AC Milan in 1998 by Ruud Gullit and went on to play under Gianluca Vialli and Claudio Ranieri. But the biggest change occurred when billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. Desailly says the Russian's arrival helped to instil a winning mentality at the club as well as a demand for success. ""The whole of Chelsea is different now - the chairman, the manager and all the players,"" he said...""Everything is new and there is a huge determination to win. ""Since that game in 2000, Chelsea have gained more experience in Europe and were very close to reaching the Champions League final last season."" Desailly is one of the most decorated players in the history of football. He won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship with France, the Champions League in 1993 with Marseilles and 1994 with AC Milan, two Serie A titles and the FA Cup in 2000 with Chelsea...He is now winding down his career in Qatar, alongside the likes of Frank Lebeouf, Josep Guardiola, Titi Camara, Gabriel Batistuta and Christophe Dugarry. So he is full of admiration for two of his colleagues from the great Milan side of the mid-90s who are likely to line up against Manchester United on Wednesday - Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta. ""I'm happy that they have managed to play so long at a high level,"" he said. ""I made a vow to Costacurta that as long as he plays, I will continue to play. ""And it's amazing that Paolo has managed to play at such a high level for such a long time.""",sport
"Mourinho expects fight to finish..Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho expects the Champions League clash with Barcelona to be a fight to the finish...Mourinho is relishing the first leg of the tie against his former club in the last 16 in the Nou Camp. He said: ""I wouldn't be surprised if nothing had been decided by the last minute of the return leg and the match had to go into extra time. ""I have to defend what is mine and the Champions League is mine at the moment. I'm the last manager to have won it."" Mourinho never coached Barcelona, assisting both Sir Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal. But he is not envious, insisting: ""I don't have to be jealous about Barcelona because they have 100 years of history and have won the European Cup once...""I have been managing for five years and I have the same amount of Champions League trophies to my name."" Barcelona star Ronaldinho admitted: ""I think that it is going to be a difficult match for us because Chelsea have a good team full of big stars. ""I have seen Chelsea a few times on television, tactically they are very good and they are very strong on the counter-attack. ""They pressure very well and keep possession of the ball so it will be important that we play our own game. ""I believe they are the two strongest teams in Europe. Nevertheless, Barcelona are accustomed to playing big games at the Nou Camp, where they have to face the likes of Real Madrid each season. ""It is a special game, the atmosphere in the city changes, there are lots of journalists but inside the dressing room there is not a lot of difference,"" Ronaldinho added. ""We are only thinking of winning the match with all respect to the opposition.""",sport
"Cup holders Man Utd visit Everton..Holders Manchester United and Premiership leaders Chelsea both face difficult away ties against Premiership opposition in the FA Cup fifth round...United were drawn against Everton, while Chelsea face a trip to Newcastle. Brentford and Hartlepool - the only sides left from outside the top two divisions - will replay for the right to travel to Southampton. Burnley's reward for a place in the last 16 was a home tie against Lancashire rivals Blackburn. The tie between Manchester United and Everton could see the return of teenage striker Wayne Rooney to his former club for the first time since his acrimonious £27m move...Nottingham Forest boss Gary Megson could face a trip back to old club West Brom if they come through their fourth-round replay against Tottenham. Arsenal were handed a potential home tie against fellow Londoners West Ham, providing the Hammers come through their replay against Sheffield United. Charlton will play Leicester and Bolton await the winners of the Derby-Fulham replay...: Bolton v Derby or Fulham..West Bromwich Albion or Tottenham v Nottingham Forest..Everton v Manchester United..Charlton Athletic v Leicester City..Burnley v Blackburn..Southampton v Brentford or Hartlepool..Newcastle v Chelsea..Arsenal v West Ham or Sheffield United..Ties to be played on 19/20 February.",sport
"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.",sport
"Stuart joins Norwich from Addicks..Norwich have signed Charlton midfielder Graham Stuart until the end of the season for an undisclosed fee...""It was a very easy decision to make,"" the 34-year-old told Norwich's website. ""The attraction for me was to continue to play in the Premiership."" Canaries boss Nigel Worthington added: ""I'm delighted that Graham will be joining us until the end of the season. ""He's gives us a wealth of experience. Hopefully, he can be part of keeping us in the Premier League."" Stuart has extensive top-flight experience with Everton, Chelsea and Charlton and can play across the midfield positions. He joins Norwich with the Norfolk club second-from-bottom in the Premiership, but Stuart is confident that the Carrow Road outfit have a bright future. ""I've been very impressed with the facilities here. It's obviously a very well run football club with excellent facilities and I've always enjoyed playing at Carrow Road,"" he added. ""It's a nice compact ground with a good atmosphere and hopefully I can help give the fans something else to cheer.""..Stuart, a former England Under-21 international, made 110 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 18 goals, before joining Everton. He won the FA Cup with the Toffees in 1995 and remains a hero at Goodison Park after his 81st-minute winner against Wimbledon saved Everton from relegation in 1994. Stuart spent just over four years at Goodison Park, making 125 senior appearances and scoring 25 goals, before signing for Sheffield United - where he scored 12 goals in 68 appearances. After signing for Charlton he made 164 appearances, scoring 23 times, but recently he has been battling a back problem and had not played for the Londoners for three months before heading to Norwich.",sport
"Celtic make late bid for Bellamy..Newcastle striker Craig Bellamy is discussing a possible short-term loan move to Celtic, BBC Sport understands...The Welsh striker has rejected a move to Birmingham after falling out with Magpies manager Graeme Souness. The Toon boss vowed Bellamy would not play again after a bitter row over his exclusion for the game against Arsenal. Celtic are in no position to match Birmingham's £6m offer but a stay until the end of the season could suit Bellamy while he considers his future. According to Bellamy's agent, the player dismissed a permanent move to Birmingham. And it is unlikely that Newcastle would allow the player to go on loan to another Premiership club...Bellamy was fined two weeks' wages after a live TV interview in which he accused Souness of lying, following a very public dispute about what position Bellamy should play in the side. Souness said: ""He can't play for me ever again. He has been a disruptive influence from the minute I walked into this football club. ""He can't go on television and accuse me of telling lies."" Chairman Freddy Shepherd described Bellamy's behaviour as ""totally unacceptable and totally unprofessional"".",sport
"Campbell lifts lid on United feud..Arsenal's Sol Campbell has called the rivalry between Manchester United and the Gunners ""bitter and personal""...Past encounters have stirred up plenty of ill-feeling between the sides and they meet again at Highbury on Tuesday. ""It is just more bitter and personal against United,"" the defender told The Guardian newspaper. ""There's an edge. ""After all that has happened, if we beat them it will be one of our sweetest ever wins, especially because of how we lost to them up there."" Last October, Arsenal lost 2-0 at Old Trafford, which ended a record 49-match unbeaten league run and sparked a mini-crisis, with the Gunners winning only three of their next 10 games...""It had a psychological impact on us, but again because of the way we were defeated,"" added the 30-year-old, referring to a controversial penalty award for United's first goal. ""That was far more upsetting, losing like that, because they just seem to get away with it. You try and balance out over the course of a season but I've had so many rough decisions against them you begin to wonder."" With tensions spilling over afterwards - United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was allegedly pelted with pizza in the players' tunnel - there is little surprise that so much is riding on the return encounter on. ""Everyone at Arsenal has been waiting for this game,"" said Campbell. ""We are up for this one.""..Speaking on his long-term plans, Campbell signalled his intent to move abroad before he turns 35. ""I'm 30 now and in five years' time I won't be in this country - that's definite. ""Italy looks good to me because it would suit my kind of football. Spain is an option but the idea of tasting a new culture and learning another language excites me the most. I'm starting a little with French, of course.""",sport
"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.",sport
"SA return to Mauritius..Top seeds South Africa return to the scene of one of their most embarrassing failures when they face the Seychelles in the Cosafa Cup next month...Last year Bafana Bafana were humbled in the first by minnows Mauritius who beat them 2-0 in Curepipe. Coach Stuart Baxter and his squad will return to Curepipe face the Seychelles in their first game of the new-look regional competition. The format of the event has been changed this year after the entry of the Seychelles, who have taken the number of participants to 13. The teams are now divided into three group of four and play knock-out matches on successive days to determine the group champions. Mauritius host the first group, and their opponents are Madagascar, the Seychelles and South Africa. Bafana Bafana play the Seychelles before Mauritius take on Madagascar in a double-header on 26 February. The two winners return to the New George V stadium the next day and the victor of the group decider advances to August's final mini-tournament. The second group will be hosted in Namibia in April. It comprises Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and the hosts. In June, former champions Zambia will host Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland in the third group in Lusaka. The three group winners will then join title holders Angola for the last of the mini-tournaments in August, where the winners will be crowned...Seychelles v South Africa..Mauritius v Madagascar..Winners meet in final match..Mozambique v Zimbabwe..Namibia v Botswana..Winners meet in final match..Lesotho v Malawi..Zambia v Swaziland..Winners meet in final match",sport
"Tottenham bid £8m for Forest duo..Nottingham Forest have confirmed they have received an £8m bid from Tottenham for Andy Reid and Michael Dawson...Reid rejected a move to Southampton after Forest accepted a cash-plus-players offer while Spurs had made previous bids for the 22-year-old. Spurs had also made an undisclosed offer for 21-year-old defender Dawson. Forest chief executive Mark Arthur said: ""We've received an £8m bid from Spurs for the two players and we're considering the offer."" Southampton's offer for Republic of Ireland international Reid comprised £3m-plus and two players - Brett Ormerod and Darren Kenton...Spurs had seen previous bids of £3m, £4m and £5m for Reid rejected by the Championship club.",sport
"Redknapp's Saints face Pompey tie..New Southampton manager Harry Redknapp faces an immediate reunion with his old club Portsmouth after they were drawn together in the FA Cup fourth round...Exeter City face a home tie against Middlesbrough if they can see off holders Manchester United in a replay. Oldham's reward for beating Manchester City is a home tie with Bolton, while Yeovil will be away to Charlton. Chelsea host Birmingham, Tottenham travel to West Brom and Arsenal will entertain Championship side Wolves. Saints boss Redknapp was upbeat about the draw despite having to face the club he walked out on just six weeks ago. ""I've said before, I can walk away from Portsmouth with my head held high, I'm proud of what I did there and no one can take that away from me,"" said Redknapp. ""Maybe I'll be in for some stick, there's always some of that but we'll get on with it and it's only a game of football."" Birmingham manager Steve Bruce admitted their trip to Stamford Bridge to face Premiership leaders Chelsea was the toughest draw possible. Bruce said: ""I'm still in shock. We've given good accounts of ourselves against Chelsea in the past and played well when we lost 1-0 at home at the start of the season - but that's the past. ""But it's the best competition in the world as far as I am concerned and we will give it our best shot."" Brentford boss Martin Allen remained cautious despite his side's favourable draw - a home tie with either Hartlepool or Boston. ""The best thing is, it's a home game. However, we know that whoever we play it is going to be a really tough game,"" said Allen. ""But it's not about the opposition, it's about us. We all want to get through to the next round and face a massive team, that's the way it is.""..Meanwhile, the BBC has confirmed it will be televising Exeter's replay with Man Utd live on Wednesday 19 January, from 1930 on BBC One...Derby v Watford or Fulham..Man Utd or Exeter v Middlesbrough..Cardiff or Blackburn v Colchester..Chelsea v Birmingham..West Ham v Sheff Utd..Oldham v Bolton..Arsenal v Wolverhampton..Everton v Sunderland..Nottm Forest v Peterborough..Brentford v Hartlepool or Boston..Reading or Swansea v Leicester or Blackpool..Burnley or Liverpool v Bournemouth..Southampton v Portsmouth..West Brom v Tottenham..Newcastle v Coventry..Charlton v Yeovil",sport
"Real in talks over Gravesen move..Real Madrid are closing in on a £2m deal for Everton's Thomas Gravesen after the Dane's agent travelled to Spain to hold talks about a move...John Sivabaek told BBC Sport: ""I'm here to listen to what Real have to say. Nothing has been agreed, but this is a big opportunity for any player."" The 28-year-old's contract expires in the summer, but Real want a quick deal. Sivabaek added: ""I will be meeting Real on Wednesday. There is serious interest, but it is Everton's hands."" Everton must decide whether to cash in now on the Denmark midfield man, or risk losing him for nothing in the summer. Manager David Moyes has defiantly claimed that he expects Gravesen to still be at Everton when the transfer window closes at the end of January...Moyes said: ""I speak to Tommy regularly and we know where we are at. ""There's been no contact. We don't want to lose him."" Real Madrid general manager Arrigo Sacchi is the driving force behind the move, convincing vice-president Emilio Butragueno and new coach Wanderley Luxemburgo that Gravesen is the right man for the Bernabeu. Everton must weigh up whether it is worth taking the money on offer for Real and risk their own ambitions for European football. Gravesen has been outstanding as Everton have established themselves in the Premiership's top four this season.",sport
"Klinsmann issues Lehmann warning..Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann has warned goalkeeper Jens Lehmann he may have to quit Arsenal to keep his World Cup dreams alive...Lehmann is understudy to Oliver Kahn in the German squad, but has lost his place to Manuel Alumnia at Highbury. Klinsmann said: ""It will be difficult for any of our players if he is not a first-choice at his club. ""If Jens is not Arsenal's number one keeper, that is a problem for me. He must be playing regularly."" Lehmann is desperate to keep his place in the Germany squad when the country hosts the World Cup in 2006. Klinsmann added: ""If he is not playing regularly he cannot be Germany's number one keeper, or even number two keeper. ""The situation for Jens is that he is currently the number two keeper at Arsenal. This could be critical if it remains the same during next season.""",sport
"Juninho demand for O'Neill talks..Juninho's agent has confirmed that the player is hoping for talks with Martin O'Neill as the Brazilian midfielder comes closer to departing Celtic...Brian Hassell says no official approach has been received from Manchester City but that the English club had been earmarked as a possible destination. But it was being stressed to BBC Sport that Juninho would prefer to remain with the Scottish champions. Juninho wants assurances that he will return to O'Neill's first-team plans. He has become frustrated with his lack of first-team action since his move from Middlesbrough in the summer. Hassel says Juninho, who has just bought a new home, would ""desperately like to stay at Celtic"" but will seek a move if it is made clear that he is not wanted...The agent also stressed that nothing should be read into the 30-year-old's father being in Scotland and talk of a move back to Botafogo in Brazil. Juninho's father was simply in the country to see his son and grandchildren. ""I know there is interest from a Brazilian club, but I know Juninho doesn't want to go there,"" said Hassel. ""He wants to stay in Britain. In fact, he wants to stay at Celtic."" Hassall made it clear that a move to Manchester City, who are badly in need of a midfield play-maker, was more of a possibility than Botafogo, or Mexican outfit Red Sharks Veracruz, who also expressed an interest. ""It was a thought at one stage,"" he said. ""If you are not going to get a game under one manager, you look for another whose style of play suits you. ""He is a fan of Kevin Keegan's style of play. It would not be a bad move for him."" Juninho had earlier told the Daily Record: ""The manager has had a lot of chances to put me in his team but it hasn't happened. ""If that is the case then this is the opportunity for me to go. That would be good for the club and good for me. ""If I have no part in his plans, there is no point in remaining here waiting for a chance that never comes."" The attacking midfielder also claims he has not had the backing of boss Martin O'Neill since his move to Celtic Park. ""I can't understand why I am in this situation,"" he continued. ""When a manager brings a new player to the club, he gives that player support.""",sport
"Wenger signs new deal..Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has signed a new contract to stay at the club until May 2008...Wenger has ended speculation about his future by agreeing a long-term contract that takes him beyond the opening of Arsenal's new stadium in two years. He said: ""Signing a new contract just rubber-stamps my desire to take this club forward and fulfil my ambitions. ""I still have so much to achieve and my target is to drive this club on. These are exciting times for Arsenal.""..The 55-year-old Frenchman told Arsenal's website www.arsenal.com: ""My intention has always been clear. I love this club and am very happy here."" Wenger has won the title and the FA Cup three times each during his reign. Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said: ""We are absolutely delighted that Arsene has signed an extension to his contract. ""Since his arrival in 1996, he has revolutionised the club both on and off the pitch. ""As well as the six major honours he's won during his time here, Arsene has been a leading influence behind all the major initiatives at the club including the construction of our new training centre and also our new stadium...""The club has continued to reap the benefits of Arsene's natural eye for unearthing footballing talent. ""We currently have a fantastic crop of young players coming through the ranks together with a number of world-class players who are playing a wonderful brand of football."" Meanwhile, Arsenal director Danny Fiszman is looking for Wenger to stay beyond 2008. ""When we come towards the end of his contract we will both review the situation. I'm sure we will want him to stay on and I hope he will too,"" said Fiszman.",sport
"FA probes crowd trouble..The FA is to take action after trouble marred Wednesday's Carling Cup tie between Chelsea and West Ham...Police in riot gear were confronted by a section of the West Ham support after the match which the Blues won 1-0. Mateja Kezman, the scorer of Chelsea's goal, needed treatment on a head injury during the match after being hit by a missile, believed to be a coin. A spokeswoman for Chelsea said the club would await the referee's report before deciding on its course of action. Kezman was forced off the field to receive treatment on a cut above his eye but was able to continue...Chelsea assistant boss Steve Clarke said: ""I would rather talk about the football but we think it was something thrown from the crowd. He did not require stitches."" West Ham boss Alan Pardew said: ""It's a shame because I thought there was good English banter in the crowd. ""There's big rivalry between the two clubs and it is a shame if that's happened. From where I was standing I didn't see any trouble."" Former Hammers star Joe Cole also had a plastic bottle thrown at him, while Frank Lampard was pelted with coins as he was preparing to take a penalty. Lampard's spot-kick was saved to the delight of the Hammers' fans, who have still not forgiven him for leaving Upton Park. The FA will seek reports from the clubs and the police, and will review video evidence and the referee's report. Police in riot gear battled with West Ham fans in the Matthew Harding stand and at least one supporter required treatment. Fans are also thought to have clashed outside the ground after the game. Scotland Yard said there had been 11 arrests for alleged public order, drugs and offensive weapon offences...The FA is already looking into the trouble at Tuesday's heated Carling Cup tie between Millwall and Liverpool.",sport
"Edu describes tunnel fracas..Arsenal's Edu has lifted the lid on the scenes that followed Manchester United's win over the Gunners...The Brazilian confirmed tempers had flared but could shed no light on reports that food was thrown at United boss Sir Alex Ferguson. ""I saw people being pulled apart, people pushing, pointing and shouting,"" he told Uefa's official website. ""The United players were trying to wind us up about the result but I didn't see any soup being thrown at anyone."" However, Edu tried to play down the incidents, adding: ""There was nothing that I haven't seen in Brazilian derbies. ""Derby matches in Brazil are worse. I like to play in games like this with this intense rivalry."" But Edu was highly critical of the ferocity of some of United's challenges during the game, particularly on Jose Antonio Reyes. ""I think we were a lot fairer in the tackles than United,"" he said. ""Reyes was being kicked all over the park - they were beating up the boy and Gary Neville was tackling in such a way that he should have been sent off."" Following the game, the Football Association said it would look into events in the tunnel. It also charged Ruud van Nistelrooy with serious foul play while Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been asked to explain comments he made about the referee.",sport
"Ferguson urges Henry punishment..Sir Alex Ferguson has called on the Football Association to punish Arsenal's Thierry Henry for an incident involving Gabriel Heinze...Ferguson believes Henry deliberately caught Heinze on the head with his knee during United's controversial win. The United boss said it was worse than Ruud van Nistelrooy's foul on Ashley Cole for which he got a three-game ban. ""We shall present it to the FA and see what they do. The tackle on Heinze was terrible,"" he said. Clubs are permitted to ask the FA to examine specific incidents but information is expected to be provided within 48 hours of the game. The clash occurred moments before half-time when a Freddie Ljungberg challenge left Heinze on the ground on the left touchline. Henry, following the ball, attempted to hurdle the Argentine but his knee collided with the back of Heinze's head...The striker protested his innocence - and referee Mike Riley deemed the collision accidental. Ferguson was also upset by Arsenal's overall discipline during the heated encounter between the two arch-rivals and praised his own side's behaviour. ""Edu produced a terrible tackle on Scholes that was a potential leg-breaker,"" he said. ""There were 24 fouls in the game by Arsenal, seven on Heinze, five on Ronaldo, six by Vieira - and it was only his sixth foul that got him booked. Phil Neville got booked for his first challenge. ""I am proud of my players for the way they handled that pressure. ""We have always been good at being gracious in defeat. What happened on Sunday overshadowed our achievement, but then they do it all the time, don't they?""",sport
"Wenger offers Mutu hope..Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger would consider signing Adrian Mutu once the striker has served his drugs ban...Mutu was sacked by Chelsea on Friday after testing positive for cocaine - a move Wenger has backed. But he said: ""I don't even wonder if that could happen because I think he will be suspended for a long period. ""But once he has served his suspension, he has the right again to start from zero. I would then meet the player and see what he tells me."" Mutu faces a ban of between six months and two years when the Football Association decides on his punishment. Chelsea decided to act before his case was heard and sacked the striker on grounds of gross misconduct after it was revealed that he had failed a drug test...But Mutu has hit out at the club's decision, saying: ""Chelsea have destroyed me."" He told the Sunday Mirror: ""I don't know what I'm going to do. I am shocked and surprised by their decision. ""I didn't expect them to pay me while I was suspended but I never thought they would sack me either. ""Why didn't they wait to do this? Now my career is in ruins. ""I might as well walk away from football. What is there left for me?""..Chelsea have been criticised for their stance, with the Professional Footballers' Association accusing the club of failing in their duty of care to the player. And Mutu agreed, adding: ""It is unfair. If they were going to sack me they should have done it afterwards. ""Why did they go public? To make an example of me? It makes it very difficult for me now.""",sport
"Gallery unveils interactive tree..A Christmas tree that can receive text messages has been unveiled at London's Tate Britain art gallery...The spruce has an antenna which can receive Bluetooth texts sent by visitors to the Tate. The messages will be ""unwrapped"" by sculptor Richard Wentworth, who is responsible for decorating the tree with broken plates and light bulbs. It is the 17th year that the gallery has invited an artist to dress their Christmas tree. Artists who have decorated the Tate tree in previous years include Tracey Emin in 2002...The plain green Norway spruce is displayed in the gallery's foyer. Its light bulb adornments are dimmed, ordinary domestic ones joined together with string. The plates decorating the branches will be auctioned off for the children's charity ArtWorks. Wentworth worked as an assistant to sculptor Henry Moore in the late 1960s. His reputation as a sculptor grew in the 1980s, while he has been one of the most influential teachers during the last two decades. Wentworth is also known for his photography of mundane, everyday subjects such as a cigarette packet jammed under the wonky leg of a table.",entertainment
"Jarre joins fairytale celebration..French musician Jean-Michel Jarre is to perform at a concert in Copenhagen to mark the bicentennial of the birth of writer Hans Christian Andersen...Denmark is holding a three-day celebration of the life of the fairy-tale author, with a concert at Parken stadium on 2 April. Other stars are expected to join the line-up in the coming months, and the Danish royal family will attend. ""Christian Andersen's fairy tales are timeless and universal,"" said Jarre. ""For all of us, at any age there is always - beyond the pure enjoyment of the tale - a message to learn."" There are year-long celebrations planned across the world to celebrate Andersen and his work, which includes The Emperor's New Clothes and The Little Mermaid. Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary visited New York on Monday to help promote the festivities. The pair were at a Manhattan library to honour US literary critic Harold Bloom ""the international icon we thought we knew so well""...""Bloom recognizes the darker aspects of Andersen's authorship,"" Prince Frederik said. Bloom is to be formally presented with the Hans Christian Andersen Award this spring in Anderson's hometown of Odense. The royal couple also visited the Hans Christian Anderson School complex, where Queen Mary read The Ugly Duckling to the young audience. Later at a gala dinner, Danish supermodel Helena Christensen was named a Hans Christian Andersen ambassador. Other ambassadors include actors Harvey Keitel and Sir Roger Moore, athlete Cathy Freeman and Brazilian soccer legend Pele.",entertainment
"Musical treatment for Capra film..The classic film It's A Wonderful Life is to be turned into a musical by the producer of the controversial hit show Jerry Springer - The Opera...Frank Capra's 1946 movie starring James Stewart, is being turned into a £7m musical by producer Jon Thoday. He is working with Steve Brown, who wrote the award-winning musical Spend Spend Spend. A spokeswoman said the plans were in the ""very early stages"", with no cast, opening date or theatre announced...A series of workshops have been held in London, and on Wednesday a cast of singers unveiled the musical to a select group of potential investors. Mr Thoday said the idea of turning the film into a musical had been an ambition of his for almost 20 years. It's a Wonderful Life was based on a short story, The Greatest Gift, by Philip van Doren Stern. Mr Thoday managed to buy the rights to the story from Van Doren Stern's family in 1999, following Mr Brown's success with Spend Spend Spend. He later secured the film rights from Paramount, enabling them to use the title It's A Wonderful Life.",entertainment
"Richard and Judy choose top books..The 10 authors shortlisted for a Richard and Judy book award in 2005 are hoping for a boost in sales following the success of this year's winner...The TV couple's interest in the book world coined the term ""the Richard & Judy effect"" and created the top two best-selling paperbacks of 2004 so far. The finalists for 2005 include Andrew Taylor's The American Boy and Robbie Williams' autobiography Feel. This year's winner, Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, sold over one million. Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea came second and saw sales increase by 350%. The best read award, on Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan's Channel 4 show, is part of the British Book Awards. David Mitchell's Booker-shortlisted novel, Cloud Atlas, makes it into this year's top 10 along with several lesser known works...""There's no doubt that this year's selection of book club entries is the best yet. If anything, the choice is even wider than last time,"" said Madeley. ""It was very hard to follow last year's extremely successful list, but we think this year's books will do even better,"" said Richard and Judy executive producer Amanda Ross. ""We were spoiled for choice and it was tough getting down to only 10 from the 301 submitted.""",entertainment
"Poppins musical gets flying start..The stage adaptation of children's film Mary Poppins has had its opening night in London's West End...Sir Cameron Mackintosh's lavish production, which has cost £9m to bring to the stage, was given a 10-minute standing ovation. Lead actress Laura Michelle Kelly soared over the heads of the audience holding the nanny's trademark umbrella. Technical hitches had prevented Mary Poppins' flight into the auditorium during preview performances. A number of celebrities turned out for the musical's premiere, including actress Barbara Windsor, comic Graham Norton and Sir Richard Attenborough...The show's director Richard Eyre issued a warning earlier in the week that the show was unsuitable for children under seven, while under-threes are barred. Mary Poppins was originally created by author Pamela Travers, who is said to have cried when she saw Disney's 1964 film starring Julie Andrews. Travers had intended the story to be a lot darker than the perennial family favourite. Theatre impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh has said he hopes the musical is a blend of the sweet-natured film and the original book.",entertainment
"Bennett play takes theatre prizes..The History Boys by Alan Bennett has been named best new play in the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards...Set in a grammar school, the play also earned a best actor prize for star Richard Griffiths as teacher Hector. The Producers was named best musical, Victoria Hamilton was best actress for Suddenly Last Summer and Festen's Rufus Norris was named best director. The History Boys also won the best new comedy title at the Theatregoers' Choice Awards...Partly based upon Alan Bennett's experience as a teacher, The History Boys has been at London's National Theatre since last May. The Critics' Circle named Rebecca Lenkiewicz its most promising playwright for The Night Season, and Eddie Redmayne most promising newcomer for The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?..Paul Rhys was its best Shakespearean performer for Measure for Measure at the National Theatre and Christopher Oram won the design award for Suddenly Last Summer. Both the Critics' Circle and Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice award winners were announced on Tuesday. Chosen by more than 11,000 theatre fans, the Theatregoers' Choice Awards named US actor Christian Slater best actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Diana Rigg was best actress for Suddenly Last Summer, Dame Judi Dench was best supporting actress for the RSC's All's Well That Ends Well and The History Boys' Samuel Barnett was best supporting actor.",entertainment
"Levy tipped for Whitbread prize..Novelist Andrea Levy is favourite to win the main Whitbread Prize book of the year award, after winning novel of the year with her book Small Island...The book has already won the Orange Prize for fiction, and is now 5/4 favourite for the £25,000 Whitbread. Second favourite is a biography of Mary Queen of Scots, by John Guy. A panel of judges including Sir Trevor McDonald, actor Hugh Grant and writer Joanne Harris will decide the overall winner on Tuesday...The five writers in line for the award won their respective categories - first novel, novel, biography, poetry and children's book - on 6 January. Small Island, Levy's fourth novel, is set in post-war London and centres on a landlady and her lodgers. One is a Jamaican who joined British troops to fight Hitler but finds life difficult out of uniform when he settles in the UK. ""What could have been a didactic or preachy prospect turns out to hilarious, moving humane and eye-popping. It's hard to think of anybody not enjoying it,"" wrote the judges. The judges called Guy's My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots ""an impressive and readable piece of scholarship, which cannot fail but leave the reader moved and intrigued by this most tragic and likeable of queens"". Guy has published many histories, including one of Tudor England. He is a fellow at Clare College, Cambridge and became a honorary research professor of the University of St Andrews in 2003...The other contenders include Susan Fletcher for Eve Green, which won the first novel prize. Fletcher has recently graduated from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course. The fourth book in the running is Corpus, Michael Symmons Roberts' fourth collection of poems. As well as writing poetry, Symmons Roberts also makes documentary films. Geraldine McCaughrean is the final contender, having won the children's fiction category for the third time for Not the End of the World. McCaughrean, who went into magazine publishing after studying teaching, previously won the category in 1987 with A Little Lower than Angels and in 1994 with Gold Dust.",entertainment
"West End to honour finest shows..The West End is honouring its finest stars and shows at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in London on Monday...The Producers, starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, is up for best musical at the ceremony at the National Theatre. It is competing against Sweeney Todd and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for the award. The Goat or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh and Alan Bennett's The History Boys are shortlisted in the best play category...Pam Ferris, Victoria Hamilton and Kelly Reilly are nominated for best actress. Ferris - best known for her television roles in programmes such as The Darling Buds of May - has made the shortlist for her role in Notes on Falling Leaves, at the Royal Court Theatre. Meanwhile, Richard Griffiths, who plays Hector in The History Boys at the National Theatre, will battle it out for the best actor award with Douglas Hodge (Dumb Show) and Stanley Townsend (Shining City). The best director shortlist includes Luc Bondy for Cruel and Tender, Simon McBurney for Measure for Measure, and Rufus Norris for Festen...Festen is also shortlisted in the best designer category where Ian MacNeil, Jean Kalman and Paul Arditti will be up against Hildegard Bechtler, for Iphigenia at Aulis, and Paul Brown, for False Servant. The Milton Shulman Award for outstanding newcomer will be presented to Dominic Cooper (His Dark Materials and The History Boys), Romola Garai (Calico), Eddie Redmayne (The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?) or Ben Wishaw (Hamlet). And playwrights David Eldridge, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Owen McCafferty will fight it out for The Charles Wintour Award and a £30,000 bursary. Three 50th Anniversary Special Awards will also be presented to an institution, a playwright and an individual.",entertainment
"Da Vinci Code is 'lousy history'..The plot of an international bestseller that thousands of readers are likely to receive as a Christmas present is 'laughable', a clergyman has said...The Da Vinci Code claims Jesus was not crucified, but married Mary Magdalene and died a normal death. It claims this was later covered up by the Church. The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Dr Tom Wright, described the novel as a ""great thriller"" but ""lousy history"". The book has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. Despite enjoying Dan Brown's conspiracy theory, the Bishop said there was a lack of evidence to back up its claims...Writing his Christmas message in the Northern Echo, the Bishop said: ""Conspiracy theories are always fun - fun to invent, fun to read, fun to fantasise about. ""Dan Brown is the best writer I've come across in the genre, but anyone who knows anything about 1st century history will see that this underlying material is laughable."" A great deal of credible evidence proves the Biblical version of Jesus' life was true, according to the Bishop. ""The evidence for Jesus and the origins of Christianity is astonishingly good,"" he said. ""We have literally a hundred times more early manuscripts for the gospels and letters in the New Testament than we have for the main classical authors like Cicero, Virgil and Tacitus...""Historical research shows that they present a coherent and thoroughly credible picture of Jesus, with all sorts of incidental details that fit the time when he lived, and don't fit the world of later legend."" Brown's book has become a publishing phenomenon, consistently topping book charts in the UK and US. The Da Vinci Code has been translated into 42 languages and has spawned its own cottage industry of publications, including guides on to how to read the book, rebuttals and counter claims. The book, which has become an international best-seller in little over two years, is set to be made into a film starring Tom Hanks.",entertainment
"Uganda bans Vagina Monologues..Uganda's authorities have banned the play The Vagina Monologues, due to open in the capital, Kampala this weekend...The Ugandan Media Council said the performance would not be put on as it promoted and glorified acts such as lesbianism and homosexuality. It said the production could go ahead if the organisers ""expunge all the offending parts"". But the organisers of the play say it raises awareness of sexual abuse against women. ""The play promotes illegal, unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution, it should be and is hereby banned,"" the council's ruling said...The show, which has been a controversial sell-out around the world, explores female sexuality and strength through individual women telling their stories through monologues. Some parliamentarians and church leaders are also siding with the Media Council, Uganda's New Vision newspaper reports. ""The play is obscene and pornographic although it was under the guise of women's liberation,"" MP Kefa Ssempgani told parliament...But the work's author, US playwright Eve Ensler, says it is all about women's empowerment. ""There is obviously some fear of the vagina and saying the word vagina,"" Ms Ensler told the BBC. ""It's not a slang word or dirty word it's a biological, anatomical word."" She said the play is being produced and performed by Ugandan women and it is not being forced on them. The four Ugandan NGOs organising the play intended to raise money to campaign to stop violence against women and to raise funds for the war-torn north of the country. ""I'm extremely outraged at the hypocrisy,"" the play's organiser in Uganda, Sarah Mukasa, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. ""I'm amazed that this country Uganda gives the impression that it is progressive and supports women's rights and the notions of free speech; yet when women want to share their stories the government uses the apparatus of state to shut us up.""",entertainment
"Artists' secret postcards on sale..Postcards by artists including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin have sold just hours after the opening of the Royal Academy of Arts annual Secrets sale...The identity of the artist remains unknown until each work is bought and the signature is revealed on the back. ""There are still some big names left, such as Mario Testino,"" said RCA spokeswoman Sue Bradburn. All postcards are priced at £35. The sale opened at 8am on Friday and will close at 6pm on Saturday. Ms Bradburn said there was a big queue at the start of the sale but it had now gone down...She said the people that had bought the famous name postcards had arrived early and had spent time studying each work. ""They would have known what to look for."" The exhibition has been open for viewing since 19 November. Film director Ken Loach, fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon have all designed postcards for the sale. Some of the contributing artists are students or recent graduates of the Royal College of Art and other leading art colleges. Money raised from the sale will go towards the RCA's Fine Art Student Award Fund which supports students with grants and bursaries. The famous sale is now in its 11th year.",entertainment
"Neeson in bid to revive theatre..Hollywood film star Liam Neeson has held a dinner party in New York to promote Belfast's Lyric Theatre...The Ballymena-born actor said that the theatre on Ridgeway Street was in a ""very dilapidated condition"". Lyric chairman David Johnston has said that rebuilding the theatre, at a cost of £8m is the only answer. Mr Neeson said that the idea was to get a bunch of ""healthy, wealthy Irish Americans"" in one room and ask them to help with fundraising...The Oscar-nominated actor, whose films include Schindler's List, Michael Collins and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, said: ""The Lyric is too important to the cultural and social life of Northern Ireland for this building to crumble and fall apart. ""It gave me a start professionally. Mary O'Malley, the founder of the theatre, gave me my future. ""In those days, in the mid-70s, when I was there, we were doing a play every four weeks. ""Belfast was not a pretty town to be living in. ""There was serious trouble, as you know, but this theatre was like a Belisha beacon of light and hope six nights a week, doing everything from Shakespeare to Yeats to O'Casey with a group of actors and actresses that affected me very deeply and still do."" The Lyric began 50 years ago but the doors opened at its present site on the Stranmillis embankment overlooking the River Lagan in 1968...As well as Liam Neeson, it also launched the careers of Adrian Dunbar and Stephen Rea and playwrights such as Martin Lynch and Gary Mitchell. Speaking to BBC Northern Ireland before the event at New York's SoHo House, Mr Neeson said that his spirit belonged to the Glens of Antrim. And he said that there was one figure from his childhood that he would love to portray on the big screen - Ian Paisley. He said that the DUP leader and preacher was a ""very dynamic, extraordinary figure"". Neeson used to listen to his sermons on a Friday night in Ballymena. He said: ""What an orator. He was from that old school of bible-thumping righteousness. But it was so dramatic. I found him very powerful. ""I'd love to get a chance to play him some time.""",entertainment
"Levy takes Whitbread novel prize..Orange Prize winner Andrea Levy has seen her book Small Island win the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award...She is now favourite to win the overall prize after beating Booker winner Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty. Geraldine McCaughrean has picked up the children's fiction award for the third time for Not the End of the World. All the category winners go through to compete for the Whitbread Book of the Year title, which carries with it a £25,000 prize. A panel of judges including Sir Trevor McDonald, actor Hugh Grant and writer Joanne Harris will meet up on 25 January to decide the overall winner, with the announcement being made later that evening...Bookmaker William Hill has placed London-based Levy's novel as the 6/4 favourite to win...Small Island, Levy's fourth novel, is set in post-war England and centres on a landlady and her lodgers. One is a Jamaican who joined British troops to fight Hitler but finds life difficult out of uniform when he settles in London. The judges, who included authors Jenny Colgan and Amanda Craig, were full of praise for her writing. ""What could have been a didactic or preachy prospect turns out to hilarious, moving humane and eye-popping. It's hard to think of anybody not enjoying it,"" wrote the judges. The first novel section was won by Susan Fletcher for Eve Green, beating the favourite Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Fletcher has recently graduated from graduated from the University of East Anglia creative writing course. Waterstone's fiction writer buyer Suzie Doore said: ""It is great to see Susan Fletcher win in the first novel category. As a relatively unknown author this award will give her exposure to a wider and mass audience that she may not have reached and is a perfect example of the influence of the Whitbread. ""Fresh out of university she is certainly one to watch.""..In the biography category it was John Guy's The Life of Mary Queen of Scots that was picked as winner. The judges called it ""an impressive and readable piece of scholarship, which cannot fail but leave the reader moved and intrigued by this most tragic and likeable of queens"". Guy has published many histories, including Tudor England. He is a fellow at Clare College, Cambridge and became a honorary research professor of the University of St Andrews in 2003. Michael Symmons Roberts' fourth collection of poems scooped the poetry award. His works mixes mysticism, erotica and philosophy through life, death and resurrection. As well as writing poetry, Symmons Roberts also makes documentary films. Children's winner McCaughrean, who went into magazine publishing after studying teaching, previously won the Whitbread Prize in 1987 with A Little Lower than Angels and in 1994 with Gold Dust. She has previously been the winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year.",entertainment
"Adventure tale tops awards..Young book fans have voted Fergus Crane, a story about a boy who is taken on an adventure by a flying horse, the winner of two Smarties Book Prizes...Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's book came top in the category for six- to eight-year-olds and won the award chosen by after-school club members. Sally Grindley's Spilled Water, about a Chinese girl sold as a servant, was top in vote of readers aged nine to 11. Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey took the top award in the under-five category. Winners were voted for by about 6,000 children from a shortlist picked by an adult panel...The prize, which is celebrating its 20th year, is billed as ""the UK's biggest children's book award"". Fergus Crane includes text by Stewart and illustrations by Riddell, who also created The Edge Chronicles together. As well as the six to eights prize, it won the 4Children Special Award voted for by after-school club members. Julia Eccleshare, chair of the adult judging panel, said children's literature had ""never looked stronger"" in the prize's 20 years. ""This award counts because the final choice of winners is made by children, who are the toughest critics of all,"" she said. ""This year's young judges chose the winners from an exceptionally strong and varied shortlist which showcases the very best in children's books today."" Previous winners have included JK Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson and Dick King-Smith.",entertainment
"Mutant book wins Guardian prize..A book about the evolution of mutants and the science of abnormality has won the Guardian First Book Award 2004...Armand Marie Leroi, a lecturer at London's Imperial College, scooped the £10,000 prize for Mutants: On the form, varieties and errors of the human body. ""It is profoundly cultured and beautifully written in the very best tradition of popular science writing today,"" said judge Claire Armistead. The award recognises and rewards new writing across fiction and non-fiction. A panel of literary experts, including novelists Hari Kunzru and Ali Smith, director Sir Richard Eyre and comedian Alexei Sayle chose the winner from a five-strong shortlist...The shortlist included Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, a novel about the magic arts at the turn of the 19th Century and The Places In Between, Rory Stewart's account of his trek, on foot, across Afghanistan. ""What we found so impressive about Armand Marie Leroi's book was the scope of its reference, its elegance and its inquisitiveness,"" said Ms Armistead, chair of the judges and the Guardian literary editor. ""While the subject matter of Mutants unsettled some involved in the judging process, the overwhelming majority found it fascinating,"" she added. Her words were echoed by Iris director Sir Richard Eyre who called Marie Leroi's work ""extraordinarily thought provoking"". The award, for first time authors, is open to books from genres including fiction, poetry, biography, memoir, history, politics, science and current affairs. Previous winners include White Teeth by Zadie Smith, in 2000, which went on to become a bestseller.",entertainment
"Arthur Hailey: King of the bestsellers..Novelist Arthur Hailey, who has died at the age of 84, was known for his bestselling page-turners exploring the inner workings of various industries, from the hotels to high finance...Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, on 5 April 1920, Hailey was the only child of working class parents, They could not afford to keep him in school beyond the age of 14. He served as a pilot with the Royal Air Force during World War II, flying fighter planes to the Middle East. It was an occupation that was later to feature in his authorial debut, the television screenplay Flight into Danger. Hailey emigrated to Canada in 1947, where he eventually became a citizen. He wanted to be a writer from an early age, but did not take it up professionally until his mid-thirties, when he was inspired to write his first screenplay while on a return flight to Toronto...""I fell to daydreaming. I visualised the pilots at the controls and wondered what would happen if they both got sick. Could I fly the airplane? I was a rusty wartime pilot who hadn't flown for nine years... "" Hailey later recalled. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation bought Flight into Danger for $600 (£318) and it was shown on TV in April 1956. It was later memorably spoofed in the 1980 comedy Airplane!, starring Leslie Nielsen. Hailey worked as a screenwriter for a couple of years, before turning to novels. He went on to produce 11 best-selling books, which were published into 38 languages in 40 countries. Flight into Danger was adapted to become Hailey's first novel, Runaway Zero-Eight in 1958. The Final Diagnosis and In High Places followed, both achieving a popular following. But it was not until Hotel, in 1965, that Hollywood came calling. The hit novel took four years to write, and stayed on national best-seller lists for a full year. It was turned into a movie in 1967 and later adapted into a glossy soap in the 1980s, starring James Brolin. Airport (1968) arguably remains Hailey's best-loved work and prompted the disaster movie genre. The thriller follows events in the sky, and on the ground at a snow-logged airport, when a terrorist boards an airplane with a bomb...The book was adapted into a hit film in 1970, starring Burt Lancaster as the harassed aiport manager and Dean Martin as a womanising pilot, alongside Jean Seberg and Jacqueline Bisset. In a testament to the popularity of the fledgling disaster genre - three sequels followed. The writer was known for his painstaking research into the professions around which each novel was centred, drawing his characters ""from real life"" and taking up to three years to produce each book. ""I have never been able to write quickly or easily. I am too self-critical for that. I am never satisfied,"" he once said. In 1969, he moved to Nassau in the Bahamas, with his wife Sheila. Wheels (1971), The Moneychangers (1975) and Overload (1979) followed. Despite a lukewarm response from critics, and few literary accolades, Hailey was at the height of his fame in the seventies and continued to attract the attention of Hollywood producers. Strong Medicine, Hailey's blockbuster focusing on the pharmaceutical industry, was turned into a film in 1986, starring Sam Neill, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and a panoply of former soap stars. The 1997 novel Detective proved to be Hailey's final book, when at the age of 77 he decided to retire. Hailey's health began to deteriorate in recent years, twice undergoing heart surgery. He suffered a stroke just two months ago. He died in his sleep on Wednesday, after dinner with his wife and two of his six children at his home in New Providence island. ""He had a wonderful life. His greatest ambition was to see his name on a book and he certainly achieved that,"" said his wife, Sheila.",entertainment
"Spark heads world Booker list..Dame Muriel Spark is among three British authors who have made the shortlist for the inaugural international Booker Prize...Doris Lessing and Ian McEwan have also been nominated. McEwan and Margaret Atwood are the only nominees to have previously won the main Booker Prize. The new £60,000 award is open to writers of all nationalities who write in English or are widely translated. The prize commends an author for their body of work instead of one book...Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Saul Bellow, Milan Kundera and John Updike also feature on the 18-strong list of world literary figures...But other past winners of the regular Booker Prize, such as Salman Rushdie, JM Coetzee and Kazuo Ishiguro have failed to make the shortlist. The prize, which will be awarded in London in June, will be given once every two years. It will reward an author - who must be living - for ""continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage"". An author can only win once. The international award was started in response to criticisms that the Booker Prize is only open to British and Commonwealth authors.....Margaret Atwood (Canada) Saul Bellow (Canada) Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia) Gunter Grass (Germany) Ismail Kadare (Albania) Milan Kundera (Czech Republic) Stanislaw Lem (Poland) Doris Lessing (UK) Ian McEwan (UK) Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt) Tomas Eloy Martinez (Argentina) Kenzaburo Oe (Japan) Cynthia Ozick (US) Philip Roth (US) Muriel Spark (UK) Antonio Tabucchi (Italy) John Updike (US) Abraham B Yehoshua (Israel)",entertainment
"Versace art portfolio up for sale..The art collection of murdered fashion designer Gianni Versace could fetch up to £9m ($17m) when it is auctioned in New York and London later this year...Among the pictures for sale are works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse. The collection was housed at Versace's six-storey New York townhouse. The 51-year-old designer was shot outside his Florida home in 1997 by suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who later killed himself. The auction, at Sotheby's, will feature 45 contemporary, impressionist and 19th Century paintings. One of the highlights of the sale is Roy Lichtenstein's Blue Nude which has been given an estimate of £1.8m ($3.4m)...Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's worldwide head of contemporary art, said: ""This collection reflects Mr Versace's wide-ranging taste and impeccable eye, and many of the works were commissioned directly from the artists. ""Outstanding later examples from champions of the Pop movement, such as Roy Lichtenstein, are juxtaposed with masterpieces from the most visible artists of the 1980's, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and the collaborative genius of Basquiat and Warhol, as well as Francesco Clemente."" Much of the collection will be offered for sale at three auctions in New York in June, with smaller contemporary paintings going under the hammer in London on 22 and 23 June. A sale of Versace's furniture and artworks sold in 2001fetched £5.5m ($10.3m).",entertainment
"Slater to star in Broadway play..Actor Christian Slater is stepping into the role of Tom in the Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie...Slater, 35, is replacing actor Dallas Roberts in the Tennessee Williams drama, which opens next month. No reason was given for Roberts' departure. The role will be played by understudy Joey Collins until Slater joins the show. Slater won rave reviews for his recent performance in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in London's West End...He has also starred in a number of films, including Heathers, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and more recently Churchill: The Hollywood Years. Preview performances of The Glass Menagerie will begin at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Thursday. Philip Rinaldi, a spokesman for the show, said the play's 15 March opening date remains unchanged. The revival, directed by David Leveaux, will also star Jessica Lange as the domineering mother, Amanda Wingfield.",entertainment
"Public show for Reynolds portrait..Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Omai will get a public airing following fears it would stay hidden because of an export wrangle...The Tate Gallery unsuccessfully tried to buy the picture from its anonymous owner after a ban was issued preventing the painting from leaving the UK. The 18th Century painting has remained in storage but the owner has agreed to allow it to be part of an exhibition. The exhibition of Reynolds' work will be shown at Tate Britain from May. Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity will feature prints, caricatures, and sculpture by the 18th Century artist, who painted some of the most famous personalities of his day. Portrait of Omai fetched the second highest amount for a British painting when it was sold at auction for £10.3m in 2001. It was bought by a London dealer who sold it on to a collector. The unnamed collector wanted to take it out of the country, but was barred from doing so by the government because of its historical significance...In March 2004, the Tate managed to raise £12.5m funding to buy the portrait but the owner refused to sell and it has been held in storage since. The portrait is of a young man who was dubbed ""the noble savage"" when he arrived in London from Polynesia. He became a darling of London society and was invited to all the best parties by people who were fascinated by such an exotic character. Sir Joshua painted him after his arrival in 1774, and it became the artist's most famous work after it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776.",entertainment
"Obituary: Dame Alicia Markova..Dame Alicia Markova, who has died in Bath aged 94, was the UK's first prima ballerina of the modern age, and, in her heyday, the greatest in the western world...She was born Lilian Alicia Marks in London in 1910. Her parents were comfortably off - her father, a mining engineer, drove a Rolls Royce. When she was eight, her mother took a decision which changed her life. Fearing that she had flat feet and weak legs, she arranged for her to have ballet lessons. Very quickly it became apparent that she was something special. She was spotted by the Russian artistic impresario, Sergei Diaghilev, who wanted her to dance for his company, Ballets Russes. She became ill with diphtheria but kept in touch, and, eventually, with a governess in tow, joined Diaghilev in Monte Carlo when she was 14...From here, she toured Europe, playing in all the top venues. It was Diaghilev who changed her name without even consulting her. Her life was one of great excitement. People such as Matisse and Stravinsky became like uncles to her, the latter put in charge of her musical education. Soon after Diaghilev's death in 1929, Alicia Markova returned to England and became Britain's first international ballerina. She helped launch the Ballet Club at the Mercury Theatre (later the Ballet Rambert), the Vic Wells Ballet, and then, with Anton Dolin, the Markova-Dolin Ballet of 1935-37. She also began working with young choreographers such as Anthony Tudor and Frederick Ashton who became huge influences on the direction of ballet in the west...Her version of Giselle, all lightness and grace, is still considered to be among the finest ever. She was also outstanding in The Dying Swan. She was one of the first British ballerinas to take a major part in Les Sylphides. She, above all, helped popularise ballet both in Britain and in America...Alicia Markova spent World War II in the United States where, in a re-formed Ballets Russes, she played to huge audiences. She even appeared in Hollywood movies. In 1950, back in England, she and Anton Dolin jointly established the Festival Ballet. She retired in 1963, an ""instant decision"" she said, ""largely because of a leg injury"". Created a Dame, she made a new career for herself as a teacher. She also travelled the world directing ballet companies and putting on shows. She became director of ballet for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York, and for some years was full-time Professor of Ballet and Performing Arts in the University of Cincinnati. A critic once said of Dame Alicia Markova's dancing: ""She gave the illusion of moving as if she had no weight to get off the ground.""",entertainment
"Fears raised over ballet future..Fewer children in the UK are following in the dainty footsteps of dancers like Darcey Bussell, and carving out potential careers as ballet dancers...New research from the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) has found fewer children over the age of 10 are attending ballet classes and taking exams in the discipline. The organisation blames the growing popularity of computer games and other changes in lifestyle. And there are fears that if the trend is not reversed, there could be fewer British ballet stars in the future. The RAD found that the number of youngsters taking their ballet exams drops by almost 70% after the age of 10 or 11. Dance teacher Eve Trew, who has taught ballet for over 48 years, told BBC News she had seen a ""vast"" change over the years. She blamed modern lifestyles for the fall in ballet attendance. ""I think the children of many years ago did not have as many hobbies,"" she said. ""The trouble now is that they are wide open to computers, Gameboys and everything else children have got. ""As a result, there is less time being spent on ballet lessons.""..Hazel Gilbert, 23, an information manager from Newcastle, gave up ballet at the age of 10 and is typical of the problem. ""It's not a very cool thing to do when you go to 'big' school and I think you have to be very focused on ballet to want to carry on doing it,"" she said. ""I used to love it, but after a certain age it becomes much more disciplined and I didn't want that. ""I started getting into other things, like swimming and kickboxing, and ballet just wasn't something I wanted to do any more."" Ms Trew, who runs a dance school in Gateshead, admitted it would be ""very difficult"" to reverse the trend and said many young ballet dancers were no longer willing to make the sacrifices to succeed. ""You have to be very dedicated and you have to be very disciplined. ""It is a career that you have got to really want to do because it is such hard work. ""Children these days have not got the time to spend perfecting it... that is very sad.""..Currently, only two out of 16 principal dancers at the Royal Ballet - Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope - are British, compared to 16 of the 21 principals in 1985. But a spokesman for the English National Ballet told BBC News that although only two out of their 12 principal dancers were British, around a quarter of the company's dancers were from the UK. He said competition at open auditions in London was ""fierce"" between talented dancers from all over the world. The RAD have launched a new competition to try and reverse the decline in British ballet. Dame Antoinette Sibley, president of the RAD, launched the Fonteyn Nureyev Young Dancers competition earlier this week...Aimed at children aged 10 to 13, it is hoped the contest will help keep British ballet evolving. A spokeswoman for the RAD said: ""It is our responsibility to re-ignite the passion and nurture young dancers for the long-term future of ballet. ""We need to provide them with a framework and a goal to work towards, with constant support and coaching in an environment where they can work with their peers and possibly leading artists and choreographers. ""Perhaps more importantly provide them with the opportunity to experience 'performance' themselves. ""What better way to reignite a passion for ballet than to let them experience the thrill of performance?""",entertainment
"Famed music director Viotti dies..Conductor Marcello Viotti, director of Venice's famous La Fenice Theatre, has died in Germany at 50...Viotti, director of La Fenice since 2002, conducted at renowned opera houses worldwide including Milan's La Scala and the Vienna State Opera. His time at La Fenice coincided with its reopening in 2003 after it was destroyed by fire in 1996. He fell into a coma after suffering a stroke during rehearsals for Jules Massenet's Manon last week...He conducted some of the best orchestras in the world including the Berlin Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra. Viotti was born in Switzerland and studied the piano, cello and singing at the Lausanne Conservatory. His career breakthrough came in 1982 when he won first prize at the Gino Marinuzzi conducting competition in Italy. Viotti established himself as chief conductor of the Turin Opera and went on to become chief conductor of Munich's Radio Orchestra. At La Fenice Viotti was widely acclaimed for his production of the French composer Massenet's Thais and some of his other productions included Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata and Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos...The last opera he directed at La Fenice was Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore. Viotti's debut at the New York's Metropolitan Opera came in 2000 with Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly, followed by La Boheme, La Traviata and Fromental Halevy's La Juive. Giampaolo Vianello, superintendent of the Fenice Theatre Foundation, said: ""I am filled with extreme sadness because, other than a great artist, he is missed as a friend - a main character in the latest joyous times, during the rebirth of our theatre."" Viotti's last public performance was on 5 February when he conducted Vincenzo Bellini's Norma at the Vienna State Opera.",entertainment
"Paraguay novel wins US book prize..A novel set in 19th century Paraguay has won the $10,000 (£5,390) fiction prize at the US National Book Awards...Lily Tuck's The News From Paraguay is a fictionalised tale about Paraguayan leader Francisco Solano Lopez and his Irish mistress. But the annual awards, which were presented in New York on Wednesday, were not without controversy. Children's author Judy Blume, who was given an honourary medal, used the ceremony to speak out over censorship...Sales of Blume's books have exceeded 75 million, but her work - which features frank narratives about families, religion and sexuality - is closely watched by the censors. Blume said: ""The urge to ban is contagious. It spreads like wildfire from community to community. Please speak out. Censors hate publicity."" Her medal marks the second year in a row the honourary prize went to someone as notable for popular success as literary greatness. Last year's honorary winner, Stephen King, accused the industry during the 2003 ceremony of snobbery against popular writers. But his argument that the award should help sell books instead of honouring excellence is not shared by everyone...This year's fiction panel overlooked high-profile works such as Philip Roth's The Plot Against America and instead chose five little-known books, all by New York-based women. One fiction judge, Stewart O'Nan, carried around a note written on a napkin that said: ""I would hope that our caring more for the quality of a work than its sales figures make us a friend of books, not an enemy."" The National Book Awards non-fiction prize was awarded to Kevin Boyle's for Arc of Justice, which focuses on a black family's fight to live in a white Detroit neighbourhood in the 1920s. The award had created a lot of interest this year after the surprise inclusion of the of the 9-11 Commission Report looking into the events of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the US. Pete Hautman won the young people's literature prize for his novel Godless. The winner in the poetry category was Jean Valentine for Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003.",entertainment
"New Harry Potter tops book chart..Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has topped Amazon's book chart less than 24 hours after its release date - 16 July - was announced...Thousands of customers placed pre-orders on the amazon.co.uk website for the sixth book in the series. Rowling revealed she had completed the novel on Tuesday, ahead of the scheduled announcement on 25 December. It will be published simultaneously in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. JK Rowling's fifth book in the wizard series, Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix was Amazon's largest pre-ordered item ever, with 420,000 copies pre-ordered prior to its release in June 2003. Customers who pre-order Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince avoid standing in long queues at bookshops on the day of the book's release next July. ""The fact that the book has already hit number one in our Hot 100 books chart shows how incredibly excited customers are about the sixth Harry Potter,"" said Amazon's Robin Terrell...Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as Lord Voldemort grows stronger. Rowling has already revealed that the Half-Blood Prince is neither Harry nor Voldemort. And she added that the opening chapter of the book had been brewing in her mind for 13 years. Rowling said she had plenty of time while pregnant ""to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction and I am as happy as I have ever been with the end result"". She also previously revealed that a character will be killed in the sixth book, but she has given no hints as to who it might be. Following publication of the sixth book, just one novel remains to complete the series.",entertainment
"UK's National Gallery in the pink..The National Gallery, home to some of the UK's greatest artworks, has seen a big jump in visitor numbers...Five million visitors made the London gallery - which houses treasures like Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks - the UK's most visited museum in 2004. It recorded a 13.8% rise in numbers and was the country's second most visited tourist attraction, behind Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Charles Saumarez Smith, the gallery's director, said he was ""delighted"". He said the number of visitors through the doors had boosted figures to pre-11 September 2001 levels. Mr Saumarez Smith added that the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square, where the gallery is located, and strong temporary collections throughout 2004 had led to the strong performance...""Our 2004 exhibition programme of El Greco, Russian Landscape in the Age of Tolstoy and Raphael: From Urbino to Rome was particularly strong and exceeded all targets,"" he said. ""The exceptional quality of the paintings in our permanent collection is also huge draw for the public. ""The expectations of today's visitors are higher than ever and we have kept pace with their demands."" Mr Saumarez Smith said he was confident the gallery could maintain the attendance. ""With important exhibitions of the work of Caravaggio, Stubbs and Rubens in place for 2005, I am confident that the gallery is set for another highly successful year,"" he added. The figures were prepared by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva)...It found that the figures had been boosted by an increase in Europeans travelling to the UK on budget airlines. Popular cultural tourist spots such as the Tate Modern and the Natural History Museum all recorded increases of more than 10% in visitor numbers compared with 2003. But for legal or confidentiality reasons some Alva members did not submit figures for 2004, including Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers. Alva director Robin Broke said: ""Visits from Western Europe were up by 10% and from North America by some 9% compared to 2003, while numbers from the rest of the world rose 20%. ""European figures were helped by the rapid growth of low-cost flights to Britain from Europe, especially from new EU countries.""",entertainment
"Lit Idol begins search for author..The second Pop Idol-style search for literary talent has begun with the help of the brother of Simon Cowell...Writer Tony Cowell is among the judges who will hear aspiring writers read their work aloud. The winner gets a deal with literary agency Curtis Brown. ""I'm not going to be the Mr Nasty of books,"" said Cowell, 54, in reference to his brother's caustic remarks on TV shows Pop Idol and The X-Factor. The 2004 winner, Paul Cavanagh, went on to sign a deal with Harper Collins...This year, the competition is specifically looking for a crime writer. Writers must submit up to 10,000 words from the opening chapters of their novels and a synopsis. Professional readers will choose a shortlist of five following the competition closing date on 14 January...The final five will then have to read their work in front of judging panel. A public vote will also take place, which will account for 25% of the final decision. The winner will be announced at the London Book Fair on 14 March next year and could be screened on TV. ""It's very, very hard to find an agent and extremely difficult, without an agent, to get a publisher to look at your work,"" said Cowell. ""People do fall by the wayside and the more avenues we can provide for aspiring authors, the better,"" he added. Paul Cavanagh, a former university professor and health care consultant from Ontario in Canada, was one of 1,466 aspiring novelists to enter the first contest. He lifted the inaugural Lit Idol prize after reading aloud an excerpt of his work Northwest Passage. Three film studios are said to be interested in buying film rights for the book, even though it is not finished yet.",entertainment
"Potter director signs Warner deal..Harry Potter director Alfonso Cuaron has signed a three-year deal with Hollywood studio Warner Brothers, according to Variety trade magazine...The Mexican film-maker, who directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, will produce mainstream movies and smaller Spanish-language films. ""We had a wonderful experience with Alfonso on Harry Potter,"" Warner producer Jeff Robinov told Variety. Cuaron's other films include Mexican movie Y Tu Mama Tambien...The 2001 rites-of-passage drama about two teenage boys who embark on a relationship with an older woman, brought Cuaron international attention - and box office glory...It also won him and his brother Carlos, with whom he co-wrote the screenplay, an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. Warner will distribute Cuaron's films in several languages outside the US. ""This deal will give us the opportunity to collaborate with Alfonso on movies that make the most of his artistry and vision, and continue to offer him the mainstream worldwide audiences that our studio provides so successfully,"" said Mr Robinov...His first film for Warner Brothers was 1995's family fantasy movie A Little Princess. Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess tells the story of a young girl who is sent to live in a New York boarding school when her widowed father enlists for war. After the erotic nature of Y Tu Mama Tambien, Cuaron was a surprise choice to direct the third Harry Potter film but his dark interpretation was received well by the public and critics alike.",entertainment
"Baghdad Blogger on big screen..A film based on the internet musings of the ""Baghdad Blogger"" has been shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival...The film has been directed by the man who calls himself Salam Pax, the author of the weblog about Iraqi life during and after the war. The movie version comes in the form of a series of shorts made by Pax on a hand-held camera. Baghdad Blogger is among a number of films about Iraq showcased at the Dutch festival, which runs until Sunday. Following the fascination with the writing of Salam Pax - not his real name - he began a regular column in The Guardian newspaper and was given a crash course in documentary film-making. For the film he travelled Iraq to document the changing landscape of the country and the problems it has faced since the invasion, speaking to ordinary Iraqis about their experiences. The festival will also see the screening of Underexposure, one of Iraq's first features to emerge since the toppling of Saddam Hussein...Director Oday Rasheed made the film on discarded 1980s Kodak film taken from the remains for the former Ministry of Culture building. It centres on the lives of families and strangers going about their everyday business as Baghdad is under siege. Rasheed said the title was refers to the isolation felt by Iraqis under Saddam's regime and the difficult time the country is now experiencing. ""Saddam's regime was hell, but now I think the hell has doubled,"" Rasheed said. The festival was also due to screen murdered Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh's film about the treatment of woman under Islam, but it was withdrawn due to safety fears. Van Gogh was shot and stabbed in November 2004, following death threats he received about his film Submission.",entertainment
"US critics laud comedy Sideways..Road trip comedy Sideways has had more praise heaped on it by two US critics' associations, adding to honours it has already picked up...The Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) named it winner in five categories including best film and best actor for Paul Giamatti. But the director award went to Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby. The Southeastern Film Critics also awarded Sideways its best film of the year accolade. Director Alexander Payne was named best director, and he also won best screenplay shared with Jim Taylor. The CFCA awarded Thomas Haden Church the best supporting actor prize and Virginia Madsen the best supporting actress award for their roles in the film...Sideways has already been voted best film by critics associations in New York and Los Angeles and has been nominated for a Golden Globe. British actress Imelda Staunton won the CFCA best actress for the gritty abortion drama Vera Drake, adding to a growing list of awards she has won for her performance in the Mike Leigh film. Scrubs star Zach Braff was named best new director for his debut Garden State. Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 won the best documentary, while A Very Long Engagement won best foreign film. The Chicago critics have yet to name a date for when their awards ceremony will be held.",entertainment
"Dirty Den's demise seen by 14m..More than 14 million people saw ""Dirty"" Den Watts killed off on Friday, marking EastEnders' 20th anniversary, according to unofficial figures...Den's death came 16 years after he was supposedly shot in 1989. But he came back to the show in September 2003. The audience for BBC One's one-hour special averaged 13.7 million and peaked at 14.2 million in the last 15 minutes, overnight figures showed. Den died after being confronted by Zoe, Chrissie and Sam in the Queen Vic...If the ratings are confirmed, the episode will have given the soap its highest audience for a year. The overnight figures showed almost 60% of the viewing public tuned into EastEnders between 2000 and 2100 GMT, leaving ITV1 with about 13%. ""We are very pleased with the figures,"" a BBC spokesman said. ""It shows viewers have really enjoyed the story of Den's demise."" The show's highest audience came at Christmas 1986, when more than 30 million tuned in to see Den, played by Leslie Grantham, hand divorce papers to wife Angie...Two years later, 24 million saw him apparently shot by a man with a bunch of daffodils by a canal. More than 16 million viewers watched his return in 2003. The show's ratings have since settled down to about 12 million per episode. Grantham hit the headlines in May after a newspaper printed photographs of him apparently exposing himself via a webcam from his dressing room. He also allegedly insulted four co-stars. He apologised for his ""deplorable actions"" and ""a moment's stupidity"".",entertainment
"Redford's vision of Sundance..Despite sporting a corduroy cap pulled low over his face plus a pair of dark glasses, Robert Redford cuts an unmistakable figure through the star-struck crowds at Sundance...It's a rare downtown appearance for the man who started the annual festival in Park City, Utah back in the 1980s. Now in its twenty-first year, Sundance continues to grow. Some 45,000 people are estimated to have descended on this small ski town with nothing but movies on the mind. It's an opportunity to meet and make deals. Redford wanted Sundance to be a platform for independent film-makers, but the commercial success of many showcased films have led to criticism that the festival is becoming too mainstream...Smaller festivals like Slamdance and XDance, which take place during the same week in Park City, are competing for Sundance's limelight. But Redford is not worried. ""The more the merrier,"" he says. ""The point was to create opportunities for people who may not have them. ""Once independent film had a place where the work could be seen, suddenly the merchants came. With them the celebrities came, then the paparazzi - and suddenly it began to take on a whole new tone,"" explains Redford...""People started to say we had gone mainstream and Hollywood, but actually Hollywood came to us because suddenly there was good business in independent film,"" he adds. International film-makers have always been celebrated here, but 2005 is the first year a dedicated World Dramatic and Documentary competition is being held...Redford wants the festival to encompass viewpoints he believes the American media fails to reflect, particularly how the US is perceived internationally. He has never hidden the fact that he is a Democrat. But he reserves particular disdain for the current Republican administration. ""It's the ability to maintain the importance of dissent in a democratic system which right now is under threat with the attitude of this administration,"" he says. ""I think many voices are being shut down or accused of being unpatriotic if they want to express another point of view. That's very unhealthy and very dangerous...""If we take that policy into the world, there will be the same victims and the same consequences."" Sundance isn't just one big screening. There are discussion panels and Q&A sessions with directors tackling controversial topics like America's ""culture wars"" and the Iraq war. While Redford wishes the festival to be a forum for dissent, the profile of the audience is fairly monolithic. Educated, middle class and predominantly white Americans comes Sundance, with views from the same end of the political spectrum - anti-war and socially liberal. But Redford knows this and started the Sundance TV Channel in an effort to reach a wider audience. ""When you look at the films here, what we are presenting is very much egalitarian. And it's about good films and good story-telling be it African America, Asian, women, gay, lesbian. ""Sooner or later we will do away with those stereotypical labels and people will say 'it's just a film by so-and so'.""",entertainment
"DVD review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban..This third Harry Potter film brought a change of director and a dramatic visual shake-up that really shines on DVD...Gone are the warm, bright colours found in the two earlier films, Alfonso Cuaron brings in a bleak and cold feel that is simply gorgeous - and looks even better here than in the cinema. It is all part of the progression of Harry's story into darker areas, but you'll spend time just marvelling at the beautiful Hogwarts landscape...This is the first Potter film where you get so lost in the screen adaptation that you forget the book. It is the third year at Hogwarts and studies are interrupted, as they always are, by a calamity that only Harry, Ron and Hermione can put right...It sounds corny. But Harry is no longer the winsome hero, he is a moody teenager and Daniel Radcliffe pulls it off very well. Emma Watson is ever better as Hermione, and the young stars are joined by the usual myriad famous actors including Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson. The film itself is the reason to buy this DVD. But it is laden with behind-the-scenes extras, including funny, if shallow, interviews with all the main cast. But what seems like a long list of features can be swiftly whittled down to the few that you are going to watch. Younger viewers will go for the games which include a Magic You May Have Missed memory test, and Crookshanks chasing off after Scabbers. Adult viewers will ignore those and go straight to the deleted scenes. You will understand why they were deleted but it is fun to see more footage - and not have to hunt through endless menus to find it, as we did on the first Harry Potter DVD. The most interesting pieces are an interview with JK Rowling in Creating The Vision and Conjuring A Scene, a short featurette about the making of the film's big moments.",entertainment
"Vera Drake scoops film award..Oscar hopefuls Mike Leigh and Imelda Staunton were both winners at the 2004 Evening Standard British Film Awards...Vera Drake - Leigh's 1950s drama about a backstreet abortionist - was named best film and Staunton, who played the title role, was named best actress. Other winners included Paddy Considine, who was crowned best actor for his role in Dead Man's Shoes. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was named Evening Standard Readers' Film of 2004 at the central London ceremony...Leigh was presented with his winner's statuette by Timothy Spall and Staunton's award was announced by Patrick Stewart, during the glittering ceremony at The Savoy on Sunday night. Evening Standard film critic Derek Malcolm said: ""He [Leigh] has never made a film that is better controlled and technically more secure... If this isn't one of the films of the year, I don't know what is."" The Alexander Walker Special Award - which honours those who have made a supreme contribution to British film - went to Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, the co-chairmen of Working Title films. The production company is behind films such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Billy Elliot, About A Boy, Shaun of The Dead and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason...Simon Pegg, who stars in and co-wrote Shaun of the Dead, won the 2004 Peter Sellers Award For Comedy. Other winners included Emily Blunt and Nathalie Press who were jointly named ITV London Most Promising Newcomer Award for their performances in Pawel Pawlikowski's rites-of-passage story, My Summer of Love. Pawlikowski won the best screenplay statuette, while Roger Deakins won the Technical Achievement Award for his cinematography on The Village and The Ladykillers. Guests at the ceremony included Dame Judi Dench, Kim Cattrall, Charles Dance, Bill Nighy and Colin Firth. The awards, which were hosted by Jack Dee, are to be screened on ITV London on Tuesday at 2300 GMT.",entertainment
"Hundreds vie for best film Oscar..A total of 267 films are eligible for the best film Oscar but only five will be chosen to go forward as nominees...The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences has sent out the first ballot papers with the full list of films vying for recognition. Among those expected to receive nominations are The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby and Sideways. Academy members will now vote for their favourites before the final nominees are announced on 25 January...To be eligible for nomination a film must have been shown in a commercial theatre for seven consecutive days before the deadline of 31 December. Director Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio went on general release on Christmas Day in the US, ensuring it just made the deadline. Studios have already begun lobbying voters, taking out full page adverts in trade publications such as Variety urging them to remember particular films when it comes to choosing what to back. Other movies tipped for possible success include Closer, starring Jude Law and Julia Roberts, Finding Neverland, with Johnny Depp as author JM Barry and Kinsey starring Liam Neeson as the famed sex scientist Alfred Kinsey. Meanwhile, design engineer Takuo Miyagishima will be awarded an Oscar at the Scientific and Technical Awards Dinner on 12 February 2005. Miyagishima is the 18th recipient of the Sawyer Award, which is ""presented to an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry."" The main Oscar ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on 27 February.",entertainment
"Hanks greeted at wintry premiere..Hollywood star Tom Hanks was in London's Leicester Square for the UK premiere of Polar Express...The West End landmark was turned into a festive landscape complete with snow and carol singers to celebrate the arrival of the animated film. ""This is Leicester Square like you've never seen it before,"" said Hanks, who plays five roles in the movie. Polar Express is based on a children's book which tells the story of a young boy's journey to meet Santa Claus. The 48-year-old actor crossed a three-metre high bridge built in the square, which he said was ""almost impossible to get across"". Hundreds of fans greeted the star, all wearing Santa hats, and mince pies were on offer. Hanks said that the new film has an ""elegant message"". ""Christmas is a special time of the year and you get out of it what you put into it,"" added the two-time Academy Award winner...""I believe in the spirit of Christmas and I think that's embodied in Santa Claus,"" he said. Polar Express uses technology similar to that used in Lord of the Rings to bring Gollum to life. The ""performance capture"" technique enables Hanks to play a number of roles, including the eight-year-old boy who is at the centre of the story, and Father Christmas. It is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who has previously worked with Hanks on Forrest Gump and Castaway.",entertainment
"Film row over Pirates 'cannibals'..Plans to portray Dominica's Carib Indians as cannibals in the sequel to hit film Pirates of the Caribbean have been criticised by the group's chief...Carib Chief Charles Williams said talks with Disney's producers revealed there was ""a strong element of cannibalism in the script which cannot be removed"". The Caribbean island's government said Disney planned to film in Dominica. The Caribs have long denied their ancestors practised cannibalism. Disney was unavailable for comment. ""Our ancestors stood up against early European conquerors and because they stood up...we were labelled savages and cannibals up to today,"" said Mr Williams...""This cannot be perpetuated in movies."" Shooting on the sequel is expected to begin in April, with hundreds of Dominicans applying to be extras in the movie...About 3,000 Caribs live on the island of Dominica, which has a population of 70,000. Many Caribs were killed by disease and war during colonisation up to the 1600s. Mr Williams said he had received support from indigenous groups around the world in his efforts to have cannibalism references removed from the film. But he admitted there were some members of the Carib council who did not support the campaign. He said some did not ""understand our history, they are weak and are not committed to the cause of the Carib people"". The first Pirates of the Caribbean film took $305m (£162m) at the box office in the US alone. The cast and crew are to work on two sequels back-to-back, with the first to be released in 2006.",entertainment
"Stars gear up for Bafta ceremony..Film stars from across the globe are preparing to walk the red carpet at this year's Bafta award ceremony...The 2005 Orange British Academy Film Awards are being held at The Odeon in London's Leicester Square. A host of Hollywood stars, including Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves and Richard Gere, are expected to attend Saturday's ceremony. Hosted by Stephen Fry, the glittering ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One at 2010 GMT...Other actors expected to add to the glamour of the biggest night in UK film are Gael Garcia Bernal, Imelda Staunton, Diane Kruger, Christian Slater, Anjelica Huston, Helen Mirren and former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan. Hollywood blockbuster The Aviator, starring DiCaprio, leads the field with 14 nominations, including best film...It is up against Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, The Motorcycle Diaries and British film Vera Drake, which has 11 nominations. British hope Imelda Staunton is one of the favourites to land the best actress award for her gritty role as a backstreet abortionist in the small-budget film. Other nominees in the best actress category include Charlize Theron for Monster, Ziyi Zhang for House of Flying Daggers and UK star Kate Winslet, who has two nods for her roles in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Finding Neverland...DiCaprio faces competition from Bernal, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp in the best actor category. And British actor Clive Owen is hoping to repeat his Golden Globe success with a best supporting actor award for his role in Closer. His co-star Natalie Portman is up against Blanchett, Heather Craney, Julie Cristie and Meryl Streep in the best supporting actress category. Mike Leigh is up for the best director award for Vera Drake, alongside Martin Scorsese for The Aviator, Michael Mann for Collateral, Michel Gondry for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Marc Forster for Finding Neverland.",entertainment
"Aviator 'creator' in Oscars snub..The man who said he got Oscar-nominated movie The Aviator off the ground and signed up Leonardo DiCaprio has been shut out of the Academy Awards race...Charles Evans Jr battled over his role with the people who eventually made the film, and won a producer's credit. But he is not on the list of producers who can win a best film Oscar due to a limit on the number of nominees. The Oscars organisers have picked two of The Aviator's four producers to be nominated for best film...Up to three producers can be named per film but the studios behind The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby failed to trim their credits - so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has done it for them. The Aviator's nominated producers are Michael Mann and Graham King - with Mr Evans and Sandy Climan, Mr Mann's former deputy, left off. Mr Evans sued Mr Mann in 2001, claiming he came up with the idea, spent years developing it and persuaded DiCaprio to play Hughes - but said he was later excluded from the project. The two sides settled out of court in a deal that has remained secret apart from the fact Mr Evans' name has appeared as a producer when the film's credits roll. At the Golden Globes, Mr Evans - who was named among the winners when the film won best drama film - evaded a security guard to have his photo taken with DiCaprio, director Martin Scorsese, Mr Mann and Mr King...Ampas decided to limit the number of producers who could be nominated after Shakespeare in Love's victory in 1999 saw five producers collect awards. The eligible names for The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby were decided by Ampas' producers branch executive committee on Wednesday. The decision also saw Clint Eastwood get his third personal nomination for Million Dollar Baby. He is now named in the best film category as well as being nominated for best director and best lead actor. The Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Hollywood on 27 February. Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers, is the latest name to be added to the list of presenters on the night.",entertainment
"Wine comedy up for six film gongs..Sideways, a wine-tasting comedy starring Paul Giamatti, is up for six Independent Spirit Awards, the art-house version of the Oscars...The awards are held on 26 February, the day before the Oscars. Spanish drama Maria Full of Grace, about a Colombian woman who becomes a drug courier, got five nominations. Controversial biopic Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson as sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, was one of four films to get four nominations. The awards, now in their 20th year, honour quirky low-budget films, all of which must have a degree of independent financing. Sideways is written and directed by Alexander Payne, who directed the 2002 hit About Schmidt, winning Jack Nicholson his 12th Academy Award nomination...""These awards, for better or worse, mean everything,"" said Sideways producer Michael London, adding they were a ""huge first step"" toward getting recognition from other awards. Among the other films receiving four nominations apiece were Brother to Brother, a drama about a young gay black man forced to live on the streets, Robbing Peter and Primer. Primer, a $7,000 (£3,650) tale of discovery, won top prize at the Sundance film festival earlier this year. Walter Salles critically acclaimed The Motorcycle Diaries and the forthcoming thriller The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon, received three nominations each. Also in the running, with two nominations, are high school comedy Napoleon Dynamite, The Door in the Floor and Garden State - written, directed and starring Scrubs star Zach Braff alongside Natalie Portman. The awards were announced by actors Selma Blair and Dennis Quaid in Los Angeles on Tuesday.",entertainment
"No ads for Passion Oscar campaign..Producer Mel Gibson will not be using paid advertisements to promote The Passion of the Christ to voters in next year's Academy Awards...Gibson and his Icon Productions partner Bruce Davey said they would not be campaigning in print, radio or TV for success at the Oscars in February. ""This film should be judged on its artistic merit, not who spends more money on advertising,"" Davey said. But DVDs will be sent to Oscar voters, who will be invited to screenings. Icon spent very little on advertising the film, which deals with the last hours of Jesus Christ's life, when it was released earlier this year - instead, it made the film available for special screenings at churches. It went on to gross over $600m (£322m) in ticket sales worldwide. Over recent years, marketing films to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has become a multi-million dollar industry. Last year, the academy formed a committee to tighten the rules after the campaigns spilled over into personal attacks between studios. Academy president Frank Pierson praised Gibson's move for working to restore the Oscars as a ""celebration and appreciation of excellence,"" and resisting the ""crass commercialisation that was threatening the integrity of the award"".",entertainment
"Berlin honours S Korean director..South Korean film director Im Kwon-Taek has received an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival...Im, who has made more than 100 films in a 40-year career, was hailed for his ""remarkable visual beauty, technical innovation, and intellectual depth"". Twenty of his films are screening in a special retrospective during the festival, which runs until 20 February. The veteran film-maker, 68, won the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 for Chihwaseon. ""Although his films vary in style, they all bear his unmistakable stamp: they are forceful and charged cinematographically, as well as reticent, stylised and musical,"" organisers said in a statement. Meanwhile, a film version of Bizet's opera Carmen - translated into the South African language Xhosa - has received a warm reception at the festival. U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (Carmen in Khayelitsha), which is one of 21 films up for Berlin's top prize, the Golden Bear, is British director Mark Dornford-May's first feature film. ""It's the first time any opera has been translated into a black South African language. Xhosa works brilliantly, it's such a musical language,"" said music director Charles Hazlewood.",entertainment
"Stars pay tribute to actor Davis..Hollywood stars including Spike Lee, Burt Reynolds and Oscar nominee Alan Alda have paid tribute to actor Ossie Davis at a funeral in New York...Veteran star Ossie Davis, a well-known civil rights activist, died in Miami at the age of 87 on 4 February 2005. Friends and family, including actress Ruby Dee his wife of 56 years, gathered at the Riverside Church on Saturday. Also present at the service was former US president Bill Clinton and singer Harry Belafonte, who gave the eulogy. ""He would have been a very good president of the United States,"" said Mr Clinton. ""Like most of you here, he gave more to me than I gave to him.""..The 87-year-old was found dead last weekend in his hotel room in Florida, where he was making a film. Police said that he appeared to have died of natural causes. Davis made his acting debut in 1950 in No Way Out starring Sidney Poiter. He frequently collaborated with director Spike Lee, starring in seven Lee films including Jungle Fever, Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X. Attallah Shabazz, the daughter of activist Malcolm X, recalled the famous eulogy delivered by Davis at her father's funeral. ""Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its finest hopes,"" she said, quoting the man she knew as Uncle Ossie. ""Ditto."" ""Ossie was my hero, and he still is,"" said Aviator star Alan Alda, a family friend for over forty years. ""Ossie was a thing of beauty.""..""I want so badly someday to have his dignity - a little of it anyway,"" added Burt Reynolds, Davis's co-star in the 90s TV comedy Evening Shade. Before the midday funeral, scores of Harlem residents formed a queue outside the church to pay their respects to Davis. ""It is hard to fathom that we will no longer be able to call on his wisdom, his humour, his loyalty and his moral strength to guide us in the choices that are yet to be made and the battles that are yet to be fought,"" said Belafonte, himself an ardent civil rights activist who had been friends with Davis for over 60 years. ""But how fortunate we were to have him as long as we did.""",entertainment
"US actor Ossie Davis found dead..US actor Ossie Davis has been found dead at the age of 87...Davis, who was married to actress Ruby Dee, was found dead on Friday in his hotel room in Miami Beach, Florida, where he was making a film. Davis, whose 65-year career included credits as a producer, director, actor and writer for stage and screen, was also a civil rights activist. Miami Beach police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said the cause of death appeared to be natural...Davis's body was discovered by his grandson and paramedics at the Shore Club hotel in Miami Beach, where the actor had been shooting the film Retirement. Mr Hernandez said: ""After gaining entry, they found Mr Davis had passed away. ""The cause of death appears to be natural. According to his grandson he was suffering from heart disease."" Some of Davis's best known roles included The Joe Louis Story and Gone Are the Days - a film he adapted from his own play, Purlie Victorious. He also appeared in 7 Spike Lee movies, including School Daze, Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever...His film debut, in 1950, was in the film No Way Out, starring Sydney Poitier and Ruby Dee. Davis and Dee were married for more than 56 years and together received Kennedy Center honours in 2004 for their body of work. The Actors' Equity Association issued a statement calling Davis ""an icon in the American theatre"" and he and Dee ""American treasures"". Davis was also a prominent figure in the civil rights movement and was a voice for racial equality. He was a featured speaker at the funerals of both Martin Luther King Jnr and Malcolm X. Besides Dee, Davis is survived by three children Nora, Hasna and Guy, a blues artist, and seven grandchildren.",entertainment
"Jugnot 'tops French actor league'..Actor Gerard Jugnot - star of the Oscar-nominated film The Chorus - has beaten Gerard Depardieu to become France's best-paid actor of 2004...Jugnot made 5.45m Euros (£3.77m) last year, according to a table drawn up by France's Le Figaro newspaper. In The Chorus (Les Choristes), Jugnot plays an inspiring music teacher at a school for troubled boys in 1949. Despite starring in five films in 2004, Depardieu made 3.35m Euros (£2.31m) putting him third place in the chart. ""His name [Depardieu] is no longer sufficient to guarantee the success of a film,"" said Le Figaro newspaper. The Chorus, which Jugnot also co-produced, has drawn an audience of nearly nine million people since its release last year...Godzilla star Jean Reno was France's second best-paid actor in 2004, earning 3.55m Euros (£2.45m) . His roles include a recent uncredited cameo in the Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda. The highest-ranking woman on Le Figaro's list was Audrey Tautou in 10th place, earning 885,000 Euros (£611,000). She starred in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles) and is also lined up to co-star with Tom Hanks in Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code. The Chorus is nominated for best foreign film at Sunday's Oscar ceremony. On Saturday, it will compete for the title of best film against fellow nominee A Very Long Engagement in France's Cesar film awards.",entertainment
"Howl helps boost Japan's cinemas..Japan's box office received a 3.8% boost last year, with ticket sales worth 211bn yen (£1.08bn)...The surge was led by animated movie Howl's Moving Castle, which took 20bn yen (£102m) to become the biggest film in Japan in 2004. It is expected to match the 30.7bn yen (£157m) record of Hayao Miyazaki's previous film Spirited Away. Japan Motion Picture Producers figures showed that 170 million cinema admissions were made in Japan in 2004. The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, was the biggest foreign movie hit in Japan last year, taking 13.8bn yen (£70.7m)...It was followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Nemo and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The second highest-grossing Japanese film was romantic drama Crying Out Love in the Centre of the World, followed by Be With You and Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation. Japanese films accounted for 37.5% of Japan's box office total last year, with foreign films taking the remaining 62.5%. This represented a 4.5% gain for the proportion of Japanese films in 2004 compared to 2003. The number of Japanese films released rose to 310 in 2004 from 287 the previous year. Sales of movies on DVD and video amounted to 497bn yen (£2.54bn) for the year.",entertainment
"Berlin applauds Hotel Rwanda..Political thriller Hotel Rwanda was given a rousing reception by spectators at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday...The movie's star Don Cheadle also received a standing ovation when he stepped onto the stage after the show. The film is the true story of the hotel manager who saved 1,200 Tutsis from death during the Rwandan genocide. The film, showing out of competition in Berlin, is nominated for three Oscars, including best actor for Cheadle. Sophie Okonedo, who plays Cheadle's wife Tatiana, is nominated for best supporting actress. The film is also in the running for best original screenplay. Cheadle, was joined on stage at Berlin by Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager he plays in the film, Mr Rusesabagina's wife and his extended family, who fled Rwanda and now live in Belgium. Mr Rusesabagina used his influence as a prominent Hutu businessman to shelter potential victims of the Rwandan genocide, contacting dignitaries including Bill Clinton, the King of Belgium as well as the French foreign ministry. Hotel Rwanda is one of two films addressing the genocide at the 55th Berlin Film Festival, which runs until 20 February. Sometimes in April is a feature by Raoul Peck competing for the festival's coveted Golden and Silver Bear awards. The film was made exclusively in Rwanda whereas Hotel Rwanda was shot mostly in South Africa, with some scenes made in Kigali.",entertainment
"'Landmark movies' of 2004 hailed..US film professionals have declared Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ as two of the most significant cultural milestones of 2004...The American Film Institute (AFI) hailed Mel Gibson's biblical epic and Michael Moore's political documentary as inspiring national debate. It claimed both film-makers ""tossed Hollywood convention out the window"". The Institute also cited the death of actor Marlon Brando and the changing landscape of TV news in the US. In referring to Marlon Brando's death on 1 July at the age of 80, the 13-strong AFI jury concluded ""the art of screen acting has two chapters - 'Before Brando' and 'After Brando'...It credited the screen legend's ""raw hypnotic energy"" and his ability to create characters like Stanley Kowalski and Terry Malloy ""that will live forever in the annals of film history"". The list also acknowledges key influences and trends in the world of film and broadcasting. Among current trends, it highlighted the final broadcasts of veteran newscasters Tom Brokaw, Barbara Walters and the impending retirement of CBS news anchor Dan Rather. It its place, the AFI fears, is a news landscape where ""newscasters are more personalities than journalists"" and balance and integrity are increasingly ignored...The AFI also questioned ""the long-term viability of evening news broadcasts"", in the light of 24-hour news channels and the internet. The list also draws attention to the growing influence of US broadcasting regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)..The institute concluded the threat of regulation, which went into freefall following Janet Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction' during a live Super Bowl performance in February, ""had a profound effect on television"". ""Unsure of how the FCC will rule on an issue, the creative community has begun to self-censor their shows, a disturbing trend in a country founded on free expression,"" the AFI jury declared. To illustrate their point, the AFI cited ABC affiliates refusal to air Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan in an unedited form over fears of possible fines.",entertainment
"De Niro film leads US box office..Film star Robert De Niro has returned to the top of the North American box office with his film Hide and Seek...The thriller shot straight to the number one spot after taking $22m (£11.7m) at the box office. De Niro recently spent three weeks at the top with comedy Meet The Fockers, which was at number five this week. Oscar hopefuls The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby and Sideways all cashed in on their multiple nominations with stronger ticket sales...In Hide and Seek, De Niro plays a widower whose daughter has a creepy imaginary friend. Despite lukewarm reviews from critics, the film took more than the expected $18m (£9.5m). ""The element of a real actor in a psychological thriller certainly elevated it,"" said Bruce Snyder, president of domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox. Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby led the Oscar hopefuls with $11.8m (£6.3m), coming in at number three during its first weekend of wide release. The Aviator, a film biography of Howard Hughes that leads the Oscar field with 11 nominations, was at number six for the weekend with $7.5m (£4m). Oscar best-picture nominee Sideways entered the top ten for the first time in its 15th week of release. It came in seventh $6.3 (£3.35m). Last week's top film, Ice Cube's road-trip comedy Are We There Yet?, slipped to second place with $17m (£9m), while Coach Carter fell two places to number four, taking $8m (£4.25m) in its third week. Rounding out the top ten were In Good Company - starring Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson - Racing Stripes and Assault on Precinct 13.",entertainment
"Willis sues over movie 'injury'..Actor Bruce Willis is suing Revolution Studios over an injury he said he suffered while making Tears of the Sun...Willis is seeking medical expenses after he said he was hit in the head by a firework during the filming of the 2002 movie, produced by the firm. The lawsuit said the star has endured mental and physical injuries as a result of the alleged incident. ""We are not able to comment on pending litigation,"" Revolution Studios spokesman Sean Dudas said...In Tears of the Sun Willis plays a US military commander who disobeys orders to try and help save a doctor and patients trapped in the Nigerian jungle. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film was poorly received by critics and did not perform strongly at the box office. According to the lawsuit, the injury was suffered during the firing of explosions as part of a special effect. The explosions, known as squibs, were intended to ""simulate the appearance of bullets striking the ground"". The lawsuit said Willis has endured ""extreme mental, physical and emotional pain and suffering."" There were no specific details on the injuries. While Willis does not seek specific monetary damages, the lawsuit noted that the star ""was required to and did employ physicians and other medical personnel"". It stated he will incur additional future medical expenses. The lawsuit said Revolution Studios and special effects foreman Joe Pancake ""had a duty to Willis to ensure that the squibs were inspected, set up, placed and detonated in a safe manner, and to employ technicians who were trained and competent in their use"".",entertainment
"Foxx and Swank win US awards..Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank have won the Screen Actors Guild Awards for best male and female film actors, boosting their Oscars hopes this month...Foxx's portrayal of late soul-singer Ray Charles in Ray had already earned him a prestigious Golden Globe award. Swank triumphed for playing a gutsy female boxer in Million Dollar Baby. Modest wine country comedy Sideways knocked out favourites Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator by taking the top prize for best cast performance...The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) represents US film and TV actors. Its winners often go on to win Oscars. In other nominations, Cate Blanchett triumphed as the best supporting actress for her role as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. Veteran actor Morgan Freeman took the best supporting actor award for playing a prize-fighter turned gym manager in Million Dollar Baby...""Thank you for Ray Charles for just living so complex and so interesting, and making us all just come together,"" said Foxx, accepting his award in Los Angeles on Saturday...He also praised the film director: ""Thank you for Taylor Hackford for taking a chance with an African-American film. Taylor, you're my director of the year."" Swank, too, was full of praise for her director and co-star Clint Eastwood. ""I bow down to you,"" Swank said to the 74-year-old Eastwood. ""You are a talent beyond compare. If I'm half the person you are and half the talent you are when I'm 74, I will know that I've accomplished something great.""..Both Foxx and Swank are now considered to be among the favourites to get Oscars - the Hollywood's ultimate prize. However, Swank has to overcome a strong challenge from Annette Bening, a nominee for the theatre farce Being Julia. Meanwhile, ballots for Oscars - the Hollywood's top honours - were mailed earlier this week to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The voting is due to end on 22 February - five days before the ceremony.",entertainment
"Spike Lee backs student directors..Film-maker Spike Lee says black representation is stronger than ever in cinema and TV but the true power in entertainment lies behind the camera...The She Hate Me director urged students at his old Atlanta university, Morehouse College, to seek ""gatekeeper positions"" behind the scenes. Lee told them to ""work up the corporate ladder because everybody can't be an actor, everybody can't make a record"". He spoke as part of a discussion panel, then led a retrospective of his films...Returning to his old university, which educates only African American students, Lee discussed the challenges facing black people in the entertainment industry. ""Even Denzel (Washington), he's getting $20m a movie. But when it comes time to do a movie, he has to go to one of those gatekeepers,"" Lee said. He told aspiring young film-makers in the audience not to ignore non-traditional routes to getting a movie made, including raising funds independently and releasing films straight to DVD. ""It's a huge market,"" the 47-year-old director said. ""It's not something that should be looked upon as a stepchild."" Lee has made more than 25 films, including Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing, Summer of Sam and 1986 hit She's Gotta Have It.",entertainment
"Horror film heads US box office..A low-budget horror film produced by Evil Dead director Sam Raimi has topped the North American box office...Boogeyman, which focuses on a man who returns to his childhood home to confront his traumatic past, took $19.5m (£14.9m) in three days. Last week's chart-topper, the Robert de Niro thriller Hide and Seek, fell to number four. Other new entries included The Wedding Date, a comedy starring Will and Grace's Debra Messing, at number two...The road-trip comedy Are We There Yet? and multiple Oscar nominee Million Dollar Baby completed the top five. Other Oscar contenders, including The Aviator and Sideways, continued to perform strongly at the box office. The Aviator has taken $75m (£40m) so far, while Sideways has taken $46.8m (£24.8m) in a more limited release...Boogeyman, which cost just $7m (£3.5m) to make, performed well even though it was not screened to critics before release - normally a sign that a film will get bad reviews or perform poorly at the box office. ""I certainly believe it's a genre where people are going to be more moved by the marketing materials for the movie than by what the critics say,"" said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony Pictures, which released the film in the US. Overall the weekend box office was strong despite the fact that it was American football's Super Bowl weekend - a time when cinema admissions generally fall. This year, the top 12 films grossed around $91m (£48.3m), compared to 2004's Super Bowl weekend when the total box office was $73.4m (£38.9m).",entertainment
"Mumbai bombs movie postponed..The release of a film about the Mumbai (Bombay) blasts in 1993 has been postponed following protests by those on trial for the bombings...Investigating the blasts which killed more than 250 people and wounded 1,000, the film Black Friday had been due to open across India on Friday. But 36 people accused in connection with the blasts said it should not be screened until the trial is over. Mumbai High Court postponed the film's launch until 3 February...Black Friday is based upon the novel of the same name written by journalist S Hussain Zaidi, which looks at the 15 explosions which rocked Mumbai on 12 March 1993. Director Anurag Kashyap said the film's release should not be delayed as the book has already been on sale for two years. ""If you have not gone against the book, then how can you go against the movie?"" Mr Kashyap's lawyer Mihir Desai said. This is the second time that those accused in connection with the blasts have sought legal intervention regarding the film...They previously asked that a line from the movie's poster, which claimed the film portrayed ""the true story of the Bombay bomb blasts"", be removed. Their lawyer, Majeed Memon, said: ""We had argued that how can a film say it is telling the true story when the court itself is struggling to find the truth? ""So we said they should remove the line from their promotional posters and they did give us an assurance that they would do so."" The Mumbai bombings case is one of India's longest-running trials. A special court was set up to hear the case and regular hearings have taken place there for the last nine years, with more than six hundred witnesses questioned.",entertainment
"DVD review: I, Robot..Only one man recognises that robots are a threat to humanity - but that's fine because it only takes one man to save the day in the thriller I, Robot...Will Smith co-stars alongside more CGI robots than you can count and as a thrill-a-minute kind of action film, it's perfectly adequate. You'll have forgotten it all tomorrow but you'll have a fun night with the film and all the extras. There is a one-disc version that has commentaries and a Making Of but the two-disc adds more. Unusually for this kind of film, the extras don't solely concentrate on the special effects. They're covered but there's also a general Production Diary and a Post-Production feature...Remember the National Lottery's draw machines Arthur and Guinevere? They were more accurate than this glossy Hollywood version of the tale...But as long as you're not expecting a documentary, live with it: King Arthur is a fun, exciting, totally shallow experience and looks excellent. Clive Owen is the brooding king, Keira Knightly rises above her costume and Ray Winstone gives it all some grit. It's at its best in its battle scenes which are well done and are also the best part of the Making Of extra...Less flashy than a David Attenborough show and less detailed than a Simon Schama one, the BBC series British Isles nevertheless turned out to be quite engrossing. Admit it, the fact that this is one of the shows Alan Titchmarsh left Ground Force to present did mean that you expected something equally frothy. But Titchmarsh turns out to know his subject and the sight of our present-day landscape being peeled back to reveal the past was fascinating. He's now written an accompanying book, too.",entertainment
"Brando 'rejected Godfather role'..Late film star Marlon Brando is said to have repeatedly turned down his Oscar-winning role in The Godfather...The actor's friend Budd Schulberg told Vanity Fair magazine that Brando's assistant suggested he read the novel. The actor repeatedly refused, throwing the book at her and saying: ""For the last time, I won't glorify the mafia"". But Brando, who died last July at the age of 80, eventually took the role of Don Corleone, winning him an Oscar in 1973 which he notoriously refused. The actor sent a young woman dressed in Native American costume to refuse the award on his behalf and to draw attention to the plight of Native Americans...Schulberg told the magazine that Brando's assistant realised the film star had warmed to the idea of The Godfather role when he sported a drawn-on pencil moustache and asked: ""How do I look?"" His assistant, Alice Marchak, said that he looked like George Raft, an actor famed for playing gangsters on the silver screen. Every time she went to see Brando from then on, she added, he was wearing a different gangster-style moustache. Brando was asked to screen test for the role in The Godfather, as studio executives were said to be reluctant for the actor to play the part following problems on the set of Brando's previous film Mutiny on the Bounty . In fact Brando's Academy Award triumph revived his career. The actor was nominated for an Oscar the following year for his role in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. Before his death, Brando granted gaming company Electronic Arts the rights to use his voice and image in a video game based on the Godfather film and book and recorded voice-overs which closely resembled his role as Don Corleone. Brando's co-stars from The Godfather, James Caan and Robert Duvall, will also reprise their roles for the video game, it was confirmed on Wednesday.",entertainment
"Dutch watch Van Gogh's last film..The last film to be made by the slain Dutch director Theo van Gogh, called 06/05, has been premiered in The Hague...Members of Van Gogh's family and celebrities attended the screening of 06/05, based on the murder of the anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn. Van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in Amsterdam six weeks ago. A Dutch-Moroccan man suspected of radical Islamist links has been charged. The killing, and Fortuyn's death in 2002, convulsed the Netherlands. Many Dutch people have questioned their country's self-image as a peaceful, tolerant nation in the wake of the murders, which triggered heated debate about immigration...An animal rights activist was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year for killing Fortuyn. Earlier this year, Van Gogh made a film accusing Islam of promoting violence against women. It caused outrage among Muslims and death threats were made against him. The film 06/05 will become available on the internet on Wednesday and go on general release in Dutch cinemas in January. Van Gogh's movie mixes real images of the day of Fortuyn's murder with a fictional plot about Dutch intelligence services conspiring to silence the politician. The story unfolds through the eyes of a freelance photographer who unwittingly takes pictures revealing the involvement of Dutch authorities in Fortuyn's murder. Photographer Jim de Booy then goes on the run from secret service agents who burgle his home and threaten his family.",entertainment
"Berlin hails European cinema..Organisers say this year's Berlin Film Festival, which opens on Thursday with period epic Man to Man, will celebrate a revitalised European cinema...Of the 21 films in competition for the Golden and Silver Bear awards, more than half are from Europe with France particularly well represented. Festival director Dieter Kosslick says this strong showing signals ""a new consciousness for European films"". ""They're on an incredible winning streak,"" he told the Reuters agency. ""This isn't to say there aren't any good American films,"" he continued. ""It's just that there are more good European films.""..However, Mr Kosslick refused to accept that widespread opposition to the Iraq war had turned audiences against Hollywood imports. ""There is no anti-American mood,"" he said. Some 350 films will be screened at this year's festival, with a further 300 shown at the European Film Market that runs alongside it. More than a dozen celebrities are scheduled to attend, among them Will Smith, Kevin Spacey and Keanu Reeves. But Mr Kosslick says more would be coming had the Academy Awards not been brought forward to 27 February. ""I'm not worried that we won't be able to fill the red carpet with stars,"" he said, though he admitted the festival may be moved to January next year to avoid a similar clash. The 10-day Berlinale runs until 20 February.",entertainment
"Sky takes over Oscar night mantle..Sky has signed a major new deal to broadcast this year's Academy Awards, taking over from three years of live Oscar coverage on the BBC...Sky said it was ""honoured to have won exclusive broadcasting rights"" and promised to cover the event ""in a way no other broadcaster could"". The BBC denied it had lost a bidding war, saying it had ""decided to pass the mantle to another broadcaster"". The ceremony, hosted by newcomer Chris Rock, takes place on 27 February 2005...Sky's coverage will launch with the nominations on 25 January and will include themed programming across Sky channels including Sky News, Sky Travel and the Biography Channel. There will also be a month-long season of Oscar-winning films on Sky Movies in the run up to the event and live uninterrupted coverage on the night. ""We are honoured to have won the live and exclusive broadcasting rights for The Academy Awards,"" said Sky Networks' Sophie Turner Laing. ""Sky is the natural place to see the biggest and most prestigious film event of the year, and will cover the event in a way that no other broadcaster could.""..Sky first scooped Oscar rights from the BBC in 1999, but the BBC won them back in 2001 when Sky was forced to pull out of a bidding war due to financial constraints. ""BBC viewers will of course be able to watch quality coverage of the 2005 Academy Awards on the BBC's bulletins and news programmes,"" a spokesman said. Among the films tipped to do well at this year's Academy Awards are Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement and the Ray Charles biopic, Ray.",entertainment
"Snicket tops US box office chart..The film adaptation of Lemony Snicket novels has topped the North America box office chart, displacing Ocean's 12...A Series of Unfortunate Events, starring Jim Carrey, took $30.2m (£15.5m) in its debut weekend. Ocean's 12 fell to number two while new entry Spanglish entered the chart at number three, taking $9m (£4.6m). A Series of Unfortunate Events also stars Scottish comedian Billy Connelly, while Carrey takes on a number of different roles in the surreal film. The only other new entry in the top 10 was re-make, Flight of the Phoenix, at number eight, starring Dennis Quaid. Carrey entertained crowds at the UK premiere of Lemony Snicket in London on Friday. The actor grabbed co-star Meryl Streep and whisked her around Leicester Square. Based on the cult children's books by author Daniel Handler, the film follows three children who are orphaned when their parents die in a fire. They are taken in by their wicked uncle Count Olaf, played by Carrey, who schemes to get his hands on their fortune.",entertainment
"Director Nair's Vanity project..Indian film director Mira Nair has said she was thrilled to be given the chance to make William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair - as the book has been a favourite through her life...The book is one of the classics of English literature - the story of scheming 19th Century social climber Becky Sharp, played in the film by Reese Witherspoon. Nair said that she jumped at the chance to work on the film, which she has - controversially - made in a Bollywood style, including two song-and-dance routines in the film's second half. ""It was serendipity really - I was offered Vanity Fair by the studio Focus Features, who had distributed Monsoon Wedding,"" Nair told BBC World Service's Masterpiece programme. ""They offered me their next-best thing, not realising that Vanity Fair had actually been one of my favourite novels since I was 16 years old in an Irish Catholic boarding school in India.""..Since her 1988 debut feature Salaam Bombay! - nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar and winner of Best First Feature at Cannes - Nair has become one of India's most famous and respected directors. She is not restricted to Bollywood, however - she followed Salaam Bombay! with Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington, and The Perez Family, her first Hollywood film...Her career peaked with Monsoon Wedding in 2001, which won the Golden Lion award at Venice. Nair's Indian-style adaptation of Vanity Fair, however, has been attacked by critics in the US - where it only reached number eight at the box office in its opening week - who described the Bollywood elements as ""jarring."" The film has a new ending, with Becky Sharp running off for a new life in India. But Nair said that her film had picked up on the way Thackeray - who was born in India but moved to England as a young man - had seen the world. ""First, when I was 16, it was Becky Sharp, who is a completely memorable character, because I recognised myself in her - I recognised all the ladies who did not want to be ladies, who wanted to buck the system that they were in,"" she said. ""But it was the sort of novel I somehow kept at the side of my bed for many years, and I would dip into every now and then and suddenly get completely mesmerised again. ""As I got older and read it, I think it was Thackeray's clarity - his clear-sightedness about his own society, the fact that he was born in India but came to England as a young man - that gave him the eyes of an outsider, and yet he was an insider. ""That perspective was something I really loved.""..Nair also defended her decision to cast an American actress - Reese Witherspoon - as Becky Sharp, despite the fact that all the rest of the cast are British or Irish. ""I cast intuitively - in my films I cast as many non-actors as I cast actors,"" she said. ""For me, it is intuition - I have to fall in love with an actor. It is a visceral response...""Thackeray describes Becky Sharp as a minx. Also she's described as someone who's tiny, red-headed and thin. Reese had that completely minx-like irresistibility about her."" Having won the role because she seemed physically perfectly suited to the part, however, Witherspoon then became pregnant. But Nair said that, though this had created the need for some filming tricks, it had in fact also helped the film. ""It was a self-fulfilling prophesy - when I first met her husband [actor Ryan Philippe], I said 'knock her up, won't you, I need some flesh on the girl',"" she joked. ""I'm not a fan of the underfed Los Angeles actor at all. This was, for me, about Becky Sharp being, eventually, a full-blown woman through the course of the film. ""I love the luminosity that pregnancy brings, I love the fleshiness, I love the ample bosom - it gave me much more to play with."" Nair explained how camera tricks had been used to disguise Witherspoon's ""bump"" in various scenes - including hiring a number of young boys in costumes to stand in front of her. ""She runs, she gets off coal carts, she jumps off horses - she does everything,"" Nair said. ""But there's also a certain carriage with horses that is going to wipe the screen at a certain moment, because of the bump.""",entertainment
"Spirit awards hail Sideways..The comedy Sideways has dominated this year's Independent Spirit Awards, winning all six of the awards for which it was nominated...It was named best film while Alexander Payne won best director and best screenplay, along with writing partner Jim Taylor. It also won acting awards for stars Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen. Sideways is tipped to do well at Sunday's Oscars, with five nominations...The awards, now in their 20th year, are given to films made outside the traditional studio system, and are traditionally held the day before the Oscars. Other winners included Catalina Sandino Moreno, who took best actress for her role as a drug smuggler in the Colombian drama Maria Full of Grace. Moreno is also nominated for best actress at the Oscars. The best first screenplay award went to Joshua Marston for Maria Full of Grace. Scrubs star Zach Braff won the award for best first feature for Garden State, which he wrote, directed and starred in. Oscar-nominated euthanasia film The Sea Inside from Spain won best foreign film, while Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster was awarded best documentary. Actor Rodrigo de la Serna took the best debut performance prize for The Motorcycle Diaries. The awards are voted for by the 9,000 members of the Independent Feature Project/Los Angeles, which includes actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals. Last year's big winner, Lost In Translation, went on to win the Oscar for best original screenplay, for writer-director Sofia Coppola.",entertainment
"Tautou film tops Cesar prize nods..French film A Very Long Engagement has received 12 nominations for France's Cesar film awards, despite a recent ruling it was ""not French enough""...The World War I romantic drama starring Audrey Tautou, was recently ruled ""too American"" by a Paris court as it was partially backed by Warner Bros. But the Cesar organisers modified their rules to allow the film to compete. The film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, received best actress, picture and director nominations...Last November a court judged the film was too American to compete in French film festivals. Two associations of French producers challenged Jeunet's right to French government subsidies, because Warner Bros was a backer. The ruling meant the movie - which was filmed in France and used French actors and technicians - was not eligible to compete for French prizes. But Alain Terzian, president of Cesar organisers, the Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema, said the changes in eligibility rules, which allow films ""of French expression"", were made three months prior to the court decision. Other films in the best film category include Police drama 36, Quai Des Orfevres, Arnaud Desplechin's Kings And Queen, Abdellatif Kechiche's L'Esquive and France's number one film at the 2004 box-office The Chorus...Best actors are Daniel Auteuil for 36, Mathieu Amalric for Kings And Queen, Gerard Jugnot for The Chorus, Philippe Torreton for L'Equipier and Benoit Poelvoorde for Podium. Tautou will compete against Maggie Cheung , Emmanuelle Devos, Yolande Moreau and Karin Viard for best actress. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, The Motorcycle Diaries, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 21 Grams are all vying in the best foreign film prize. The awards ceremony will be held on 26 February. This year, Will Smith, star of I, Robot, Independence Day and Men In Black, will be given an honorary Cesar, along with French singer/actor, Jacques Dutronc.",entertainment
"Hollywood ready for Oscars night..Hollywood is preparing for the biggest night in the film world's calendar, the 77th Academy Awards, on Sunday...A host of stars are expected to grace the red carpet outside Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre, including Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett and Leonardo DiCaprio. British actors in attendance include nominees Clive Owen, Imelda Staunton, Kate Winslet and director Mike Leigh. The Aviator leads the shortlist, but critics believe the night may belong to Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. A recent poll of US pundits found Eastwood's boxing drama had become the new favourite to win best film over the Howard Hughes biopic...If the 74-year-old does win, he will become the oldest person ever to be named best director at the ceremony. UK critics still favour The Aviator for best film, but believe the best director title will generate a close fought battle between Eastwood and Martin Scorsese...Scorsese has never won the best director prize, despite four previous nominations for films including Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Gangs of New York. Eastwood has won best director once before, for Unforgiven in 1993. Most experts predict the twice-nominated Jamie Foxx will win best actor for his portrayal of singer Ray Charles, while Vera Drake star Imelda Staunton looks likely to lose out in the best actress field to Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby. The UK's highest hopes remain with Clive Owen, who has scooped both the Golden Globe and the Bafta for his supporting role in Closer. Actor and comedian Chris Rock will host the event, which will be broadcast with a seven-second time delay to allow censors to cut out any unsuitable content...""We have the bleep machine ready, but bleeps will be used as needed,"" producer Gil Cates told reporters. However, he added that he strongly disapproved of the growing tendency to censor live broadcasts on US TV...He also played down fears that Rock, who is known for using strong language in his stand-up routines, might cause controversy on the night. The 40-year-old comic has already promised not to swear live on air during the show. ""Chris has a sense of humour and everything he says is really said humorously,"" Cates said. ""You need a movie star and someone who is a stand-up comic so they can deal with the vicissitudes of the show."" Security will also be tight, with police employing a system to detect sarin nerve gas. ""We are pulling out all the stops,"" said John Miller, chief of counterterrorism at the Los Angeles Police Department. The show is ""a symbol of American culture and has the potential to be a high-visibility target,"" he added. Meanwhile, organisers have erected a canopy over the red carpet following an outbreak of torrential rain in Los Angeles over the past week. Cates said the covers would be removed if the threat of wet weather receded. Details have also emerged of the contents of this year's gift bags, which are given to nominees and presenters on the night. This year's bags will include a gift certificate for a luxury beach resort, a pair of mink eyelashes and a kitchen set with a year's supply of tea and coffee. The event will be televised by the ABC network from 1700 local time (0100 GMT), and on Sky Movies in the UK from 0130 GMT.",entertainment
"Animation charms Japan box office..Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki's latest film has set a new Japanese box office record, with 1.5bn yen ($14.3m) in two days, according to reports...Howl's Moving Castle is the follow-up to Miyazaki's Spirited Away, which won best animation at last year's Oscars. It is based on the children's book by English writer Diana Wynne Jones. It has registered the highest opening weekend takings of any Japanese film in the country, according to trade publication Screen Daily...The film is about an 18-year-old girl who is trapped in an old woman's body after being put under a spell by a witch. Its two-day takings represented 1.1 million cinema admissions, Screen Daily said. The film's distributor Toho expects 40 million people to see it in total - almost one third of the country's population - it added. The film won the Golden Osella for outstanding technical contribution at this year's Venice Film Festival.",entertainment
"US box office set for record high..Ticket sales at the US box office are predicted to break records this year, with figures expected to reach $9.4 billion, beating 2002's all-time high...Overall figures could be dampened by the lack of a Christmas hit like last year's Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings. Traditionally, ticket sales during the festive season account for 20% of the annual total. Although admissions have actually fallen this year, the predicted high is down to increasing ticket prices. According to Exhibitor Relations President Paul Dergarabedian, the average cost of a cinema ticket could be as high as $6.25 in 2004, compared to $5.80 in 2002. This year some of the biggest hits such as The Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11 came from outside the major studios which are usually responsible for the key blockbusters...""Many of the films that did well (with audiences) are not necessarily the films that made a lot of money,"" said Mr Dergarabedian. He added that surprise hits had come from some of the more art-house offerings such as Napoleon Dynamite and critical hit Sideways. Sony Pictures, responsible for hits like Spiderman 2 and The Grudge, are expected to top domestic market share for the second time in three years, with $1 billion-plus in sales for the third consecutive year. Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman. Jeff Blake said: ""We had a really diverse slate this year, and... certainly we pulled off one of the surprises with Grudge."" Horror movie The Grudge cost Sony $10 million to make but brought in $110 million. It's the latest in a recent trend for Hollywood studios to back the upper and lower ends of the market, whilst ignoring the middle. Warner Inc are likely to end the year in second place on market share with around $1.25 billion, with Disney at number three.",entertainment
"Low-budget film wins Cesar..A film that follows a group of alienated youth in a Paris suburb as they prepare to perform an 18th Century play has won France's top cinema award...L'Esquive earned a Cesar prize for its director, Tunisian-born Abdellatif Kechiche, and its young star, the 18-year-old actress Sara Forestier. It saw off competition from big-budget French epic, A Very Long Engagement, and the box-office hit, The Chorus. US film Lost in Translation won the award for best foreign feature. The wistful romantic comedy directed by Sofia Coppola has already won several awards, including an Oscar for best screenplay in 2004. Its late release in France made it a contender for this year's Cesars...The low-budget L'Esquive depicts the travails of a group of youth getting ready to perform a school play by the 18th-Century dramatist, Marivaux. The actors are mostly amateurs and the action is set in the impoverished suburbs of Paris, home to thousands of immigrants from North Africa and their children. Kechiche said he made the film because he ""wanted to show people we don't normally see at the cinema"". A Very Long Engagement, a World War I drama featuring Audrey Tautou, won five Cesar awards. The Chorus, a film about a schoolteacher who introduces an unruly classroom to the pleasures of classical singing, won two awards - for best music and best sound. US actor Will Smith, who won an honorary award at the ceremony, thanked his family and his ""hero"", Nelson Mandela, in his speech.",entertainment
"Tautou 'to star in Da Vinci film'..French actress Audrey Tautou, star of hit film Amelie, will play the female lead in the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, it has been reported...The movie version of Dan Brown's best-selling novel is being directed by Ron Howard and also stars Tom Hanks. Tautou will play Hanks' code-cracking partner, according to various newspapers. She is currently starring in A Very Long Engagement, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet was also responsible for directing Tautou in Amelie in 2001, which launched the actress into the mainstream...She also starred as the lead role in critically-acclaimed film Dirty Pretty Things in 2002. Oscar-winning director Ron Howard chose Tautou for the part, preferring a French actress to a big name Hollywood star. UK actress Kate Beckinsale had been widely tipped as a possibility for the role alongside Vanessa Paradis and Juliette Binoche. The thriller upon which the movie is based has sold more than 17 million copies and is centred on a global conspiracy surrounding the Holy Grail mythology. The Louvre Museum, scene of the gruesome murder at the beginning of the novel, recently gave permission for filming to take place there, showbusiness newspaper Variety reported. The $100m movie will be produced by Columbia/Sony Pictures and is due for release on May 19, 2006 in the United States and France.",entertainment
"Foxx and Swank take actors awards..Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank have won the Screen Actors Guild Awards for best male and female film actors, boosting their Oscars hopes this month...Foxx's portrayal of late soul-singer Ray Charles in Ray had already earned him a prestigious Golden Globe award. Swank triumphed for playing a gutsy female boxer in Million Dollar Baby. Modest wine country comedy Sideways knocked out favourites Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator by taking the top prize for best cast performance...The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) represents US film and TV actors. Its winners often go on to win Oscars. In other nominations, Cate Blanchett triumphed as the best supporting actress for her role as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. Veteran actor Morgan Freeman took the best supporting actor award for playing a prize-fighter turned gym manager in Million Dollar Baby...""Thank you for Ray Charles for just living so complex and so interesting, and making us all just come together,"" said Foxx, accepting his award in Los Angeles on Saturday...He also praised the film director: ""Thank you for Taylor Hackford for taking a chance with an African-American film. Taylor, you're my director of the year."" Swank, too, was full of praise for her director and co-star Clint Eastwood. ""I bow down to you,"" Swank said to the 74-year-old Eastwood. ""You are a talent beyond compare. If I'm half the person you are and half the talent you are when I'm 74, I will know that I've accomplished something great.""..Both Foxx and Swank are now considered to be among the favourites to get Oscars - the Hollywood's ultimate prize. However, Swank has to overcome a strong challenge from Annette Bening, a nominee for the theatre farce Being Julia. Meanwhile, ballots for Oscars - the Hollywood's top honours - were mailed earlier this week to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The voting is due to end on 22 February - five days before the ceremony.",entertainment
"Children vote Shrek 2 best film..Young UK film fans voted animated Hollywood hit Shrek 2 best film at the children's Bafta awards on Sunday...More than 6,000 children voted in the only category chosen by fans. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, runner-up in the poll, was the choice of the Bafta experts who named it best feature film. BBC One Saturday morning show Dick and Dom In Da Bungalow won two awards - best entertainment and best presenters for Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood...Former Playschool presenter Floella Benjamin was awarded the Special Award for outstanding creative contribution to children's film and television. She first appeared on Playschool 25 years ago and was made an OBE in 2001 for services to broadcasting. South American-themed cartoon Joko! Jakamoko! Toto! won the honour for pre-school animation and its writer Tony Collingwood for original writer. Debbie Isitt won the award for best adapted writer for her work with Jacqueline Wilson's The Illustrated Mum, which won the award for best schools drama...Schools' Factual (primary) - Thinking Skills: Think About It - Hiding Places..Schools' Factual (secondary) - In Search of the Tartan Turban..Pre-School Live Action - Balamory..Animation - Brush Head..Drama - Featherboy..Factual - Serious Desert Interactive Bafta - King Arthur International category - 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter",entertainment
"UK debut for Kevin Spacey movie..Hollywood stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth attended the British premiere of new film, Beyond the Sea, in London's Leicester Square on Thursday...Spacey, 45, wrote, directed and starred in the film, inspired by the life of 1950s croooner Bobby Darin. ""This is my tribute to someone I think was a remarkable talent,"" said Spacey, who, as Darin, sings all 18 songs on the film soundtrack. Bosworth, 21, plays Darin's wife - real life Hollywood actress Sandra Dee. ""I knew absolutely nothing about Bobby Darin before this film, but now I'm a huge fan,"" said Bosworth, who attended the premiere with British boyfriend Orlando Bloom...""There is darkness and tragedy in the story, and it was a dream for me to land this part."" Actress Sandra Dee continues to live in Los Angeles as a virtual recluse, but has given her approval to the biopic...""She called me last week and said she loved it,"" said Spacey, who was joined at the premiere by members of the boy band Westlife. Spacey, a double Oscar-winner, has long been fascinated by the story of singer Bobby Darin. The voice behind Mack the Knife, Dream Lover and Beyond the Sea, fought childhood illness to become one the biggest stars of the 1950s, but died aged 37 from the heart condition that had troubled him all his life. ""Bobby Darin was one of the greatest entertainers the world has ever known, and yet, because he died young, he's been kind of forgotten,"" said Spacey at the premiere. ""Making this film was the most fun I've ever had in my entire life."" The movie also stars British actors Bob Hoskins and Brenda Blethyn, as Darin's mother.",entertainment
"Box office blow for Alexander..Director Oliver Stone's historical epic Alexander has failed in its bid to conquer the box office, entering the US film charts at number six...The swords and sandals blockbuster, rumoured to have cost more than $150m (£79m) to make, earned just $13.5 (£7m) over three days at the US box office. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the film opened on Wednesday, bringing its total takings to $21.6m (£11.4m). Top of the box office for a second week was action movie National Treasure. The family adventure, starring Nicolas Cage, took $33.1m (£17.m), ahead of animated comedy The Incredibles - now in its fourth week in the charts - which took $24.1m (£12.7m)...Last week Oliver Stone's film met with scathing reviews from US critics. The film stars Irish actor Colin Farrell as one of history's most celebrated leaders - a relentless and arrogant warrior who conquered much of the known world by the age of 25. In particular, its portrayal of Alexander as a bisexual has met with a hostile reception and the threat of legal action from Greek lawyers. ""Though the battles have the blood-and-sinew bravado you expect from Oliver Stone, this three-hour buttnumbathon is hamstrung by a hectoring grandiosity,"" wrote one reviewer in Rolling Stone magazine. Others poured scorn on Farrell's bleached hair and Angelina Jolie's unwieldy accent, which Variety called ""a combination of Mata Hari and Count Dracula"" . But novelist Gore Vidal defended the film, saying it was ""barrier-breaking"" for its frank depiction of bisexuality...In Sweden last Thursday, to pick up a lifetime achievement award at the Stockholm International Film Festival, Stone expressed the hope that Alexander might be better appreciated in Europe. ""One of the reasons I am being honoured here is Europeans tend to see me a little differently than they do in the US,"" said the director behind JFK, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. He added Alexander ""was not an easy movie, but then I've never made easy movies"".",entertainment
"Ray DVD beats box office takings..Oscar-nominated film biopic Ray has surpassed its US box office takings with a combined tally of $80m (£43m) from DVD and video sales and rentals...Ray's success on DVD outstripped its $74m (£40m) US box office total, earning more than $40m (£22m) on the first day of the DVD's release alone. Ray has been nominated in six Oscar categories including best film and best actor for Jamie Foxx. The film recounts the life of blues singer Ray Charles, who died in 2004. In its first week on home entertainment release the film was the number one selling DVD, with the limited edition version coming in at number 11. Sony horror film The Grudge, starring Michelle Gellar, was the US' second best-selling DVD, with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere's romantic comedy Shall We Dance? at number three. Foxx's critically acclaimed performance as Ray has already earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor, as well as a prestigious Golden Globe. Ray director Taylor Hackford, responsible for the classic 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, has also received an Oscar nomination in the best director category. The film's three other Oscar nominations are for costume, film editing and sound mixing.",entertainment
"Ocean's Twelve raids box office..Ocean's Twelve, the crime caper sequel starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, has gone straight to number one in the US box office chart...It took $40.8m (£21m) in weekend ticket sales, according to studio estimates. The sequel follows the master criminals as they try to pull off three major heists across Europe. It knocked last week's number one, National Treasure, into third place. Wesley Snipes' Blade: Trinity was in second, taking $16.1m (£8.4m). Rounding out the top five was animated fable The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks, and festive comedy Christmas with the Kranks...Ocean's Twelve box office triumph marks the fourth-biggest opening for a December release in the US, after the three films in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The sequel narrowly beat its 2001 predecessor, Ocean's Eleven which took $38.1m (£19.8m) on its opening weekend and $184m (£95.8m) in total. A remake of the 1960s film, starring Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Ocean's Eleven was directed by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh returns to direct the hit sequel which reunites Clooney, Pitt and Roberts with Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Elliott Gould. Catherine Zeta-Jones joins the all-star cast. ""It's just a fun, good holiday movie,"" said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros. However, US critics were less complimentary about the $110m (£57.2m) project, with the Los Angeles Times labelling it a ""dispiriting vanity project"". A milder review in the New York Times dubbed the sequel ""unabashedly trivial"".",entertainment
"Indie film nominations announced..Mike Leigh's award-winning abortion drama Vera Drake has scooped seven nominations at this year's British Independent Film Awards...But the Venice winner faces stiff competition from Shane Meadows' critically acclaimed Dead Man's Shoes, which received eight nominations. Also in the running for a clutch of awards are My Summer of Love and the stalker drama Enduring Love. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 30 November. The winners of the awards will be chosen by a jury chaired by Cold Mountain director Anthony Minghella and including actresses Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham-Carter...The awards, which recognise independent film-making in Britain, were established seven years ago. ""This year's nominees reflect the growing strength and diversity of British independent filmmaking,"" said BIFA founder and director Elliot Grove. Commenting on the diversity of the nominated films, he added: ""Our selection committee had a harder time than ever narrowing down the field.""..Joining Vera Drake and Dead Man's Shoes in the running for best film are My Summer of Love, climbing documentary Touching the Void and zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead. Geoffrey Rush wins a best actor nomination for his role as Peter Sellers in the recent biopic The Life & Death of Peter Sellers...The Australian star faces competition from Daniel Craig (Enduring Love), Phil Davis (Vera Drake), Ian Hart (Blind Fight) and Dead Man's Shoes' star Paddy Considine. Considine is also nominated for a best supporting actor award for My Summer of Love. A rare US nominee, Scarlett Johansson, is among this year's best actress contenders for her role in Girl with a Pearl Earring...Fellow nominees include Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Natalie Press (My Summer of Love), Anne Reid (The Mother) and Eva Birthistle (Ae Fond Kiss... ). Shane Meadows and Kevin McDonald, both former winners of the Douglas Hickox Award (for Best Directorial Debut) won best director nominations. Seasoned film-makers Roger Michell, Mike Leigh and Pavel Pavlikowsky challenge them to the award. Harry Potter author JK Rowling will receive a special award for her contribution to the industry.",entertainment
"Fockers fuel festive film chart..Comedy Meet The Fockers topped the festive box office in North America, setting a new record for Christmas Day...The sequel took $44.7m (£23.2m) between 24 and 26 December, according to studio estimates. It took $19.1m (£9.9m) on Christmas Day alone, the highest takings on that day in box office history. Meet The Fockers is the sequel to Ben Stiller comedy Meet The Parents, also starring Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. Despite the success of Meet The Fockers, takings were down 26.5% on 2003's figures - which was blamed on Christmas falling over a weekend this year...""When Christmas falls on a weekend, it's bad for business,"" said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which compiles box office statistics. The weekend's top 12 films took an estimated $121.9m (£63.3m), compared with $165.8m (£86.1m) last year, when the third Lord of the Rings film dominated the box office. Meet The Fockers knocked last week's top film, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, down to third place, with $12.5m (£6.5m). Comedy Fat Albert - co-written by Bill Cosby - entered the chart in second place after opening on Christmas Day, taking $12.7m (£6.6m). The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, took $9.4m after expanding from 40 to 1,796 cinemas on Christmas Day.",entertainment
"DVD review: Spider-Man 2..It's a universal rule that a film can either be a superhero special effects extravaganza or it can be good. But Spider-Man 2 breaks that rule in two...It's not fantastically deep but you get quickly drawn into the tale of Spidey versus Doc Ock and more so into the fate of poor Peter Parker. Gigantic action set pieces seamlessly work with more brooding personal torment and it all looks stunning. A few effects look false but Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina make this compelling. The other universal rule is that DVDs of superhero films will have Making Of features only about the effects. This disc covers those special effects enough but as just one part of a detailed look at the film. Then there are commentaries, trailers and a blooper reel...Sometimes quality comes in bulk: this set contains no less than 34 John Wayne films ranging from the Westerns and war movies to The Quiet Man...Now is that a Christmas present or what? Give this to someone on 24 December and you won't see them again until early in the New Year. It's not truly a complete collection and leans more toward Wayne's earlier films: there's no True Grit, for instance, though there is Hellraisers. The films look well transferred to DVD, though none has extras...It was very daft but it knew it was and somehow this famous 1979 series became a cult favourite that's been long awaited on DVD. This set has the first season of Buck (Gil Gerard) and Wilma's (Erin Gray) tongue-in-cheek adventures and it's all as camp and gaudy as you remember. But it's also a disappointment. The US DVD has this and the more po-faced second season - and you can import it for just about the same price. The bigger omission, though, is that there are no extras. That's particularly disappointing because originally there were meant to be commentaries and stars Gerard and Gray had agreed to do them.",entertainment
"Baby becomes new Oscar favourite..Clint Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby has become the new favourite to win best picture at the Oscars on Sunday...According to pundits, the film has overtaken previous favourite The Aviator, with Eastwood also tipped to take the best director award. Its star Hilary Swank is favourite to win best actress while Jamie Foxx is tipped to win best actor for Ray. Million Dollar Baby has seven nominations while The Aviator has 11. The Aviator has scored a best director nomination for Martin Scorsese, who has never won an Oscar, while stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett are both nominated for acting Oscars...""If you look at the Oscars race, The Aviator should be ahead,"" said awards pundit Tom O'Neil. ""It is the most nominated film, and the most nominated movie has won best picture 18 times out of the last 20 years. ""But the reality is Million Dollar Baby is the dark horse. People feel emotionally about it and Clint is a beloved Hollywood chum of the Academy voters,"" he said. Anne Thompson of the Hollywood Reporter said that Million Dollar Baby was ""heart-wrenching"". ""It's very emotional, it even makes grown men cry,"" she said. ""The Aviator is a gorgeous movie, but it's colder.""..In the acting categories, Foxx is regarded as almost unbeatable for his performance as Ray Charles in Ray. ""The performance is based on a real person who was a showbusiness hero with a handicap, who recently died,"" O'Neil said. ""He has unstoppable momentum among the voters."" Hilary Swank is the favourite to win best actress for the second time in six years. She previously won in 1999 for her performance in Boys Don't Cry. In the supporting categories, Cate Blanchett is tipped to win for her performance as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, while Morgan Freeman is favourite to take home his first ever Oscar, for Million Dollar Baby. The Oscars will take place at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre on 27 February.",entertainment
"Russian film wins BBC world prize..Russian drama The Return (Vozvrashchenie) has been named winner of the BBC Four World Cinema Award...The film tells the story of two adolescent boys who are subjected to a harsh regime when their strict father returns after a 10-year absence. Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, The Return previously won the 2003 Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was presented at an awards ceremony held in London on Thursday and hosted by Jonathan Ross. The winner was chosen by a panel which included X Files actress Gillian Anderson, critic Roger Clarke and Touching the Void director Kevin McDonald...Ross, who is the presenter of BBC One's Film 2005, was also involved in the deliberations. A shortlist of six films from around the world had been drawn up from which the panel chose. Other nominees included the Motorcycle Diaries, Zatoichi and Hero. A viewer poll saw director Zhang Yimou's martial arts epic Hero emerge as the favourite with 32% of votes cast. Tragedy struck the production of The Return when one of the young stars, 15-year-old Vladimir Girin, drowned in a lake where some of the film's scenes were set. The winner of the World Cinema Award last year was the French animated feature Belleville Rendezvous",entertainment
"US TV cuts nudity from BBC film..A US TV network is editing BBC Films' Dirty War to avoid showing the front of a nude woman being scrubbed down after a fictional chemical attack...It is not worth showing ""non-essential"" nude scenes when indecency complaints are ""aggressively pursued"" by US TV watchdogs, said PBS' Jacoba Atlas. Dirty War - screened uncut on BBC One last September - depicts a dirty bomb attack on the City of London. It is also being screened uncut on US cable channel HBO on 24 January. PBS said it will use extra footage for its broadcast, showing the woman ""from a more discreet angle"" instead...The US Federal Communications Commission fined CBS $550,000 (£306,814) last autumn for singer Janet Jackson's ""wardrobe malfunction"", during which her breast was exposed during a dance routine with Justin Timberlake. Many US networks and broadcasters are now more nervous about airing nudity, violence or bad language. Ms Atlas said PBS could put itself financially at risk if it showed the uncut version of Dirty War, and it could also deter many of its 170 individual stations from airing ""an important film"". ""You want to pick your battles,"" she said. She added that PBS, which is a private, non-profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 349 public television stations, is bolder about screening non-fiction or historical programming. PBS is seen in virtually all US homes with TV, and describes itself as a ""trusted community resource"" serving nearly 100 million people each week.",entertainment
"Oscars race enters final furlong..The race for the Oscars entered its final stages as the deadline for voters to choose their winners passed...The 5,808 Academy voters had until Tuesday afternoon to return their ballots - any late submissions will not be included in the count. The next five days will be spent counting the voting forms and preparing the winners' envelopes. Best actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio is to present a statuette for the first time at the LA ceremony on Sunday...The 30-year-old actor, who is nominated for playing Howard Hughes in The Aviator, will join other hopefuls such as co-star Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman and Kate Winslet as Oscar presenters. The only people who will know the Oscar winners before they are revealed at the ceremony will be the auditors who are in charge of looking after the ballot count...After collating the results, they are responsible for sealing the results in the famous golden envelopes which will be revealed by a host of celebrity presenters at the ceremony. Former Academy Award winners Gwyneth Paltrow, Dustin Hoffman and Halle Berry will also present prizes. The event at the Kodak Theatre will be attended by 3,300 people, including some of the best-known names in film, and organisers say they expect it will be watched on television by one billion people around the world. One current concern is the torrential rain which has lashed Los Angeles for the past week, flooding suburbs and causing mudslides. It is hoped the forecast for Sunday, for cool weather but no rain, will prove accurate. ""The last time it rained on Oscars night was in the mid-to-late 1980s,"" said Oscars communications director John Pavlik. ""We have had rain up until the day before the show many times, but for some reason the Oscar gods always shine on Sunday and we hope they will do so again this year,"" he added.",entertainment
"Aviator 'creator' in Oscars snub..The man who said he got Oscar-nominated movie The Aviator off the ground and signed up Leonardo DiCaprio has been shut out of the Academy Awards race...Charles Evans Jr battled over his role with the people who eventually made the film, and won a producer's credit. But he is not on the list of producers who can win a best film Oscar due to a limit on the number of nominees. The Oscars organisers have picked two of The Aviator's four producers to be nominated for best film...Up to three producers can be named per film but the studios behind The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby failed to trim their credits - so the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has done it for them. The Aviator's nominated producers are Michael Mann and Graham King - with Mr Evans and Sandy Climan, Mr Mann's former deputy, left off. Mr Evans sued Mr Mann in 2001, claiming he came up with the idea, spent years developing it and persuaded DiCaprio to play Hughes - but said he was later excluded from the project. The two sides settled out of court in a deal that has remained secret apart from the fact Mr Evans' name has appeared as a producer when the film's credits roll. At the Golden Globes, Mr Evans - who was named among the winners when the film won best drama film - evaded a security guard to have his photo taken with DiCaprio, director Martin Scorsese, Mr Mann and Mr King...Ampas decided to limit the number of producers who could be nominated after Shakespeare in Love's victory in 1999 saw five producers collect awards. The eligible names for The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby were decided by Ampas' producers branch executive committee on Wednesday. The decision also saw Clint Eastwood get his third personal nomination for Million Dollar Baby. He is now named in the best film category as well as being nominated for best director and best lead actor. The Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Hollywood on 27 February. Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers, is the latest name to be added to the list of presenters on the night.",entertainment
"Cage film's third week at US top..Nicolas Cage movie National Treasure has topped the US and Canada box office for the third week in a row...National Treasure made $17.1m (£8.8m) in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, according to studio estimates, taking its total to $110.2m (£56.7m). Comedy Christmas with the Kranks, starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis, was in second place. The Polar Express entered in third place while Jude Law film Closer made its debut at number six...Oliver Stone's big-budget epic Alexander, starring Colin Farrell, followed last week's disappointing sixth-place opening with a slump to seventh place and takings of $4.7m (£2.4m). Critics have savaged the three-hour epic, which reportedly cost $150m (£77m) to make. National Treasure, which sees Cage's character Ben Gates chase a hidden fortune, has been made by Disney Studios. It is Cage's fourth collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer, who is usually noted for his male-orientated action films.",entertainment
"Oscar nominees gear up for lunch..Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank are among those due to attend this year's Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday...They will join more than 100 nominees from the 24 Oscar categories at the annual event, which will take place at the Beverly Hilton hotel, Los Angeles. British hopefuls, including Kate Winslet, Imelda Staunton and Sophie Okonedo are also expected to attend. This year's Oscar ceremony will be held on Sunday 27 February...Martin Scorsese's The Aviator is leading the field at this year's Oscars with 11 nominations, while other multiple nominees include Million Dollar Baby and Sideways. Oscar nominees Swank and Foxx were among the winners at the Screen Actors Guild awards at the weekend, one of the many ceremonies held in the run-up to the Oscars. Swank won Best Actress for Million Dollar Baby while Foxx triumphed for his performance as Ray Charles in the biopic Ray. Sideways was also among the winners, taking the prize for best cast performance. The next major film award ceremony of the season is the Bafta awards, which take place at London's Odeon Leicester Square on 12 February. Many of those nominated for Oscars including DiCaprio, Foxx and Staunton - an Oscar nominee for her performance in Vera Drake - have also been nominated for Baftas.",entertainment
"Church anger over Bollywood film..Roman Catholic organisations in India have demanded the withdrawal of a film that depicts a priest having an affair with a girl half his age...Indian television channels are now refusing to run the promotional material for the film, Sins, ahead of its release on Friday. The director of the film, Vinod Pande, says the movie is not offensive and has refused to withdraw it. Catholics are planning a protest in Mumbai (Bombay) on Wednesday. The president of one of Mumbai's main Catholic organisations, Dolphy D'Souza, says the portrayal of an ordained priest as a man of loose moral character has hurt the religious sentiments of India's Catholic community...He called the film ""pornographic and sensational"". Mr D'Souza, who is also the vice-president of the Catholics' national body, has accused the director of the film of portraying a priest in bad light for commercial gains. Catholics have urged Mr Pande to withdraw the film to show respect to the Christian community's hurt sentiments. ""Religion needs to be a personal affair and should not be a subject for entertainment or for commercial use,"" Joseph Dias, general secretary of the Catholic Secular Forum, said in a statement...But Mr Pande said that if the critics were to see the film they would not protest against it and would not insist on its withdrawal. He says he has no plans to cancel the film ahead of its scheduled screening on Friday...""It's about forbidden love. There was no agenda whatsoever to hurt anyone,"" he said. The BBC's Zubair Ahmed in Mumbai says that the controversial film shows a priest in steamy scenes with a girl half his age. She apparently goes to him for help but he falls in love with her. It takes place in the picturesque southern Indian state of Kerala. The film has already been cleared by the Censor Board with an 'A' (adults only) certificate. Mr D'Souza says he is shocked at the Censor Board's decision to clear the film. Our correspondent says that India's TV channels have so far refused to be dragged into the controversy and have not screened the film's promotional material. Most of the Catholic community's anger has come after watching newspaper advertisements and hoardings of the film. Christians make up about two per cent of India's population of more than a billion people.",entertainment
"Bookmakers back Aviator for Oscar..The Aviator has been tipped by UK bookmakers as the favourite to win the best film award at this year's Oscars...Ray star Jamie Foxx is clear favourite in the best actor category while Million Dollar Baby's Hilary Swank is tipped to win the best actress prize. Bookmakers predict Cate Blanchett will be named best supporting actress. William Hill and Ladbrokes have given The Aviator 4/9 and 8/13 odds of winning best film, with Million Dollar Baby in second place at 9/4...Bet Direct and Bet 365 also tip The Aviator, with the majority of bookmakers regarding Finding Neverland as the outsider. The Aviator is also widely tipped to win the best director prize for Martin Scorsese. British star Clive Owen is second favourite at William Hill to take the best supporting actor award, for his performance in Closer. The favourite in that category is Sideways star Thomas Hayden Church. Vera Drake star Imelda Staunton has 5/1 odds of winning the best actress Oscar at Bet 365 and William Hill, ahead of fellow UK star Kate Winslet who has odds of 25/1 at William Hill...Mike Leigh is the outsider in the best director category for Vera Drake, a position he holds jointly with Ray's Taylor Hackford at bookmakers VC Bet. This year's Academy Awards will be handed out in Hollywood on 27 February. X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne will present Sky television's live coverage of the event. Meanwhile, Clive Owen's best supporting actor nomination has led a bookmaker to shorten his odds of becoming the next James Bond. He has moved from 4/1 to 5/2 favourite to play 007, with Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor joint second favourite. ""Clive Owen's nomination has sparked a betting frenzy from James Bond fans, who feel that his heightened global recognition will have done his chances of becoming the next Bond a world of good,"" said William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams.",entertainment
"Global release for Japan hit film..Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, Howl's Moving Castle, is to be released in 50 countries around the world, its distributor has said...Howl's Moving Castle set a Japanese box office record last week, taking 1.5bn yen (£7.7m) in its first two days. Miyazaki won an Oscar earlier this year for Spirited Away, Japan's first Academy Award for nearly 50 years. Howl's Moving Castle is based on a children's fantasy novel by UK author Diana Wynne Jones. It tells the story of an 18-year-old woman who ages dramatically after falling under a witch's spell. She heads to a moving castle kept by Howl, a wizard, and searches for a way to become normal again. A spokesman for distributor Toho said the film ""has received strong interest from domestic audiences and foreign media and viewers alike"". ""We have a good feeling about this film. We saw very good viewer response,"" he added. The film's worldwide release will start in South Korea on 24 December, and France on 12 January.",entertainment
"Ocean's Twelve raids box office..Ocean's Twelve, the crime caper sequel starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, has gone straight to number one in the US box office chart...It took $40.8m (£21m) in weekend ticket sales, according to studio estimates. The sequel follows the master criminals as they try to pull off three major heists across Europe. It knocked last week's number one, National Treasure, into third place. Wesley Snipes' Blade: Trinity was in second, taking $16.1m (£8.4m). Rounding out the top five was animated fable The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks, and festive comedy Christmas with the Kranks...Ocean's Twelve box office triumph marks the fourth-biggest opening for a December release in the US, after the three films in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The sequel narrowly beat its 2001 predecessor, Ocean's Eleven which took $38.1m (£19.8m) on its opening weekend and $184m (£95.8m) in total. A remake of the 1960s film, starring Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Ocean's Eleven was directed by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh returns to direct the hit sequel which reunites Clooney, Pitt and Roberts with Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Elliott Gould. Catherine Zeta-Jones joins the all-star cast. ""It's just a fun, good holiday movie,"" said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros. However, US critics were less complimentary about the $110m (£57.2m) project, with the Los Angeles Times labelling it a ""dispiriting vanity project"". A milder review in the New York Times dubbed the sequel ""unabashedly trivial"".",entertainment
"Oscar nominee Dan O'Herlihy dies..Irish actor Dan O'Herlihy, who was nominated for best actor at the 1955 Oscars, has died at the age of 85...O'Herlihy, whose Oscar nomination was for Luis Bunuel's The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, died at his home in Malibu, California, a spokesman said. The actor began his film career in the 1940s, playing Macduff to Orson Welles' Macbeth in 1948, and was also a regular in on the Dublin stage. He later appeared in Robocop and its sequel and cult TV show Twin Peaks. He played the CEO of Omni Consumer Products in 1987's Robocop and Robocop 2 three years later, and was saw mill owner Andrew Packard in Twin Peaks, also in 1990. Despite his Oscar nomination, he had few other lead roles and became a familiar supporting actor on TV and in film. The year he was nominated, the Academy Award was won by Marlon Brando for On the Waterfront.",entertainment
"Berlin cheers for anti-Nazi film..A German movie about an anti-Nazi resistance heroine has drawn loud applause at Berlin Film Festival...Sophie Scholl - The Final Days portrays the final days of the member of the White Rose movement. Scholl, 21, was arrested and beheaded with her brother, Hans, in 1943 for distributing leaflets condemning the ""abhorrent tyranny"" of Adolf Hitler. Director Marc Rothemund said: ""I have a feeling of responsibility to keep the legacy of the Scholls going."" ""We must somehow keep their ideas alive,"" he added...The film drew on transcripts of Gestapo interrogations and Scholl's trial preserved in the archive of communist East Germany's secret police. Their discovery was the inspiration behind the film for Rothemund, who worked closely with surviving relatives, including one of Scholl's sisters, to ensure historical accuracy on the film. Scholl and other members of the White Rose resistance group first started distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in the summer of 1942. They were arrested as they dropped leaflets at Munich University calling for a ""day of reckoning"" with Adolf Hitler's regime. The film focuses on the six days from Scholl's arrest to the intense trial which saw Scholl initially deny the charges and ended with a defiant appearance. It is one of three German films vying for a top prize at the Festival...A South African film version of Bizet's tragic opera Carmen shot in Cape Town in the Xhosa language has also premiered at the Berlin Festival. The film is entitled U-Carmen eKhayelitsha or Carmen in Khayelitsha after the township in which the story is set. It is performed by a 40-strong music and theatre troupe in their debut film performance. The film is the first South African feature in 25 years and only the second to be nominated for a Golden Bear Award.",entertainment
"Wine comedy wins critics' award..Quirky comedy Sideways was named the best film of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association...The US movie also picked up four other accolades including best director for Alexander Payne and supporting actor for Thomas Haden Church. British actress Imelda Staunton has again been recognised for her role in Vera Drake, winning best actress, while Liam Neeson won best actor for Kinsey. The awards will be handed out on 13 January at a ceremony in Las Vegas...Sideways tells the story of two men who take a road trip through California's wine regions and also stars Paul Giamatti. Virginia Madsen was also named best supporting actress for her performance in the film. House of Flying Daggers, directed by Yimou Zhang, was named best foreign language film, while the animation award went to The Incredibles. Unusually, the runners-up in categories were also named with Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby just missing out on the best film award. The best director runner-up was Martin Scorsese for The Aviator. A career achievement award will be handed to veteran actor and comic Jerry Lewis at the ceremony next year.",entertainment
"Actor Foxx sees Globe nominations..US actor Jamie Foxx has been given two nominations for Golden Globe awards, with Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman and Cate Blanchett also up for prizes...The stars were shortlisted on Monday for supporting roles, with the main nominations still to come. Foxx has starred in Collateral and Ray. Clive Owen, David Carradine and Natalie Portman are also up for awards. The Golden Globes, Hollywood's second most prominent awards, are the first major nominations to be announced. Last year, The Lord Of the Rings: The Return Of the King was named best drama movie while Lost In Translation won best musical or comedy. Sean Penn, Charlize Theron, Tim Robbins and Renee Zellweger all won acting awards - mirroring the eventual Oscars outcome. The Golden Globes ceremony will take place on 16 January, with the Oscars following on 27 February.",entertainment
"Godzilla gets Hollywood fame star..Movie monster Godzilla has received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, honouring both his 50th birthday and the launch of his 28th film...An actor dressed as the giant creature breathed smoke over photographers on Monday as Godzilla received the 2,271st star on Hollywood Boulevard. ""Godzilla should thank you for this historical and monumental star,"" said Final Wars producer Shogo Tomiyama. ""But unfortunately, he cannot speak English,"" he added. Hollywood's honorary mayor, Johnny Grant, said: ""I do hereby proclaim this Godzilla Day in Hollywood...""He's loose, he's wild, and I'm getting the hell out of here,"" he added. The premiere of Godzilla: Final Wars at Grauman's Chinese Theatre followed the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard. The monster was joined by co-stars including Japanese pop star and actor Masahiro Matsuoka. Director Ryuhei Kitamura said it may not be Godzilla's final outing, as it has been billed. ""That's what the producers say. But the producer's a liar,"" he said. ""[Godzilla's] been working for the last 50 years. So, I think Godzilla just deserves a vacation."" And producer Shogo Tomiyama added: ""So long as Godzilla can fascinate people, I believe he will be resurrected by new generations of filmmakers in the future."" Godzilla first appeared in 1954 as a prehistoric lizard woken by atomic bomb tests.",entertainment
"God cut from Dark Materials film..The director and screenwriter of the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is to remove references to God and the church in the movie...Chris Weitz, director of About a Boy, said the changes were being made after film studio New Line expressed concern. The books tell of a battle against the church and a fight to overthrow God. ""They have expressed worry about the possibility of perceived anti-religiosity,"" Weitz told a His Dark Materials fans' website. Pullman's trilogy has been attacked by some Christian teachers and by the Catholic press as blasphemy. Weitz, who admitted he would not be many people's first choice to direct the films, said he regarded the film adaptation as ""the most important work of my life""...""In part because it is one of the few books to have changed my life,"" he told bridgetothestars.net. The award-winning trilogy - Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass - tell the story of Oxford school child Lyra Belacqua. She is drawn into an epic struggle against the Church, which has been carrying out experiments on children in an attempt to remove original sin...As the books progress the struggle turns into a battle to overthrow the Authority, a figure who is God-like in the books. Weitz, who directed American Pie and About A Boy, said New Line feared that any anti-religiosity in the film would make the project ""unviable financially"". He said: ""All my best efforts will be directed towards keeping the film as liberating and iconoclastic an experience as I can. ""But there may be some modification of terms.""..Weitz said he had visited Pullman, who had told him that the Authority could ""represent any arbitrary establishment that curtails the freedom of the individual, whether it be religious, political, totalitarian, fundamentalist, communist, what have you"". He added: ""I have no desire to change the nature or intentions of the villains of the piece, but they may appear in more subtle guises."" There are a number of Christian websites which attack the trilogy for their depiction of the church and of God, but Pullman has denied his books are anti-religious. His agent told the Times newspaper that Pullman was happy with the adaptation so far. ""Of course New Line want to make money, but Mr Weitz is a wonderful director and Philip is very supportive. ""You have to recognise that it is a challenge in the climate of Bush's America,""",entertainment
"Aviator wins top Globes accolades..The Aviator has been named best film at the Golden Globe Awards, with its star Leonardo DiCaprio named best actor...Hollywood veteran Clint Eastwood took the best director prize for Million Dollar Baby while its star Hilary Swank was best actress. Quirky comedy Sideways was named best screenplay and best comedy. Ray star Jamie Foxx was best actor in a musical/comedy while Briton Clive Owen and Natalie Portman won prizes for best supporting roles in Closer...The Aviator, in which DiCaprio plays millionaire Howard Hughes, edged ahead of its rivals at the Beverly Hills ceremony by winning the best original score prize. This give it a total of three awards while Million Dollar Baby, Sideways and Closer took two Golden Globes each. Accepting his best dramatic actor prize, DiCaprio described director Martin Scorsese as ""one of the greatest contributors to the world of cinema of all time""...Annette Bening won best actress in a musical/comedy for Being Julia while Spanish movie The Sea Inside was named best foreign language film. Swank, who previously won the Golden Globe and Oscar for Boys Don't Cry, paid tribute to Million Dollar Baby director and co-star Clint Eastwood. ""You guided us so brilliantly, while you also, in my humble opinion, gave the performance of your career,"" she said. Foxx was nominated for three awards but was beaten to the best supporting actor title by Owen and the best actor in a TV movie prize by Geoffrey Rush in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers...A BBC co-production, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers was also named best TV movie. Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart won the best original song award for Old Habits Die Hard from movie re-make Alfie, while Ian McShane was named best actor in a TV drama for his lead role in Deadwood...Other UK hopes Kate Winslet and Imelda Staunton went home empty-handed despite lead actress nominations for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Vera Drake respectively. Winning a Golden Globe is said to improve a film or performer's chance of subsequently winning an Academy Award. Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes split awards by genre - one prize for dramas and the other for musicals and comedies. The Globes also honour the best in television, with suburban series Desperate Housewives named best TV comedy show. Actress Teri Hatcher beat fellow Desperate Housewives stars Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman to the best comedy actress prize...Hatcher thanked the show's cast, crew and ""a network who gave me a second chance at a career when I couldn't have been a bigger 'has been'"". Cosmetic surgery series Nip/Tuck beat The Sopranos and Deadwood to the best television drama title. Arrested Development star Jason Bateman was named best TV actor in a musical or comedy series. The Golden Globes are awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, comprising film reporters based in Los Angeles and working for overseas outlets. Robin Williams, a five-time Globe winner for such films as The Fisher King and Good Morning, Vietnam, received the Cecil B DeMille award for career achievement. He dedicated his prize to Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who died last year.",entertainment
"Singer's film to show at festival..A documentary which takes a candid look at the life of chart-topping singer George Michael will be shown at this year's Berlin Film Festival...A Different Story will screen in the Panorama section of the festival, which runs from 10-20 February. It features the singer talking about both his career and his personal life, from his days in Wham! through to more recent events. Michael will attend the festival to introduce the screening on 16 February. Director Southan Morris and executive producer Andy Stephens will also attend the festival...The 93 minute film will see Michael discussing his early days in Wham! along with his later career, including his legal battles with record label Sony and his stance against the Iraq war and American politics. It will also touch upon his turbulent personal life, including his arrest in a Beverly Hills park toilet in 1998 for ""lewd behaviour"", and the death of his boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa from Aids. The film, which includes previously unseen footage of the singer also features contributions from Michael's former Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, as well as ex-Wham! backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie. Other contributors include Sting, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Noel Gallagher, Geri Halliwell and Simon Cowell. This year's festival will open with Man To Man, a historical epic starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas. It will be one of 21 films competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Bear. Other films in competition will include The Life Aquatic, a quirky comedy starring Bill Murray, and the biopic Kinsey, which features Liam Neeson. The full programme will be announced on 1 February.",entertainment
"Surprise win for anti-Bush film..Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has won best film at the US People's Choice Awards, voted for by the US public...Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ won best drama, despite both films being snubbed so far at US film awards in the run-up to February's Oscars. Julia Roberts won her 10th consecutive crown as favourite female movie star. Johnny Depp was favourite male movie star and Renee Zellweger was favourite leading lady at Sunday's awards in LA...Film sequel Shrek 2 took three prizes - voted top animated movie, top film comedy and top sequel. In television categories, Desperate Housewives was named top new drama and Joey, starring former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc, was best new comedy. Long-running shows Will and Grace and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation were named best TV comedy and TV drama respectively...Nominees for the People's Choice Awards were picked by a 6,000-strong Entertainment Weekly magazine panel, and winners were subsequently chosen by 21 million online voters. Fahrenheit 9/11 director Michael Moore dedicated his trophy to soldiers in Iraq. His film was highly critical of President George W Bush and the US-led invasion of Iraq, and Moore was an outspoken Bush critic in the 2004 presidential campaign inwhich Democratic challenger John Kerry lost...""This country is still all of ours, not right or left or Democrat or Republican,"" Moore told the audience at the ceremony in Pasadena, California. Moore said it was ""an historic occasion"" that the 31-year-old awards ceremony would name a documentary its best film. Unlike many other film-makers, Passion of the Christ director Mel Gibson has vowed not to campaign for an Oscar for his movie. ""To me, really, this is the ultimate goal because one doesn't make work for the elite,"" Gibson said backstage at the event. ""To me, the people have spoken.""",entertainment
"Da Vinci film to star Tom Hanks..Actor Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard are reuniting for The Da Vinci Code, an adaptation of the international best-selling novel by Dan Brown...Distributor Sony Pictures said production will begin next year, with a planned release in May 2006. Hanks will play Robert Langdon, who is trying to solve the murder of a member of an ancient society that has protected dark secrets for centuries. It will be Hanks' third collaboration with Howard. They previously worked together, along with Howard's producing partner Brian Grazer, on Splash and Apollo 13...Hanks is one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, with his presence in a movie almost guaranteeing box office success. Brown's book has become a publishing phenomenon, consistently topping book charts in the UK and US. It has sold more than eight million copies worldwide in little over two years. It is a classic whodunit, which centres on a global conspiracy surrounding the Holy Grail mythology and places heavy emphasis on symbols and cryptography. Its protagonist is a Harvard professor likened to a contemporary Indiana Jones, who also appeared in Brown's first book Angels and Demons. The tale mixes art history with mythology, semiotics with medieval history.",entertainment
"Controversial film tops festival..A controversial film starring Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon as a convicted paedophile won top honours at the London Film Festival on Thursday...The Woodsman won the Satyajit Ray Award, named after the Indian director. The low-budget film, directed by Nicole Kassell, is about a convicted child molester trying to rebuild his life after 12 years in jail. Judges said the film tackled the contentious subject with ""great insight and sensitivity"". Previous films to take the prize include the Oscar-winning Boys Don't Cry, which was about the true life story of murdered transsexual Brandon Teena...British writer-director Amma Asante won the UK Film Talent Award this year for her debut feature A Way Of Life. Set in South Wales, the film is about a teenage single mother who becomes embroiled in a tense stand-off with a Turkish neighbour. Also on Thursday night, the Fipresci International Critics Awards went to Aaltra, a Belgian film about the handicapped; and the Sutherland Trophy, which was won by Jonathan Caouette for his film Tarnation. The festival closed with a screening of the film I Heart Huckabees, starring Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman and directed by Three Kings film-maker David O Russell. The festival this year also included the first European screening of the new Pixar animation The Incredibles, and the British film Bullet Boy, starring So Solid Crew rapper Asher D.",entertainment
"Fockers retain film chart crown..Comedy Meet The Fockers has held on to the number one spot at the North American box office for a second week...It took $42.8m (£23.7m) at the weekend, making its overall takings more than $163m (£90m) in 12 days, according to studio estimates. It took $19.1m (£9.9m) on Christmas Day alone, the highest takings on that day in box office history. The sequel to the Ben Stiller comedy Meet The Parents stars Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. The success of Meet the Fockers could help produce record box office revenue for 2004, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the industry's tracker Exhibitor Relations. ""We've had a much stronger than anticipated final week of the year that helped the industry end on a high note,"" said Mr Dergarabedian...Meet the Fockers also broke the box office records for the most money taken on New Year's Eve, when it made $12.2m (£6.2m), and New Year's Day, when it took $18m (£9.4m). The previous New Year's Eve record was set in 2000 by Cast Away with $8.5m (£4.5m). The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King had held the New Year's Day title with $12.8m (£6.7m). However, Christmas takings were down 26.5% on 2003's figures - which was blamed on Christmas falling over a weekend this year. This weekend's top 12 films took an estimated $125.4m (£65.8m), a 4.3% increase on the same weekend last year. But there were no major releases last week to provide competition to Meet the Fockers or Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which finished in second place with $14.7m (£7.7m). The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, ended up in third position after taking $11.2m (£5.9m). Comedy Fat Albert - co-written by Bill Cosby - moved down the chart to fourth place after taking $10.7m (£5.6m).",entertainment
"Sundance to honour foreign films..International films will be given the same prominence as US films at next year's Sundance Film Festival, with movies dominated by the theme of war...The independent film festival will feature two new international cinema competitions, during its 20-30 January season in Utah. Forty-two films will debut at Sundance, including The Liberace of Baghdad by British director Sean McAllister. The prestigious festival was founded by actor Robert Redford in 1981...""We have always had an international component, but from next year they will enter a jury competition,"" festival director Geoffrey Gilmore said. ""We wanted to give world cinema more emphasis and have now put it on par with the American dramatic and documentary competitions."" Twelve films competing in the new world cinema documentary category focus on countries and people under siege...The Liberace of Baghdad features an Iraqi pianist hiding in a hotel as he waits for a visa, while Finnish film The Three Rooms of Melancholia looks at the war in Chechnya. Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire tells of a UN mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, while French-Israeli production Wall looks at Israel's controversial security wall separating it from the Palestinian territories. The 16 films competing in the new world cinema dramatic category include works from Germany, South Korea, Angola, China, Denmark and Australia...Several Hollywood stars feature in the festival's American independent drama category, including Keanu Reeves and Benjamin Bratt. Vince Vaughn stars in quirky movie Thumbsucker while 21 Grams actress Naomi Watts plays a budding Hollywood actress in Ellie Parker. The top Grand Jury prize at this year's festival went to low budget sci-fi thriller Primer, written and directed by Shane Carruth. Morgan Spurlock earned the directing award for Super Size Me, which became an international box office hit.",entertainment
"Day-Lewis set for Berlin honour..Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is to be presented with an award for his career in film at the Berlin Film Festival...The 47-year-old, whose credits include his Oscar-winning performance in My Left Foot, will be presented with the Berlinale Camera award on 15 February. The honour, awarded since 1986, honours figures in cinema that the festival feels ""particularly indebted to"". Man to Man, a historical epic starring Kristin Scott Thomas, opens the German festival on 10 February. A candid documentary about the life and career of singer George Michael, A Different Story will also be screened at the 10-day event. '..Day-Lewis has competed four times at the Berlin Film Festival, with films In The Name Of The Father (1994), The Crucible (1997), The Boxer (1998) and Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York (2003). The festival praises him for his ""sensational start"" with roles in My Beautiful Launderette and costume classic A Room With A View, and a ""great number of celebrated roles"" in subsequent productions. Japan's oldest film studio will also be honoured along with Day-Lewis. Shochiku film studios, which was founded 110 years ago, will become the first cinematic institution to receive the Berlinale Camera award. Famous Japanese directors including Akira Hurosawa have had films produced at the studio.",entertainment
"Downloads enter US singles chart..Digital music downloads are being included in the main US singles chart for the first time...Billboard's Hot 100 chart now incorporates data from sales of music downloads, previously only assigned to a separate download chart. Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams is currently number two in Billboard's pop chart, and tops its digital chart. Download sales are due to be incorporated into the UK singles chart later this year...Digital sales in the US are already used to compile Billboard's Hot Digital Sales chart. They will now be tallied with sales of physical singles and airplay information to make up its new Hot 100 chart. Its second new chart - the Pop 100 - also combines airplay, digital and physical sales but confines its airplay information to US radio stations which play chart music. In addition to Green Day, other artists in the current US digital sales top 10 include Kelly Clarkson, The Game and the Killers...Sales of legally downloaded songs shot up more than tenfold in 2004, with 200 million track purchased online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported last month. In the UK sales of song downloads overtook those for physical singles for the first time at the end of last year. The last week of December 2004 saw download sales of 312,000 compared with 282,000 physical singles, according to the British Phonographic Industry. The UK's first official music download chart was launched last September, compiling the most popular tracks downloaded from legal UK sites - including iTunes, OD2, mycokemusic.com and Napster. Westlife's Flying Without Wings - a 1999 track reissued for the occasion - was the first number one of the UK download chart...A spokesman for the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said the first combined UK download and sales chart was due to be compiled ""within the first half of this year"". ""Work is going on across the music business right now to make sure the new chart works to plan,"" he said. The BPI spokesman described the UK music download chart, compiled by the Official Charts Company, as having been ""a great success"" since its launch. ""It has provided a focus for the industry and has really driven interest in downloads among music fans,"" he said.",entertainment
"Glasgow hosts tsunami benefit gig..The top names in Scottish music are taking part in a benefit concert in aid of the victims of the Asian tsunami...All 10,000 tickets for Saturday's concert, featuring Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian and Travis, at Glasgow's SECC sold out in 36 hours. Mull Historical Society, Deacon Blue, Idlewild, Texas, Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub are among the other acts performing at the concert. Organisers hope to raise at least £250,000 from the show...It follows a Cardiff gig starring Eric Clapton, Keane and Jools Holland, which raised more than £1.25m. And it is taking place on the same night as a tsunami benefit show in Bristol, which will see Massive Attack and Portishead share a stage for the first time. Colin MacIntyre, of Mull Historical Society, was playing another gig on the same day but said he was determined to make the Glasgow benefit. He said: ""I think we were all affected by seeing the reports coming from the Far East. ""We all know somebody who was there, but more than that it was that we had never seen a wave of destruction, a natural disaster, like this in my generation. ""I'm lucky as an artist to be able to perform at something like this.""",entertainment
"Pop band Busted to 'take a break'..Chart-topping pop band Busted have confirmed that they plan to ""take a break"", following rumours that they were on the verge of splitting...A statement from the band's record company Universal said frontman Charlie Simpson planned to spend some time working with his other band, Fightstar. However they said that Busted would ""reconvene in due course"". The band have had eight top three hits, including four number ones, since they first hit the charts in 2002. Their singles include What I Go To School For, Year 3000, Crashed The Wedding, You Said No, and Who's David?..The band, which also includes members Matt Jay and James Bourne, made the top ten with their self-titled debut album, as well as the follow-up, A Present For Everyone, in 2003. They won best pop act and best breakthrough act at the 2004 Brit Awards and were nominated for best British group. Most recently they topped the charts with the theme from the live-action film version of Thunderbirds, which was voted Record Of The Year on the ITV1 show. The band have capitalised on a craze for artists playing catchy pop music with rock overtones. The trio are seen as an alternative to more manufactured artists who are not considered credible musicians because they do not write their own songs or play their own instruments. However, recent rumours have suggested that Simpson has been wanting to quit the band to focus on Fightstar. He now plans to take Fightstar on tour.",entertainment
"Streets have 'album of the year'..The Streets, aka British rapper and songwriter, Mike Skinner have topped a poll to find the year's best album...A Grand Don't Come for Free beat Keane's Hope and Fears in second place with Franz Ferdinand's self-titled album third, in the Q magazine poll. Skinner uses blunt beats under streetwise lyrics about such things as falling in love and drink and drugs. Q Magazine said: ""A Grand Don't Come for Free captured the country's mood in a way no one could have predicted."" A Grand Don't Come for Free is the second album from The Streets. It followed Original Pirate Material. Q Magazine also had praise for the runners-up in the poll. Keane's Hopes and Fears, was described as a ""revelatory debut"" which showed ""they had songwriting flair to spare"". It also said Franz Ferdinand's album sounded ""natural, unforced (and) under-produced"". Rock band U2's latest album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb came fourth while Razorlight's Up All Night was in fifth place. Others notables on the list included Dizzee Rascal in at number 12 and The Zutons at 20. Estelle came in at 39, Joss Stone was 40th and Jamelia took the 44th place.",entertainment
"Manics in charge of BBC 6 Music..The Manic Street Preachers are to take over the helm of BBC digital radio station 6 Music for a week in December...The Welsh band, whose hits include Design For Life and If You Tolerate This, have already chosen which records to play between 6 and 12 December. Their albums of the day include Who's Next by The Who and U2's Joshua Tree. The group will also perform their own live session. They follow in the footsteps of Radiohead, who took over the station for a week last year...Bass player Nicky Wire will join Phil Jupitus on his morning show on Monday 6 December, while vocalist and guitarist James Dean Bradfield will appear on Andrew Collins' afternoon show on Thursday 9. The group have also chosen documentaries to air, such as The Leonard Cohen Story and Guitar Greats - Jimmy Page. The live concert session tracks they have picked include The Specials' Rat Race recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in London and Public Enemy's Fight The Power and Rebel Without A Pause. The band will also answer questions e-mailed in by 6 Music listeners.",entertainment
"Media seek Jackson 'juror' notes..Reporters covering singer Michael Jackson's trial in California have asked to see questionnaires completed by potential jurors...Lawyers for news organisations said it was ""really vital"" for the responses of 250 potential jurors to be made public ""to serve as a check on the process"". Santa Barbara County Superior Court is due to consider the request on Monday. Mr Jackson denies child molestation. It is estimated his trial will cost Santa Barbara county up to $4m (£2.13m)...Meanwhile Michael Jackson's mother has said she is ""100% certain"" her son did not commit the child abuse charges he faces. The court is currently selecting 12 jurors and eight stand-by jurors for the trial, a process delayed until at least Thursday after a member of the star's legal team was hit by family illness. Defence lawyers argued against the bid by Associated Press and other news organisations to have potential jurors' responses made public...""The release of the completed jury questionnaires does not serve any purpose other than to add to the sensationalist coverage of this case,"" a motion by Mr Jackson's lawyers stated. The estimated total costs of the trial, expected to last five months, range from $2.5m (£1.33m) to $4m (£2.13m) of local taxpayers' money. Those estimates do not include costs to the city of Santa Maria, the Superior Court or for the investigation and prosecution of the case. The cost of security and other needs around the courthouse has been estimated at $40,000 (£21,000) per day, said Jason Stilwell, a special projects manager at the county administrator's office...Mr Jackson, 46, denies plying a boy with alcohol and molesting him. His mother Katherine Jackson told US TV network Fox News on Sunday that her pop star son told her he was innocent. ""I believe that for one reason - I know his character,"" she said. ""He loves children. You don't molest anything that you love."" Describing Mr Jackson as ""a good person"", the mother-of-nine said she feared he would not be given a fair trial. ""I can't sleep thinking about what these wicked people might try to do to him,"" she said.",entertainment
"Band Aid retains number one spot..The charity single by Band Aid 20 has held on the chart top spot for a second week, strengthening its chances of becoming the Christmas number one...Do They Know It's Christmas, featuring artists including Chris Martin and Jamelia, held off Kylie Minogue to remain the week's biggest single. Next week's chart will reveal who will have the festive chart-topper Minogue's latest release I Believe in You went in at number two, pushing down Ice Cube's You Can Do It to three. Destiny's Child also slipped one place to four with Lose My Breath, followed by Girls Aloud at five with the Children in Need record I'll Stand By You...The only other new entry in the top 10 came from Robbie Williams track Misunderstood, a new track written for his Greatest Hits album. There were no new releases in the entire top 40 album charts as record companies put out all the big releases early hoping to cash in on the lucrative Christmas market. U2's How to Dismantle a Bomb remains at number one for a third week in a row, followed by Williams' Greatest Hits. Opera band Il Divo have moved up one place with their eponymous album to number three. Maroon 5's album Songs About Jane has moved up to number seven despite being released 47 weeks ago. And the Abba Gold greatest hits album has crept back into the top 40 more than nine years after it was first released.",entertainment
"Rap boss arrested over drug find..Rap mogul Marion ""Suge"" Knight has been arrested for violating his parole after he was allegedly found with marijuana...He was arrested in Barstow, California, on Saturday following an alleged traffic offence. He is expected to be transferred to a state prison while a decision is made on whether he should be released. Mr Knight, founder of Death Row Records, served a 10-month jail term in 2004 for punching a man while on parole for an assault conviction. Police said Mr Knight was stopped on Saturday after performing an illegal U-turn and a search of his car allegedly found marijuana...He is also accused of not having insurance. A 18-year-old woman in the car was arrested for providing false information and having a fake ID card. She was later released. It was his second alleged violation, having previously served half of a nine-year sentence for breaking the terms of his parole. Mr Knight, 39, was jailed in October 1996 following his involvement in a fight with a rival gang just hours before rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting. He was driving Shakur's car at the time and was shot in the head. At the time he was on probation for assaulting two musicians. Mr Knight, a former bodyguard, set up Death Row records in the early 1990s with Shakur and Dr Dre among his protegees. But the label has always been dogged by allegations it supports gang culture and fuels the east and west coast rap rivalry.",entertainment
"Elton plays Paris charity concert..Sir Elton John has performed at a special concert in Paris to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami...The British singer played to a 2,700-strong audience on Sunday at the French capital's Bastille opera house. The concert was also part of an attempt to bring a broader range of events to the famous venue. Money raised will go to the Fondation pour l'Enfance (Foundation for Childhood) which aims to rebuild a children's shelter in Sri Lanka. Sir Elton played hits from his vast back catalogue to a sell-out crowd which included former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing and his wife Anne-Aymone. The veteran pop star played piano accompaniment throughout the concert which lasted for three hours without an interval...He told the crowd: ""Throughout the years, I've done a lot of drugs and alcohol. It's true that I was a nightmare, impossible. For the last 14 years I've been normal. Now my drug is called David"" - a reference to David Furnish, his partner. The crowd, who greeted each song with a standing ovation, also included French singer Charles Aznavour and British ambassador Sir John Holmes. Sir Elton has also teamed up with Phil Collins to record a version of Eric Clapton's 1991 hit Tears In Heaven to raise money for the relief fund. A release date has yet to be set for the recording, which was organised by Sharon Osbourne.",entertainment
"Elvis set to top UK singles chart..Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis is set to top the UK singles chart on Sunday, 27 years after his death...The re-release of hit song Jailhouse Rock was out-selling X Factor winner Steve Brockstein's cover of Against All Odds by 2,000 copies on Tuesday. If the record does make the top spot, it will be Elvis' 19th UK number one. The last time he topped the charts was with the remix of the little-known song A Little Less Conversation, which was number one in June 2002. If Jailhouse Rock does reach number one on Sunday, it will be the 999th in the history of the UK pop charts. The song first topped the charts in 1958. Chart analysts say Elvis could score the 1000th number one as well. His record One Night will be released the following week, followed the week after by A Fool Such As I, as part of his record company SonyBMG's new Elvis campaign. It has called it ""the most ambitious singles release campaign in the history of the UK record industry"".",entertainment
"Wal-Mart is sued over rude lyrics..The parents of a 13-year-old girl are suing US supermarket giant Wal-Mart over a CD by rock group Evanescence that contains swear words...The lawsuit, filed in Washington County, alleges Wal-Mart deceived customers by not putting warning labels on the cover. Trevin Skeens alleges Wal-Mart knew of the offending word because it had censored it on its music sales website. Wal-Mart said it was investigating the claims but had no plans to pull the CD. Wal-Mart has a policy of not stocking CDs which carry parental advisory labels. Mr Skeens said he bought the Anywhere But Home CD for his daughter and was shocked to hear the swearing when it was played in their car...""I don't want any other families to get this, expecting it to be clean. It needs to be removed from the shelves to prevent other children from hearing it,"" said Mr Skeens of Brownsville. The lawsuit seeks to force Wal-Mart to censor the music or remove it from its stores in Maryland. It also seeks damages of up to $74,500 (£38,660) for every customer who bought the CD at Maryland Wal-Marts, and also naming record label Wind-Up Records and distributor BMG Entertainment in the legal action. ""While Wal-Mart sets high standards, it would not be possible to eliminate every image, word or topic that an individual might find objectionable,"" Wal-Mart spokesman Guy Whitcomb told the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown.",entertainment
"Pete Doherty misses bail deadline..Singer Pete Doherty will have to spend the weekend in jail because he could not come up with £150,000 bond money for his bail on time...The former Libertines singer had been granted bail with curfew restrictions at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on charges of robbery and blackmail. But his lawyer said the money could not be raised on time. Mr Doherty, 25, was arrested following an alleged incident in a London hotel on Wednesday evening. Musician Alan Wass, 23, also of north London, appeared in court accused of the same offences...Magistrates imposed a range of bail conditions on Mr Doherty including a curfew between 2200 and 0700, except when he attends a drug rehabilitation centre. He was told he would not be able to leave his home without being accompanied by a security firm. He must also surrender his passport and report daily to a local police station. Mr Wass was also given a curfew and told to surrender his passport. Mr Doherty left The Libertines at the end of June 2004, but continued performing with his band Babyshambles. The singer, who has been linked to supermodel Kate Moss, was arrested after police were called to the Islington hotel in response to claims that a man had been assaulted. A man in his 30s was later taken to University College Hospital, London, with facial injuries, before being discharged. A lawyer representing Mr Doherty and Mr Wass said outside court the pair strenuously denied the charges.",entertainment
"Rapper Snoop Dogg sued for 'rape'..US rapper Snoop Dogg has been sued for $25m (£13m) by a make-up artist who claimed he and his entourage drugged and raped her two years ago...The woman said she was assaulted after a recording of the Jimmy Kimmel Live TV show on the ABC network in 2003. The rapper's spokesman said the allegations were ""untrue"" and the woman was ""misusing the legal system as a means of extracting financial gain"". ABC said the claims had ""no merit"". The star has not been charged by police...The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles on Friday, says the woman's champagne was spiked and she was then assaulted. The rapper's spokesperson said: ""Snoop will have the opportunity to prove in a court of law that [the alleged victim] is opportunistic and deceitful. ""We are confident that in this case, [the alleged victim's] claims against Snoop Dogg will be rejected."" The lawsuit names Snoop Dogg - real name Calvin Broadus - plus three associates, The Walt Disney Company and its parent company ABC Inc...The woman waited two years to sue because she was trying to negotiate a settlement with the media companies, her lawyer, Perry Wander, said. Disney and ABC ""failed to provide a safe working environment for my client,"" he said. The legal action comes after the rap star sued a woman who claimed they tried to blackmail him to keep quiet about an alleged assault. The 32-year-old rapper has enjoyed six US top 10 albums since bursting onto the music scene with hit songs like What's My Name? and Gin and Juice in 1993.",entertainment
"Legendary music studio to close..The New York music studio where John Lennon spent his final hours is to close next month...The Hit Factory, which opened 37 years ago, has played host to some of the biggest stars in music, including Paul Simon, Madonna and David Bowie. However, the rise in digital recording has affected business at the studio, which is relocating to smaller premises in Miami. Lennon recorded his final album Double Fantasy at the studio in 1979...The studio was founded by Jerry Ragovoy in 1968. In 1975 it was sold to fellow producer Edward Germano, who turned it into a 100,000 square foot studio with seven recording rooms and live mastering suites. His first client was Stevie Wonder, who recorded part of his classic album Songs In The Key Of Life there. Other well-known albums to be recorded or partially recorded at the studio include Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA, the Rolling Stones' Emotional Rescue and Paul Simon's Graceland. Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Jay-Z and Beyonce are also among artists who have used the Hit Factory in the past, as well as 50 Cent who survived an attempt on his life as he left the premises in 2000. The studio made history in 1994 when it won a record 41 Grammy nominations for songs recorded, mastered or mixed there, including the soundtrack to the Whitney Houston film The Bodyguard.",entertainment
"Rapper Jay-Z becomes label boss..Rap star Jay-Z is to become a record company executive after being put in charge of one of hip-hop's most influential labels, Def Jam...Jay-Z, who said he would make no more music after 2003's The Black Album, will become the company's president and chief executive from January. Def Jam's parent company, Universal, made the appointment after buying Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella label. Def Jam's artists include LL Cool J, DMX, Ludacris, Ja Rule and Ashanti. Jay-Z will continue to run Roc-A-Fella, which he founded with Damon Dash in 1995 and has Kanye West and Beanie Sigel on its roster. Universal said on Wednesday it had bought the 50% of Roc-A-Fella it did not already own...Antonio ""LA"" Reid, chairman of The Island Def Jam Music Group, said: ""I can think of no-one more relevant and credible in the hip-hop community to build upon Def Jam's fantastic legacy."" He hoped Jay-Z would ""move the company into its next groundbreaking era"", he added. Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, said: ""I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella...""I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artist community."" One of the most successful and respected rap stars of the last eight years, Jay-Z's hits have included Hard Knock Life, Dirt Off Your Shoulder and 03 Bonnie and Clyde with his girlfriend Beyonce Knowles. He said he would retire after The Black Album, but has just released an album and been on an ill-fated tour with R Kelly. Def Jam was founded in 1984 by Russell Simmons and producer Rick Rubin and signed artists including Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys and Public Enemy.",entertainment
"REM concerts blighted by illness..US rock band REM have been forced to cancel concerts after bass player Mike Mills was taken to hospital suffering from ""severe flu-like symptoms""...The band were forced to cut short Monday night's show in Sheffield, and have cancelled Tuesday's Glasgow date. Mills could ""hardly stand up, let alone play"", said an REM spokesman, who added he is now ""resting"" in hospital. The remainder of the band played a short acoustic set on Monday. Tuesday's gig has been rescheduled for 15 June. Those who had a ticket for the show in Glasgow are being advised to retain their ticket stub so they can attend the new date. The band's spokesman said that they would review their remaining dates on a ""day-to-day basis"", based on doctors' advice to Mills. ""Obviously we all want Mike to get better, and clearly we all want to play the shows. Rest assured we will do so as soon as possible,"" he said...The band were still hopeful they would be able to make their Wednesday date, added the spokesman. REM played accoustic versions of their hits Losing My Religion, I've Been High, Leaving New York and The One I Love to the Sheffield Arena audience on Monday. The band had originally been scheduled to play four dates in the UK as part of a world tour. In 1995 former drummer Bill Berry collapsed in Switzerland while the band was on tour, having suffered a ruptured aneurysm. He made a full recovery, only to leave the band two years later.",entertainment
"Ring of Fire hit co-writer dies..Merle Kilgore, co-writer of the country hit Ring of Fire, has died of congestive heart failure aged 70...He started out as a singer and songwriter before going into music management, looking after country star Hank Williams Jr. He wrote Ring of Fire with June Carter Cash, the future wife of Johnny Cash who went on to score his most popular hit with the track. Kilgore had heart surgery in 2004 and was also diagnosed with lung cancer. His death has been attributed to treatment he was undergoing for the cancer. His first self-penned top 10 hit was Dear Mama in 1959...One of the first songs he wrote for other artists was Wolverton Mountain, which sold 10 million copies when recorded by Claude King. He then wrote Ring of Fire with June Carter Cash, which was about her unrequited love for Johnny, who she later married. It was first recorded by her younger sister Anita Carter before Johnny went on to make such a success of it. June Carter Cash previously said it upset her husband when Kilgore talked about the song without crediting her and believed he should not have been credited on it. Last year, Kilgore turned up an awards dinner in a wheelchair expecting to honour Hank Williams Jr, but instead he was the surprise recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the International Entertainment Buyers Association.",entertainment
"'My memories of Marley...'..To mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of reggae star Bob Marley, Rob Partridge - Marley's former head of press at Island Records - remembers the man behind the legend...Partridge worked with Marley from 1977 until the Jamaican musician's death in 1981...: ""I joined Island Records in 1977 and the first week I was there I worked on his show at the Rainbow Theatre. It was one of the last dates he did in London.""..: The album Exodus came out in 1977 and that provided five hits and confirmed his global superstar status. ""By 1979 he was the biggest touring attraction in the world. I remember going to see dates in Milan and Turin and they were enormous concerts.""..: Bob was one of the most mesmeric people I've ever had the privilege to work with. ""He must have had an iron will to succeed. Bob was a very driven individual. You realised from the start there was a manifest destiny within him that he believed in. He didn't suffer fools gladly. At the risk of stating the obvious, he was an extraordinary song writer and his stage act was perhaps the greatest I've ever seen. I saw him many times.""..: ""I recall in 1978 he came to the UK for Top of the Pops and a Daily Mirror journalist did a half-hour interview. It was interrupted to do a rehearsal. He came back into the dressing room to resume the interview but saw a World Cup match on TV...""He sat down in front of the TV and after 10 minutes it was obvious he wasn't going to move. That was the end of it. The Mirror had a very truncated interview. ""The last time I saw him was in London in 1980. I arranged for him to play four days of football indoors in Fulham. ""Bob was a good player. We are talking about Jamaican-style football. He was an attacking midfield player. His team assembled wherever his gigs were. We played in Brazil against some World Cup-winning players.""..: It was always a struggle for him to connect with Black America. Reggae did not correspond with disco in the 70s. But Bob in the 1990s became one of the great icons in America and the Third World. ""In 1991, ten years after his death, he sold more records than at any time during his life. ""We saw Black America taking Bob into their hearts for the first time.""..: ""Bob, in worldwide terms, is the greatest music star there has ever been. If you went to Africa he would be recognised everywhere, in places John Lennon or Elvis wouldn't be. ""No disrespect to the other artists but a case can be made for him as the greatest, the best and the most influential artist in popular music.""..: Well 1981 was to be the year he toured Africa with Stevie Wonder. He had only performed in Zimbabwe and Guinea before. ""Of course the 1981 tour never happened, but the whole of Africa would have embraced him. We can't speculate but he was at the height of his powers and just 36 years old. I had no sense his career was going to go downhill.""..: ""Bob was endlessly optimistic about the way Africa would turn out. He realised that nothing was perfect but he had total belief in the power of mankind. ""I'm sure if he were alive today he would believe Africa would firstly become politically free and secondly be able to defeat the Aids epidemic.""..: ""The final tune of his final album was Redemption Song - one of the most incredible classics of all time.""",entertainment
"Belle named 'best Scottish band'..Belle & Sebastian have been named the best Scottish band of all time after a three month-long public poll...The group beat Travis and Idlewild into second and third place respectively. Franz Ferdinand, who recently picked up five Brit Award nominations, ended up in 15th place, while the Eurythmics wound up at a lowly 38. Other Scottish acts, such as the Mull Historical Society who also featured in the top 50, performed at a party in Glasgow where the result was announced. Scottish-based band Snow Patrol, who finished 14th in the vote and have been nominated for a pair of Brit Awards, were among the performers who covered well-known Scottish pop songs at the party on Wednesday night...Indie stalwarts Belle & Sebastian have enjoyed a chart career stretching back to 1997. They were the surprise winners of the Brit Award for best breakthrough act two years later. Scottish bands from earlier musical eras also made it into the final list, including 1970s tartan boy band the Bay City Rollers and goth favourites the Jesus and Mary Chain...Scottish magazine The List recently compiled a list of the top 50 Scottish bands of all time, but left the final decision to the public. The magazine's music editor Mark Robertson said: ""The idea behind the project was simple - to rediscover the very best of Scottish music, from the finest musical talent spanning from the age of 70s rock through to 80s pop, right up to today's international stars."" ""Everyone has strong opinions about this and we wanted to open it up to the public to decide,"" he added. BBC Radio Scotland presenter Vic Galloway, who has been involved in the project, said it had been ""great fun"" to look back at Scotland's musical heritage and take note of up-and-coming Scottish acts.",entertainment
"Dance music not dead says Fatboy..DJ Norman Cook - aka Fatboy Slim - has said that dance music is not dead, but has admitted it is currently going through a ""fallow patch""...The commercial failure of the latest albums by Britain's two biggest dance acts - Fatboy Slim's Palookaville and The Prodigy's Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned - has been coupled with the closure of many ""superclubs,"" and the folding of three dance music magazines. Last month the Brit Awards announced they would no longer be awarding a Best Dance Act prize, with the Brits committee announcing that ""dance music is no longer where it's happening in music."" These developments lead some to suggest that dance was finished as a popular music genre. Cook acknowledged that much change in the dance world in the four years since his last album, Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars, but he stressed this did not mean the dance scene was permanently over. ""Every week when I was making the album, I was reading articles about the demise of dance music - and obviously that affects you somewhat,"" he told BBC World Service's The Ticket programme. ""I personally don't believe it's either dead or going to die, but it's going through a bit of a fallow patch. ""So I think, consciously or subconsciously, reading every week that dance music was dead I would think 'right, scrub that track then'.""..Although his album sales in the UK are down - Palookaville stayed in the UK top 75 for just three weeks - Cook has achieved recent global success with his beach parties. And event on Brighton sea front in 2002 attracted 250,000, people, while a later one in Rio achieved a crowd of 360,000. The DVD of the Rio set was the biggest seller of that year...""With a crowd that big, if the weather's nice, the atmosphere before I even go is so good that about halfway through the first record I think 'I've got them',"" Cook said. ""I'm always really really nervous before the big ones - they had to give me Valium before Rio, because two hours before I was literally just pacing the floor. ""For some reason, especially now I've got a reputation for it, the atmosphere and the joie de vivre that's already going on means all I have to do is play 'up' records."" He promised more such parties in more locations around the world - despite problems after the Brighton event, which ended in chaos with many revellers finding themselves stranded as transport ground to a halt. One man also died of a heart attack, and a woman fell to her death during the free party. ""We're having to widen our horizons from just beaches, because there's landlocked countries that want to get involved,"" Cook said. ""We're doing Rio at the carnival, at the Maracana, and Sao Paolo - our new gig is famous football stadiums.""..The DJ admitted, however, that his massive worldwide success had a downside, with intense media interest in his personal life. In particular, he said he had struggled to cope with tabloid intrusion during the temporary break-up of his marriage to Radio One presenter Zoe Ball, after she was linked with DJ Dan Peppe...""The tabloid thing has been difficult at times,"" Cook said. ""Especially the me-and-Zoe-Gate - it's quite scary."" He said that he had been ""determined"" that what had happened with Ball did not affect the album. ""At first I was doing deliberately jolly tunes so that people wouldn't think I was depressed,"" he explained. ""Then I thought, 'that's not right'."" And he highlighted a bizarre coincidence - that one song written before they split had turned out to have a great deal more meaning than intended. ""I said to Zoe, 'I did this track called My Masochistic Baby Went And Left Me, do you mind if it's on the album?'"" he recalled. ""She said, 'yeah, it's hilarious, because your masochistic baby did leave you'."" Cook also added that he had some ways of coping with the intense paparazzi pressure, which accumulates at the end of the private road he lives on - where Paul McCartney is a neighbour. ""It's almost like prisoners rattling the bars with their mugs,"" Cook explained. ""If there's a pap at the end of the road, everyone knocks on each other's doors - Paul comes round, and we warn him, because we don't know who they're after.""",entertainment
"Label withdraws McFadden's video..The new video of former Westlife singer Brian McFadden has been pulled after a Dublin school complained about being associated with his song Irish Son...St Fintian's High School says it is clearly identified in the video, while McFadden never went there. McFadden makes claims that he was beaten at his own school in the song's lyrics, saying it had ""cell blocks"". The performer's record label Sony BMG has withdrawn the video and issued replacements to television stations. The label believed the school name was fictitious until they received the complaint. They have said the reference to the school was unintentional and coincidental...The head of Christian Brothers' school St Fintian's, Richard Fogarty, said the video implied that the 24-year-old pop star had attended his school and was abused there. ""The school has always treated its pupils with respect,"" Mr Fogarty said in a statement. McFadden makes specific references to the Christian Brothers in his song, but did not attend St Fintian's. Corporal punishment was outlawed in Irish schools in 1982 when McFadden was two years old...McFadden, whose debut solo album is released next week, has said that every song is autobiographical and ""a true story"". Alcoholism and domestic violence are among the other topics dealt with in his songs, half of which have been written with Robbie Williams' former collaborator, Guy Chambers. McFadden, who quit chart-topping group Westlife in March, went to number one in September with his first solo single Real To Me. He enjoyed 12 chart-toppers with the boy band before parting company with them.",entertainment
"Byrds producer Melcher dies at 62..Record producer Terry Melcher, who was behind hits by the Byrds, Ry Cooder and the Beach Boys, has died aged 62...The son of actress Doris Day, he helped write Kokomo for the Beach Boys, which was used in the movie Cocktail, earning a 1988 Golden Globe nomination. He also produced Mr Tambourine Man for the Byrds, as well as other his such as Turn, Turn Turn. Melcher died on Friday night at his home in Beverly Hills, California, after a long battle with skin cancer. He joined Columbia Records as a producer in the mid-1960s, and also worked with Gram Parsons and the Mamas and the Papas...Earlier in his career, Melcher had hits as part of duo called Bruce & Terry, with future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, which evolved into the Rip Chords group. Melcher also worked closely with his mother, producing The Doris Day Show and helping to run her charitable activities. In 1969 his name became linked with the Charles Manson murders, which saw the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and four of her friends at a home which Melcher once rented. Rumours circulated that Melcher - who knew Manson - was the killer's real target, because he had turned him down for a record contract. But Los Angeles police discounted the rumours, pointing out Melcher had moved to Malibu, and Manson knew of his new address.",entertainment
"Snow Patrol feted at Irish awards..Snow Patrol were the big winners in Ireland's top music honours, the Meteor Awards, picking up accolades for best Irish band and album on Thursday...The Belfast-born, Glasgow-based band collected the prizes at the ceremony at Dublin's Point Theatre. Westlife won the award for best Irish pop act, voted for by the public, beating former member Brian McFadden. Franz Ferdinand picked up best international band and album while Paddy Casey collected best Irish male. Singer-songwriter Casey beat Brian McFadden and Damien Rice. Juliette Turner was named best Irish female...In the international categories, Morrissey beat Eminem, Usher and Robbie Williams to best male while PJ Harvey pipped Kylie Minogue, Joss Stone, Anastacia and Natasha Bedingfield to the female crown. The 8,000 fans at the ceremony were treated to performances from US rapper Snoop Dogg, Brian McFadden with Delta Goodrem and The Thrills featuring Rolling Stones star Ronnie Wood. Snow Patrol's success came after a year in which they made a chart breakthrough with their third album Final Straw. ""I think a lot of bands should go through a wee bit of a kicking before the make a success,"" singer Gary Lightbody and drummer Jonny Quinn said. ""It has been good for us, but also hard for us over the past six years."" Snow Patrol will support U2 on their European tour later this year - but U2 were not nominated for best Irish band and album.",entertainment
"Doves soar to UK album summit..Manchester rock band Doves have entered the UK album chart at number one with their new release, Some Cities...The trio replace flamboyant US act Scissor Sisters at the top. The album follows single Black and White Town, which reached number six. R&B star Nelly has the new number one single with Over and Over, which sees him team up with Tim McGraw. Girls Aloud, Akon and Kaiser Chiefs all have new singles in the top ten, as do Futureheads and Usher...The latest Elvis Presley re-release, (Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame, entered the chart at number three, one place ahead of Girls Aloud's Wake Me Up. Hip-hop performer Akon's Locked Up is at number five, while hotly-tipped Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs have their second chart hit at number six with Oh My God...Futureheads' cover of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love entered the chart at number eight, while Usher's Caught Up was a new entry at number nine. In the album chart, operatic quartet Il Divo's eponymous debut rose 23 places to number six, while crooner Tony Christie's Definitive Collection is a new entry at number 10, making it the highest-charting album of the singer's career.",entertainment
"Downloads enter US singles chart..Digital music downloads are being included in the main US singles chart for the first time...Billboard's Hot 100 chart now incorporates data from sales of music downloads, previously only assigned to a separate download chart. Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams is currently number two in Billboard's pop chart, and tops its digital chart. Download sales are due to be incorporated into the UK singles chart later this year...Digital sales in the US are already used to compile Billboard's Hot Digital Sales chart. They will now be tallied with sales of physical singles and airplay information to make up its new Hot 100 chart. Its second new chart - the Pop 100 - also combines airplay, digital and physical sales but confines its airplay information to US radio stations which play chart music. In addition to Green Day, other artists in the current US digital sales top 10 include Kelly Clarkson, The Game and the Killers...Sales of legally downloaded songs shot up more than tenfold in 2004, with 200 million track purchased online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported last month. In the UK sales of song downloads overtook those for physical singles for the first time at the end of last year. The last week of December 2004 saw download sales of 312,000 compared with 282,000 physical singles, according to the British Phonographic Industry. The UK's first official music download chart was launched last September, compiling the most popular tracks downloaded from legal UK sites - including iTunes, OD2, mycokemusic.com and Napster. Westlife's Flying Without Wings - a 1999 track reissued for the occasion - was the first number one of the UK download chart...A spokesman for the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said the first combined UK download and sales chart was due to be compiled ""within the first half of this year"". ""Work is going on across the music business right now to make sure the new chart works to plan,"" he said. The BPI spokesman described the UK music download chart, compiled by the Official Charts Company, as having been ""a great success"" since its launch. ""It has provided a focus for the industry and has really driven interest in downloads among music fans,"" he said.",entertainment
"Top gig award for Scissor Sisters..New York band Scissor Sisters have won a gig of the year award for their performance at this year's V Festival...The award was voted for by listeners of Virgin Radio, which compiled a top 10 which was mostly dominated by newcomers on the music scene this year. The quirky disco-rock band beat The Red Hot Chili Peppers who came second for their Hyde Park performance in June. Virgin Radio DJ Pete Mitchell said: ""This year has seen an amazing array of talent come into the mainstream."" He added: ""The Scissor Sisters are one of the most original, eccentric bands to come through and it's no surprise the British public are lapping up their performances."" Newcomers Keane came in third place for their August gig at the V Festival, followed by Maroon 5 and Snow Patrol...Music veterans The Who and David Bowie, both earned places on the list, at number eight and 10 respectively. At number seven was Oxfam's Make Fair Trade gig at London's Hammersmith Apollo in October, which featured performances by REM, Razorlight and Coldplay's Chris Martin. Glasgow's Franz Ferdinand earned a place at number nine for their home-town performance in April. The annual survey was voted for by nearly 4,000 listeners.",entertainment
"Brits return Keane to number one..Brits success has helped return Keane's award-winning album Hopes and Fears back to the top of the UK album chart...The debut album, which took the best British album title at the Brits on Tuesday, moved up seven places from number eight to number one. Also capitalising on Brits success were the Scissor Sisters whose eponymous album moved three places to number two. U2's latest single Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own took the top spot in the singles chart, ahead of Elvis. The track, from their current album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, pushed Eminem's Like Toy Soldiers from number one to number three...Elvis' Wooden Heart, which entered the chart at number two, is the sixth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of Presley's birth. There are currently six re-released Elvis' tracks occupying spots in the top 40 singles chart including Are You Lonesome Tonight at number 20, It's Now or Never at number 27 and Jailhouse Rock at number 37. Soldier, by Destiny's Child, Ti and Lil Wayne, debuted at number four, while Almost Here, the duet from former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem, fell from number three to number five. There was more follow up to Brits success for Franz Ferdinand won best rock act and best British group last week. Their self-titled album moved from 13 to number four. Last week's number one album Tourist, by Athlete, fell to number three.",entertainment
"Charity single for quake relief..Singers including Sir Cliff Richard and Boy George are recording a charity single to help raise funds for victims of the Asian tsunami...They hope the song will raise more than £2m for the relief fund. The song, titled Grief Never Grows Old and described as a melancholy ballad, was written by radio DJ Mike Read. Former Boyzone singer Ronan Keating may also take part if a studio can be found close to where he is holidaying in Switzerland. Other music stars being approached include Robin and Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees, jazz sensation Jamie Cullum, Chris Rea and Olivia Newton-John...Sir Cliff has recorded his vocal part in Barbados, while Boy George has recorded his in New York. Read wrote the song before the Boxing Day tragedy but had thought it was too gloomy to release. Now he plans to have it recorded by a collection of pop stars under the name One World Project. ""It's a natural home for it because people kept saying to me, 'it's such a good song', but it's such a sad song,"" Read said...He said the song was a slow ballad and would work with around 10 singers, rather than a ""sing-along"" like the Band Aid 20 single raising money for famine relief in Africa. The backing track has already been recorded and organisers hope it can be finished within the next week to get it into record shops as soon as possible. Read went to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which is co-ordinating the British relief effort, with the idea the day after Boxing Day. ""I was totally shocked at the enormity and suddenness of the disaster and in tears on seeing the orphaned children wandering aimlessly in search of their parents,"" he said. Read said all the funds raised by the record would go to the DEC. ""I'd only be pleased in terms of what it meant for sales if it got to number one,"" he added. The charity welcomed the news of the single and said money raised would help its agencies working in the affected region to rebuild survivors' lives and livelihoods.",entertainment
"Franz man seeks government help..Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos has called for more government help for musicians, while taking part in an Edinburgh Lectures discussion...""For any cultural output to thrive there needs to be some kind of state input to that as well,"" he said. But Kapranos warned against musicians being too closely linked with MPs, at the University of Edinburgh event. ""I think the role of musicians is to question politicians rather than to go to bed with them,"" he said...Kapranos joined the prestigious lecture series to discuss Scotland's role in making 21st Century music. ""There are elements of our musical output which require sustenance because they aren't self-sufficient,"" he said. ""But so-called commercial music would benefit from investment as well."" He warned musicians against being allied to a particular party, however. ""I don't know if having tea with politicians is always a good idea.""..Kapranos and his Glasgow four-piece band have been nominated for five prizes at next week's Brit Awards, including best group and best album. Their self-titled debut album won last year's Mercury Music Prize and spawned three top 20 singles. He told the 300-strong audience at the University's Reid Hall that musicians should listen to a wide range of music and should not be restricted by stereotypes. ""We say 'I like this'. Because I listen to Nirvana and Korn I am a troubled individual, I'm riddled with angst because I listen to Chopin and Debussy, I listen to Kylie Minogue and Scissor Sisters because I'm upbeat and I like to party, I listen to Wagner because I like the smell of napalm in the morning."" Kapranos said there was a general ""hostility"" towards classical music, adding: ""There is very little done to break that hostility other than Classic FM.""..He concluded: ""We define ourselves as a nation by the way we encourage our creativity."" Fellow speaker and classical composer James MacMillan agreed: ""We need to rediscover our ability to listen."" Previous speakers at the Edinburgh Lectures series have included former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and author Professor Stephen Hawking. Kapranos described his appearance on Wednesday as ""more daunting by a long way"" than their upcoming Brits performance. ""I don't really care about the Brits,"" he said. ""It's going to be great to go down but I have actually had to exercise part of my brain tonight.""..I think the government should do more to help up-and-coming artists be discovered by scrapping the entertainment licences for live venues. Also they should do more to help independent record labels have a louder voice within an industry dominated by commercialised major labels...Rather than expecting the government - i.e. the taxpayer - to fork out, why don't some of the megastars put something back in? Some of Britain's wealthiest people are musicians who have raked it in from albums, concerts etc. There are far more important demands on government funds...If they can fund football, why not fund music?..Areas of the arts are funded by government and lottery grants, so why not music? We already have the opera receiving huge grants and it would clearly be beneficial for diversity in music to have the same opportunities in other areas of the music. The only problem would be how to judge what merits state cash...The government has enough problems funding schools and health services. If Alex Kapranos genuinely thinks a multi-billion pound industry should also have government funding then his own education was seriously lacking and more money should be put into that...As a Scot living in England, I appreciate the value of Scottish music and culture being a success, so I can see no problem with it! Franz Ferdinand, Travis and Snow Patrol are just recent examples of the success Scottish music can have in the world, so we should do what we Scots are good at and support our own goods!..I think the issue is more fundamental: should the government be spending money on subsidising a multi-million pound industry when health and education are in such a sorry state? The answer is most definitely no. Those people who are lucky enough to pursue their passion to get their pay cheque shouldn't be looking for government subsidies. I know that if I was lucky enough to be able to pursue my dream of show jumping I would want to finance myself until I was in a position to pursue corporate sponsorship...Yes the government should fund music - it brings joy to the masses...There are already thousands of state-funded musicians out there sitting around, twiddling their thumbs on the ""new deal"". Getting the government even more involved would only waste money that could be put to better use...As long as the Government was funding real talent it would be a great move. I would hate to see more Pop Idol-type funding of music though, as it would only serve to reinforce the stereotypes that Alex talked about...Only if the proposals make financial sense. Franz Ferdinand must be paying serious amounts of tax on their record sales - if they'd had a government grant to get started they'd have more than paid it back by now, so the Treasury would be making far more than it paid out. However, the government has better things to spend its money on than to give charity to everyone who decides they're a musician. The government shouldn't ""fund"" music - it should ""invest"" in music and those investments should be treated like any other investment...I think the government needs to provide facilities and for young groups and bands to form and practise. The equipment is not cheap and can be well beyond the means of many people. However, I do feel this should be the extent of their role, to provide the conditions for the talent to flourish and let it go from there...I do agree that the government should help to fund music but there is also a responsibility held by record companies! They generally always opt for the tried and tested and tend not to want to break any moulds or risk losing any money which ultimately, the directors are in the business for! If labels were more willing to put money forward towards smaller breakthrough acts then the government wouldn't have to fork out a great deal...Yeah, why not? Music should be government funded, particularly the work of modern composers and veteran bands/artists and stuff. Pop music pretty much rules the earth, so more attention should go to the other fraternities..I agree with funding the arts to make it more accessible to the public but I am not convinced that pop music requires financial support from the taxpayer. There is a great deal of money generated through pop music - perhaps a tax on pop could be ploughed into the public performance of other forms of music for everyone to enjoy. Perhaps we could financially penalise really bad Pop Idol-style music - that is, the music industry sector without any artistic merit or originality whatsoever and that which is specifically designed to line the pockets of music producers. Call it a tax on music ""pollution"", if you like...Though I really like Franz Ferdinand, I have to disagree with Mr Kapranos. Once government gets their hand into the private sector, it will destroy the creative and possibly controversial avenues the artist pursues. Many years ago, this was the case with the US NEA, when the government started to question what was considered art for the money they were allotting. The solution Mr Kapranos should pursue would be privately-funded organizations, like Save the Music in the US.",entertainment
"Hard act to follow for OutKast..US rap duo OutKast's trio of trophies at the MTV Europe Awards crowns a year of huge success for the band...The latest triumph adds to the three Grammys and four American MTV gongs won earlier in this year. Andre 3000 and Big Boi's album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below has been critically acclaimed since its release and sold in large quantities around the world. The double album - which saw the pair produce one disc each - topped the charts in the US at the same time as single Hey Ya! It took another track from the exponents of southern hip-hop - The Way You Move - to displace it from the top spot. The Georgia pair's year of critical and commercial triumph leaves them with a tough act to follow - what can be next for a musical act that has done it all?..G Money, a presenter on the BBC's urban music station 1Xtra, thinks a hiatus is inevitable after such a sustained period of exposure - giving the band time to think about other interests. ""They might be more appearances outside the band, such as producing for other artists, while they have a number of fringe music projects. ""Andre 3000 would like to go into acting, so we might see him a film, while Big Boi already has a dog-breeding business,"" says the DJ...""But in a couple of years they will be back with another album which will be a collaboration unlike their double CD. ""Their greatness has become clear with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. We haven't seen the last of them,"" he adds. OutKast's musical career spans 10 years and they have enjoyed commercial and critical success in the past, with their debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik going platinum. But it took until 2001 for the pair to score their first hit in the UK with Ms Jackson, while their album Stakonia saw their fame spread beyond the US...1Xtra's G Money says it took the latest album, released in 2003, for him to be ""assured of their genius"". ""They have always been experimental, some of it has worked and some hasn't,"" he adds. But G Money acknowledges that making the next move for a band that has reached a pinnacle can be tough. ""What can you do next when you've done it all?"" he says. With ten years of success behind them and worldwide fame, it seems that OutKast is not a name that is likely to be forgotten in a hurry.",entertainment
"Sir Paul rocks Super Bowl crowds..Sir Paul McCartney wowed fans with a live mini-concert at American football's Super Bowl - and avoided any Janet Jackson-style controversies...The 62-year-old sang Hey Jude and other Beatles songs in a 12-minute set at half-time during the game in Florida. Last year, Jackson exposed a breast during a dance routine, causing outrage among millions of TV viewers and landing the CBS TV network a fine. Sir Paul, however, did nothing more racy than remove his jacket as he sang. Organisers were widely considered to be playing it safe this year by booking 62-year-old Sir Paul for his second Super Bowl show...Three years ago, he was invited to perform at the first Super Bowl after the September 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song Freedom. This time, he started off the show, at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Beatles numbers Drive My Car and Get Back. He then performed a mellow version of Live And Let Die, the James Bond theme he recorded with the band Wings. Finally, he closed the show with a rousing version of Hey Jude. The former Beatle resisted any temptation to refer to Janet Jackson's headline-grabbing performance last year, instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music as he could into his slot. The singer removed his black jacket halfway through the show - but any fans hoping for a second ""Nipple-gate"" were to be disappointed as he kept his red sweatshirt on underneath...Earlier, the Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys had provided the night's other high-profile entertainment by performing in a pre-game show. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and purple hotpants, but nothing in her performance was likely to upset TV watchdogs. After the controversy last year - which saw CBS fined a record $550,000 (£292,000) by federal regulators - Super Bowl organisers had turned to producer Don Mischer to oversee this year's half-time show. His previous production credits included Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The Super Bowl is watched by an audience of 144.4 million in the US, with many of the people watching are said to tune in specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and Phil Collins are among the stars who have previously graced the Super Bowl stage.",entertainment
"Rock group Korn's guitarist quits..The guitarist with US rock band Korn has quit the music business, saying he made the decision after experiencing a religious awakening...Brian 'Head' Welch told a radio station in California that his bandmates respected his decision to leave. A replacement guitarist has yet to be named by Korn, who are currently at work on their eighth studio album. Welch added that he would appear at a church in Bakersfield to explain how he ""got to this place in life"". The remaining members of Korn, who are known for their hardcore brand of rock, said they hoped Welch ""finds the happiness he is looking for""...The 34-year-old made reference to the band's aggressive brand of music and its young fans in his parting statement. ""Anger is a good thing, and if kids want to listen to Korn, good, but there's happiness after the anger,"" he told his local radio station in Bakersfield. ""I'm going to show it through my actions, how much I love my fans,"" added Welch. Korn have enjoyed a moderate degree of chart success in the UK, with 10 singles breaking into the Top 40. Their best performance to date in the UK has been 2002's Here To Stay, which reached number 12, while their album Untouchables, released in the same year, made it to number four.",entertainment
"Vibe awards back despite violence..The US Vibe awards will be held again next year despite a stabbing which happened during the ceremony...Vibe magazine president Kenard Gibbs said the attack earlier this month in Santa Monica was ""sickening"". He said not holding the awards would be counter to the work the magazine has done to promote hip hop music. Rapper Young Buck has been charged after allegedly stabbing a man who hit Dr Dre as he was about to receive a lifetime achievement award...The rapper, whose real name is David Darnell Brown, is due in court on 20 December after being arrested on one charge of attempted murder and a second charge of assault with a deadly weapon. The performer is one of the members of 50 Cent's G-Unit group, which is signed to Dr Dre's record label. The man who was stabbed, Jimmy James Johnson, suffered a collapsed lung and is in a stable condition at a Los Angeles hospital. Mr Johnson allegedly approached Dr Dre, who was seated at a table in front of the stage, and appeared to ask for an autograph before punching him. During the ensuing scuffle - which involved many of the 1,000-strong crowd - Mr Johnson was stabbed as he was being dragged away by security staff,",entertainment
"'Christmas song formula' unveiled..A formula for the ultimate Christmas single has been revealed by chart bible British Hit Singles and Albums...The recipe includes a reference to Father Christmas, sleigh bells, a children's choir and a charity element. The song should also include Christmas in the title, wishes for peace on earth and lots of airplay at office parties. ""There are common musical elements linking nearly all the big Christmas number ones of recent times,"" said editor David Roberts. The book's analysts commissioned chart prank group Moped to create the first Christmas single using the whole formula - the song is called Gonna Have a No 1 This Christmas by Moped Vs Santa...""Everybody says that Christmas number ones are formulaic, but Gonna Have a Number One this Christmas is the first song to crack the formula and combine all these elements into one ultimate Christmas track"" said Mr Roberts. ""Surprisingly, there's no Santa listed among the 8,000, top 75 chart performers in the book, so this is our chance to help Santa to his rightful place in British recording history."" Big festive hits over the years include Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?, Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody, Wham's Last Christmas and Sir Cliff Richards' Mistletoe and Wine. Band Aid 20's remake of Do They Know It's Christmas is set to be confirmed as number one in the charts on Sunday.",entertainment
"Glastonbury fans to get ID cards..Fans who buy tickets for this year's Glastonbury festival will be issued with photo ID cards in an attempt to beat touts, it has been confirmed...The cards will include a photograph of the ticket-holder plus an electronic chip with their details to prevent tickets being sold on or forged. Tickets for the June event are expected to go on sale in April. ""There is only one place in the world where you will be able to get tickets,"" festival organiser Michael Eavis said. ""That will be the official source. If you get them anywhere else, you won't get in."" Fans not wanting to carry the entrance card could present their passport or driving licence instead, he added...More than 153,000 people are expected to travel to Mr Eavis' Somerset farm from 24-26 June, but the event's rising popularity has meant an extremely high demand for tickets in recent years. When the ID card idea was floated, Mr Eavis' daughter Emily said it would be ""quite a big step in terms of ticketing for events"" if implemented and they were ""going as far as we can"" to cut touting. ""As long as it's approached in the right way, it might really work, it might really change the system,"" she said. In 2004, all 112,000 tickets for the public sold out in 24 hours. They were personalised with the names of purchasers, who were asked to bring identification, such as a driving licence, passport or household bill. But some forgot to take the right information while some touts simply offered to supply their own bills along with the ticket bearing their name. No details of this year's line-up have been confirmed but rumours have suggested U2 and Coldplay may be among the headliners.",entertainment
"Queen recruit singer for new tour..The remaining members of rock band Queen are to go on tour next year with former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers taking Freddie Mercury's place...Guitarist Brian May has said he expects to be on the road with Rodgers and drummer Roger Taylor from April. May said: ""Suddenly the Queen Phoenix is rising again from the ashes and will take precedence over... our lives."" Queen have played with many different singers since Mercury's death in 1991 but have reportedly not toured. May performed with Rodgers at a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar in London in September...""We were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in [Free hit] All Right Now, that suddenly it seems blindingly obvious that there was 'something happening here,'"" May wrote on his website. They teamed up again for a concert to mark their induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and were joined by Taylor. ""The show went so incredibly well from our point of view, and we got so many rave reactions from out there, we decided almost then and there that we would look at a tour together,"" May wrote...Queen went to number one in 2000 with a version of We Will Rock You sung by boy band 5ive and they have also played with Robbie Williams, Will Young and Bob Geldof. Queen bassist John Deacon has currently retired from the stage. Rodgers was singer with early 1970s rockers Free, who had a global hit with All Right Now, before forming Bad Company, a successful ""supergroup"" with members of King Crimson and Mott the Hoople. He has also been in The Firm with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and The Law with The Small Faces and The Who drummer Kenny Jones.",entertainment
"U2 to play at Grammy awards show..Irish rock band U2 are to play live at the Grammy Awards presentation in the US next month, organisers have said...Other acts to play include soul singer Alicia Keys, country singer Tim McGraw and punk band Green Day at the event on 13 February in Los Angeles. U2 are nominated twice for their recent single Vertigo, including a nomination for best rock song. This year the Grammys have been dominated by rap star Kanye West, who is in contention for 10 awards. US comedian Ellen Degeneres and singer Christine Milian will present awards at the event. Last week Grammy producers announced the show will be hosted by rap star and Chicago actress Queen Latifah. It will be held at the Staples Center. U2 had number one success in the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic in November when their latest studio album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, topped the US and UK charts. The band, who are also dominated for best international album at this year's Brit Awards, are to undertake a major world tour this year, their first for four years.",entertainment
"Rock band U2 break ticket record..U2 have smashed Irish box office records with ticket sales for their Dublin concerts, after more than 150,000 were sold within 50 minutes...Tickets for the two concerts at the city's Croke Park stadium were released at 8am on Friday morning. ""Nothing like it has ever been seen in Ireland before,"" said Justin Green, spokesman for organisers MCD Promoters. ""We could have sold a million tickets."" The Dublin dates on June 24 and 25 form part of the worldwide Vertigo tour. The tour begins in San Diego on 28 March and will cover 13 US cities. The band will also play 24 European gigs, finishing in Lisbon in August...Mr Green said that ticket outlets had been ""bombarded"" by U2 fans. ""Unfortunately there's thousands and thousands of disappointed fans all over the country which is disappointing, but there's only two dates confirmed,"" he said. Many fans camped on the streets of the Irish capital for three days to ensure they were first in line at Ticketmaster in St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, where the tickets went on sale on Friday. However the majority of tickets, priced at between 59.50 and 80 euro each, were sold online. Earlier this week, Bono announced that the band would play two shows at the venue, which holds almost 80,000 people, due to the phenomenal demand for tickets.",entertainment
"Police praise 'courageous' Ozzy..Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has been praised by police for ""very courageously"" tackling a burglar who stole jewellery from his house...The singer grabbed an intruder who then jumped 30ft (10m) from a first floor window as the star gave chase at his Buckinghamshire home on Monday. ""I acted on impulse,"" Osbourne said. ""In hindsight, it could have been a lot worse. It could've got really ugly."" A £100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to a conviction. His wife Sharon, who called the police, said her wedding rings were taken from her bedside table as she slept...The heavy metal star said he could have met the same fate as late Beatle George Harrison, who was repeatedly stabbed in a break-in in 1999. ""I could have been badly injured or shot or anything,"" Osbourne said. ""I just thank God that no-one got injured."" He added he was glad the intruders were not hurt. ""I wouldn't want anyone to get injured."" The singer did not want to talk in detail about his actions but when asked whether he would do the same again replied: ""Is the Pope a Catholic?"" The incident happened at 0400 GMT on Monday in Chalfont St Peter. Detective Inspector Paul Miller of Thames Valley Police said it appeared a man used a ladder to get into the house through a first floor bedroom window. ""Whilst selecting items of jewellery, the burglar was disturbed by Ozzy who very courageously tackled this burglar and pursued him from the house,"" he said. Ozzy said he was ""just coming to grips"" with what had happened and his opinion of the UK had been lowered after 12 relatively trouble-free years in the US...""We lived in Los Angeles where people get shot every day and have been trailed by lots of different stalkers - and yet we come back to England and I'm very disappointed."" At a press conference on Tuesday, Sharon Osbourne gave details of nine stolen items. They included a diamond wedding ring and two handmade wedding bands Ozzy gave her when they renewed their vows two years ago. She said she wished she had worn them at night. ""I always take them off and put them beside my bed and that's where they were, right beside me on my bedside table."" Also taken were a pearl necklace and a sapphire bought as an investment for their daughters described by Sharon as ""one of the only 24-carat sapphires that is absolutely pure""...A daisy chain necklace that was a 20th anniversary present and a Franck Muller watch Sharon said was one of only 10 made were also stolen. She expressed her anger at the person who ""hasn't worked and wants to take what's yours"". ""But the thing is, we worked for everything. I came from Brixton. Ozzy came from not a very nice part of Birmingham and everything we've got we have worked our arses off for."" ""If I choose to make an investment for my kids in whatever way I choose to make it, that's my business and I worked for every God damn penny."" Ozzy also lamented two years in which the family has been plagued by problems, including his critical injury in a quad bike accident, his wife's colon cancer, their childrens' drug problems and now the burglary...On Sunday night, the Osbournes had been celebrating the birthday of singer Sir Elton John's partner David Furnish. Police described the intruder as well-built, about 5' 10"" tall and said he was wearing a ski-mask, a light-coloured jacket and trainers. They believe he may have injured himself when he jumped from the window. There is no description of his accomplice. Police think the pair were driving a large vehicle, possibly a van, and are keen to hear from anyone who may have seen one leaving Chalfont St Peter at speed. Police appealed for public help to find the perpetrators and stolen items on 0845 8 505 505 or 0800 555 111.",entertainment
"New York rockers top talent poll..New York electro-rock group The Bravery have come top of the BBC News website's Sound of 2005 poll to find the music scene's most promising new act...The Bravery, who have been compared to The Cure and New Order, were the most heavily-tipped act in the survey of 110 impartial critics and broadcasters. Rock band Keane won Sound of 2004 while US rapper 50 Cent topped Sound of 2003. Other new artists in this year's list include London indie group Bloc Party at second and UK rapper Kano third. The Bravery played their first gig in 2003 and have since supported bands including The Libertines, Interpol and Echo and the Bunnymen...They were the subject of a record company bidding war in 2004 and their debut single, Unconditional, caused a huge buzz when it was released in the UK in November. Singer Sam Endicott said he felt ""great"" about coming top of the Sound of 2005 list. ""Anyone that says they don't want a zillion screaming fans is a jackass, a liar,"" he said. One of the experts to tip The Bravery was The Times' music critic Paul Connolly, who said they were ""spiky but in love with pop"". Chris Hawkins, host of BBC 6 Music's chart show, said the band had ""great guitars and a mastery of the electro-clash sound"". ""The Bravery are proof alone that New York City is still home to hot new talent,"" he said. Nigel Harding, head of music at London rock radio station Xfm, said every track from their live set ""sounded like a potential single""...Unconditional reached the summit of the station's listeners' chart within a fortnight of its first play, which Mr Harding described as ""an unheard of achievement for a debut single""...Q magazine reviews editor Ted Kessler said they were ""pretty-boy New York clothes horses"" with ""an unusually nimble ear for concise, yearning pop in the mould of Duran Duran or The Strokes"". Other pundits to take part in the survey included BBC Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson, NME editor Conor McNicholas, Top of the Pops presenter Fearne Cotton, Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis and BBC Radio 2 music editor Colin Martin. Elsewhere on the top 10, second-placed rock band Bloc Party began their rise after supporting Franz Ferdinand and UK garage MC Kano, in third, is signed to The Streets' record label. US rapper The Game is hip-hop great Dr Dre's latest protege while Leeds group Kaiser Chiefs came fifth with a promise to lead a Britpop revival. In last year's survey, Keane were followed by Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight and Joss Stone in the top five - all of whom were virtually unknown outside the music industry at that point...Boy band McFly were sixth while Scissor Sisters, who had the UK's best-selling album of 2004, were seventh. In the survey, the pundits were asked for tips for three acts they thought were capable of reaching the top in their chosen genre, either in terms of sales or critical acclaim. The artists could be from any country and any musical genre, but must not have had a UK top 20 single, been a contestant on a TV talent show or already be famous for doing something else, such as a soap actor. Those tips were then counted and compiled to make the top 10.",entertainment
"Blair buys copies of new Band Aid..Prime Minister Tony Blair purchased two copies of the charity single Band Aid 20 in Edinburgh on Friday...Staff were surprised when the Prime Minister walked into HMV at 0900 GMT, accompanied by aides and local police. ""When Mr Blair came in unannounced, we were all pretty gobsmacked,"" said HMV manager Clive Smith. ""Our customer helper approached him... it was only then we realised he wanted to buy copies of the Band Aid single, rather than the latest Eminem album."" Predicted chart-topper Do They Know it's Christmas? is expected to sell at least 300,000 copies by the time the new chart is announced on Sunday. However, the new version of the 1984 single is not going to be released in the US, despite being sold in many countries around the world. US record shops are stocking an import version of Do They Know It's Christmas, which is said to be selling very well in Los Angeles and New York. The original track was released in the US, and reached number 13 in the singles chart. British stars who appear on the current recording, such as Dido and Coldplay's Chris Martin, are well-known to music fans across the Atlantic, along with U2 frontman Bono...Record company Universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single, which will be available across Europe, Asia, South America and Canada. But music fans in the US are still able to access the song and download it on Band Aid 20's official website. In 1985, a group of high-profile American stars known as USA For Africa came together to record their own fund-raising single, We Are The World. The song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, with Quincy Jones as producer. It topped the US charts for three weeks and went on win Grammy awards for best record and song...Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Tina Turner were among the line-up of performers. It is predicted that the Band Aid 20 song will sell 300,000 copies in the UK by the time the new chart is announced on Sunday. The record is also tipped to become this year's Christmas number one, as the original version did in 1984. Proceeds from the sales are going towards relief for the Darfur region of Sudan and to combat HIV and Aids across Africa.",entertainment
"Eminem beats Elvis to number one..Rapper Eminem has denied Elvis his fourth number one of the year, after his song, Like Toy Soldiers, stormed to the top of the singles charts...The track claimed the top spot ahead of The King's latest re-release, Are You Lonesome Tonight. It is the fifth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of Presley's birth. Almost Here, the duet from former Westlife star Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem, went in at number three...Like Toy Soldiers, from Eminem's Encore album, is sampled from Martika's 1980s hit Toy Soldiers. It takes a swipe at hip-hop feuds and follows the success of Just Lose It. Last week's number one, Elvis's It's Now or Never, slipped 13 places to number 14, but all five of his re-released songs are in the Top 40. One World Project Tsunami fundraiser, Grief Never Grows Old, slipped four places to number eight. Featuring Cliff Richard and Boy George, the song was written by former DJ Mike Read. In the album charts, Athlete's latest offering Tourist claimed the top spot, toppling the Chemical Brother's Push The Button Down, which fell to number six.",entertainment
"Sir Paul rocks Super Bowl crowds..Sir Paul McCartney wowed fans with a live mini-concert at American football's Super Bowl - and avoided any Janet Jackson-style controversies...The 62-year-old sang Hey Jude and other Beatles songs in a 12-minute set at half-time during the game in Florida. Last year, Jackson exposed a breast during a dance routine, causing outrage among millions of TV viewers and landing the CBS TV network a fine. Sir Paul, however, did nothing more racy than remove his jacket as he sang. Organisers were widely considered to be playing it safe this year by booking 62-year-old Sir Paul for his second Super Bowl show...Three years ago, he was invited to perform at the first Super Bowl after the September 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song Freedom. This time, he started off the show, at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Beatles numbers Drive My Car and Get Back. He then performed a mellow version of Live And Let Die, the James Bond theme he recorded with the band Wings. Finally, he closed the show with a rousing version of Hey Jude. The former Beatle resisted any temptation to refer to Janet Jackson's headline-grabbing performance last year, instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music as he could into his slot. The singer removed his black jacket halfway through the show - but any fans hoping for a second ""Nipple-gate"" were to be disappointed as he kept his red sweatshirt on underneath...Earlier, the Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys had provided the night's other high-profile entertainment by performing in a pre-game show. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and purple hotpants, but nothing in her performance was likely to upset TV watchdogs. After the controversy last year - which saw CBS fined a record $550,000 (£292,000) by federal regulators - Super Bowl organisers had turned to producer Don Mischer to oversee this year's half-time show. His previous production credits included Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. The Super Bowl is watched by an audience of 144.4 million in the US, with many of the people watching are said to tune in specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and Phil Collins are among the stars who have previously graced the Super Bowl stage.",entertainment
"J-Lo and husband plan debut duet..Singers Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony, a Latin pop star, are to perform a duet at this month's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles...Anthony became Lopez's third husband in June 2004. He won a Grammy in 1998 and is nominated for two more this year. The 13 February ceremony will also include a rendition of The Beatles' Across The Universe by Bono, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones and Brian Wilson. The song will go on sale online to raise money for the tsunami aid effort. The awards show will also feature performances from U2, Green Day, Alicia Keys and Kanye West - but the Lopez and Anthony duet is likely to be one of the biggest talking points...Anthony, born in New York to a Puerto Rican family, is reported to be the biggest-selling salsa artist of all time. He is nominated this year for best Latin pop album and best salsa/merengue album. The tsunami tribute song will also feature Alicia Keys, Velvet Revolver and Tim McGraw. Fans will be able to download it for $0.99 (£0.53) from iTunes, or purchase the video from the CBS TV network's site. Kanye West, the rapper who leads the awards with 10 nominations, will perform alongside John Legend, Mavis Staples and the Blind Boys of Alabama. There will also be a tribute to Ray Charles featuring Bonnie Raitt and Billy Preston and a celebration of southern rock with Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dickie Betts and Elvis Bishop. Ray Charles, who died in June 2004, has seven posthumous nominations. Alicia Keys and Usher share eight nominations each.",entertainment
"Beastie Boys win sampling battle..US rappers Beastie Boys have won their long-running battle over the use of a sample in their song Pass the Mic...The punk-rappers used three notes of music from flautist James Newton's Choir in their track from 1992. Although the group had paid a licence fee for the sample, Mr Newton said his copyright had been infringed. But the US Court of Appeal upheld its original decision that the group did not have to pay an additional fee to license the underlying composition. The Beastie Boys - Michael Diamond, Adam Horowitz, and Adam Yauch - are considered to be one of early pioneers of sampling music...Sampling, now a standard practice among musicians, involves taking a segment of one track and using it in a different song. A three-judge panel of the court held in 2003 that the band had abided by copyright protections by paying a licence fee for a sample of Mr Newton's recording. That finding upheld a lower-court dismissal of the case in favour of the Beastie Boys. ""We hold that Beastie Boys' use of a brief segment of that composition, consisting of three notes separated by a half-step over a background C note, is not sufficient to sustain a claim for infringement of Newton's copyright,"" Chief Judge Mary Schroeder wrote in her opinion. Mr Newton is a critically acclaimed jazz and classical flutist, composer, performer, and university professor. Mr Newton and the Beastie Boys were not available for comment.",entertainment
"Pupils to get anti-piracy lessons..Lessons on music piracy and copyright issues are to be taught to secondary school pupils in the UK...The lessons, aimed at 11 to 14-year-olds, will introduce them to copyright - including the issues of downloading from the internet and the illegal copying of CDs - and its role in protecting creativity...Music piracy, including illegally swapping music online, costs the UK music industry millions every year and has been blamed for a decline in world-wide CD sales. British Music Rights (BMR) - which was formed to represent the interests of songwriters and composers - worked with education experts to put together a learning pack...Songwriter Guy Chambers, who has worked with stars including Robbie Williams, has thrown his support behind the scheme. He said as well as educating children about music piracy, it would also protect young people planning a career in the music industry from ""unscrupulous"" individuals. At a debate in London to launch the scheme, Chambers said: ""I think it is important that young people receive practical and engaging learning in schools. ""These lessons will give them an insight into how the creative industries work which will help them in possible future careers."" The education pack, which has already been requested by more than 1,600 secondary schools, is aimed at giving children an understanding of copyright in relation to the music industry. It will also teach children about the importance of royalties and raises awareness of different careers in the music industry, particularly in the digital age...Henri Yoxall, general manager of British Music Rights, told BBC News schools had been crying out for a resource to help them educate pupils about the issues. The scheme - which is an extension of BMR's Respect the Value of Music campaign - is also being backed by singer-songwriters Feargal Sharkey, Lucie Silvas and Grammy Award-winning composer David Arnold. Silvas said: ""I think it is so important that students gain an understanding of how the music industry works when they are at a young age. ""I wish I had been given an opportunity like this when I was at school."" Emma Pike, director general of British Music Rights, said: ""We believe that copyright is an essential part of teaching music in schools. It is vital that the creatives of the future know how to turn their ideas into value. ""Copyright education has always been important... creatives are facing more challenges and more opportunities from technological change. ""Technology is allowing people to create music and distribute their music to the public in a whole host of new ways.""",entertainment
"Spector facing more legal action..Music producer Phil Spector is facing legal action from the mother of the actress he has been accused of killing...Donna Clarkson, whose daughter Lana was found dead in Mr Spector's home in February 2003, is seeking unspecified damages in a civil action. The legal action accuses Mr Spector of murdering the actress at his LA home. Mr Spector is currently free on $1m (£535,000) bail and is awaiting trial. The 64-year-old has denied the killing, saying her death was accidental...Ms Clarkson's legal action, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also accuses Mr Spector of negligence and battery, alleging he ""grabbed, hit, fought with and restrained"" Lana Clarkson before shooting her to death. Her lawyers said in a statement: ""The Clarkson family had hoped that there would be some resolution with regard to the criminal proceedings before moving forward with the civil action. ""However, Ms Clarkson and her family understand that the fair administration of justice takes time and in light of the numerous changes Mr Spector has made in his legal defence team over the last two years, Ms Clarkson was forced to file the action before (the statute of limitations expired) on 3 February 2005."" Mr Spector, known for his work with the Beatles, has claimed that Lana Clarkson committed suicide. His lawyers, led by Bruce Cutler, have vowed to prove him innocent at trial...Mr Cutler said: ""Phil did not cause the death of this woman, he's not criminally responsible and he's not civilly responsible either. ""But I'm not surprised they filed a suit for money, that seems to be de rigueur nowadays."" A Los Angeles Superior Court judge is expected to set a trial date later this month for Spector, who was indicted on murder charges in September. Roderick Lindblom, one of Ms Clarkson's lawyers, said: ""Our intent is to let the criminal proceedings go forward and not do anything that would interfere with the prosecution.""",entertainment
"Usher leads Billboard nominations..R&B singer Usher is leading the race for the Billboard awards with nominations in 13 categories, including best male...Alicia Keys has 12 nominations for the awards, which will be held on 8 December at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Other multiple nominees include Maroon5, OutKast, Kanye West, R Kelly, Gretchen Wilson, Hoobastank and Jay-Z. Soul singer Stevie Wonder will receive Billboard's Century Award, the magazine's highest honour for creative achievement, at the ceremony...The awards will be hosted by American Idol presenter Ryan Seacrest, and will feature performances by Usher, Gwen Stefani, Nelly and Green Day. Usher and Keys will be battling it out for prizes including artist of the year, Hot 100 songwriter of the year and Billboard 200 album of the year for their respective albums Confessions and The Diary of Alicia Keys. Maroon5 and OutKast are also up for artist of the year, while OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is a finalist for Billboard 200 album of the year, alongside Josh Groban's Closer. The awards honour the year's leading artists and songs as determined by their performance on Billboard's weekly charts.",entertainment
"Eminem secret gig venue revealed..Rapper Eminem is to play an intimate gig in London on Saturday, following a show on the River Thames on Friday...The US star will play just two songs at a night showcasing his label Shady Records at the Islington Academy. Eminem performed on HMS Belfast on Friday, which is docked on the River Thames, where he filmed two songs for BBC One's Top of the Pops. He arrived in the UK on Friday following his appearance at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Rome. Other rap acts who may appear at the Islington gig include Stat Quo, Proof, DJ Green Lantern, Swift and Obie Trice...Eminem's latest album soared to the top of the US chart after just three days on sale in record shops. Encore is now a chart-topper on both sides of the Atlantic following its debut at number one in the UK. The fourth album from the rap star was on sale for two days before it outsold all of its rivals. The album was released early in an effort to combat both physical and online piracy...Eminem's album includes the track Mosh, which is a tirade against US President Bush and the presence of US troops in Iraq. The rapper was criticised earlier this year after a performance on BBC One's Top of the Pops in April led 12 viewers to complain he was ""lewd"" and ""offensive"". The complaints about the star grabbing his crotch were upheld by the BBC. ""The performer had been asked to tone his act down after rehearsal but ignored this request during the live broadcast,"" a BBC statement read. ""Although his gestures were part of the rap culture, they had gone beyond what is expected.""",entertainment
"Beatles suits sell for $110,000..Four suits worn by the Beatles on their Please Please Me album cover have sold for $110,00 (£59,000) at a US auction...But some of Elvis Presley's earliest recordings - including takes of All Shook Up - failed to sell at the Bonhams and Butterfields two-day sale. A private collection of six tape recordings of Presley valued at between $30,000 (£16,000) and $50,000 (£27,000) did not meet their reserve price. A signed Presley photograph managed to fetch $2,115 (£1,140)...Auction spokesman Erik Simon said the Presley tapes were withdrawn because ""they did not meet the minimum price set by the owners""...He said the family of sound engineer Thorne Nogar did not want to divulge the price they had set or the offers they had received. The RCA tapes date from September 1956 to September 1957. The ""pre-masters"" include a take of Jailhouse Rock, religious songs, material for his first Christmas album, and banter between Presley, members of his band and Mr Nogar...""We've had them for a lot of years, and I think the people should enjoy them. And frankly, we could use the money,"" Mr Nogar's son Stephen, 57, said before the auction. Mr Nogar, who died in 1994 aged 72, always used to make two tapes of sessions as a back-up in case RCA producers wanted to make late changes to songs. ""He called them his 'ass-saver' tapes,"" his son said. The quality is said to be noticeably crisper than that of a new vinyl record. Because the family does not own the copyright to the music, the tapes could only be sold for ""personal enjoyment"" and cannot be copied for commercial gain. The auction made a total of $1.1m (£600,000).",entertainment
"OutKast win at MTV Europe Awards..US hip-hop duo OutKast have capped a year of award glory with three prizes at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Rome...They won best group, best video and best song for hit Hey Ya! after getting five nominations. R&B singer Usher won best male and best album for Confessions, while UK rock band Muse were named best alternative act and best British artists. OutKast will add their awards to the four they won at the US MTV Awards in August and three Grammys in February. Not only was Hey Ya! one of the biggest global hits of last year, but OutKast have been widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting and innovative acts in music. Their double CD album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which saw Andre 3000 and Big Boi each produce one disc, was hailed as the album of 2003 by many critics...Andre 3000 thanked fans ""for supporting OutKast throughout the years"". ""We really appreciate it,"" he said. ""I hope you don't get tired of us, but we only do what we do."" Also competing for best group had been the Beastie Boys, the Black Eyed Peas, D12 and Maroon 5. And Anastacia, Britney Spears, Maroon 5 and Ludacris had been on the shortlist for best song...OutKast did lose out in the contest for best album - which was won by Usher, another award favourite. Usher, who performed a duet with Alicia Keys, also beat off competition from Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Nelly and Robbie Williams to take the best male crown. He had four nominations going into the ceremony, with seven artists nominated in three categories...Eminem's group, D12, were surprise winners in the best hip-hop category, beating the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Nelly. Eminem told the crowd: ""D12 finally won an award, thank you very much."" The rapper opened the show with a performance of his songs Like Toy Soldiers and Just Lose It, for which he was joined on stage by a crowd of children. The Black Eyed Peas - who had a global hit with Where is the Love? - picked up the prize for best pop act, beating Anastacia, Avril Lavigne, Robbie Williams and Britney Spears. Spears was named best female, sending a message of thanks on video saying the award ""means so much to me"". Alicia Keys, Anastasia, Avril Lavigne and Beyonce Knowles had featured alongside her in that contest...Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington described their prize for best rock band as ""quite an honour"" while Muse said their win for best alternative act was ""a real surprise for us"". Muse were also named best UK and Ireland act, ahead of Franz Ferdinand, Natasha Bedingfield, Jamelia and The Streets. Referring to the fact that winners of 11 of the 12 main awards were from the US, Muse singer Matt Bellamy said: ""There needs to be more European bands."" The 11th annual awards were hosted by hip-hop artist Xzibit and watched by 6,000 people at the Tor Di Valle arena, plus millions more on TV around the world. The ceremony featured performances from the Beastie Boys, who entered the stage on bicycles and skateboards, No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani being lowered from a giant clock and Nelly doing a duet with Pharrell Williams. MTV also organised a huge open-air concert featuring Anastacia and The Cure outside the Italian capital's ancient Colosseum, with some estimates putting the attendance there at 200,000. Last year's big winner at the MTV Europe Awards, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, was Justin Timberlake, who walked away with three trophies.",entertainment
"Oasis star fined for German brawl..Oasis singer Liam Gallagher has been fined 50,000 euros (£35,000) after a fight in a German hotel two years ago...Gallagher was arrested along with drummer Alan White and three other members of the band's entourage after the brawl in Munich in December 2002. The band said they were victims of an ""unprovoked attack"" in a nightclub. But police said Gallagher kicked an officer in the chest and had large amounts of alcohol and drugs - possibly cocaine - in his blood. Gallagher lost two front teeth in the fight, which led to the band abandoning their German tour. His brother and bandmate Noel was in bed at the time...""The process has stopped by paying 50,000 euros,"" said Anton Winkler, spokesman for the Munich prosecutor. At the time, police said a ""physical altercation"" broke out among the musicians at about 0200 local time. That led to one of the group being ""jostled"" and falling onto the table of five Italian guests - causing the fight, they said. The fight continued outside, where ""one of the officers was kicked in the chest with full force by Liam Gallagher... and suffered minor injuries"", they said.",entertainment
"Disputed Nirvana box set on sale..A box set featuring 68 unreleased Nirvana tracks has gone on sale in the US, after years of legal wrangles...With the Lights Out was intended to be released in 2001, to mark the 10th anniversary of the album Nevermind. It was blocked by Courtney Love, the widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who did not want unreleased song You Know You're Right on the box set. The dispute between Love and surviving band members Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl was settled in 2002. Work began on the box set in 1998, but legal battles put the project on hold. The legal fight centred on a studio recording of the unreleased track You Know You're Right, regarded by fans as one of the unreleased gems of Nirvana. The set, released on Tuesday, features three CDs and a DVD of rare performance and rehearsal footage. The DVD also includes the first performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit, the track that launched Nirvana on to the international stage in 1991. ""The band wasn't always pretty, or always in tune. This is not Nirvana unplugged. It's Nirvana unedited,"" said Cobain biographer Charles Cross. The band's development ended tragically when songwriter Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April 1994.",entertainment
"Usher leads Soul Train shortlist..Chart-topping R&B star Usher is leading the field at this year's Soul Train Awards, with five nominations...The singer, whose album Confessions has sold close to eight million copies in the US alone, is already in the running for eight Grammy Awards. Newcomer Ciara - who recently beat Elvis Presley to the UK number one spot - has four nominations, while Alicia Keys has three. The Soul Train Awards ceremony will take place in Hollywood on 28 February...Usher has already swept the board at the American Music Awards with four titles, including two best album awards. His Soul Train nominations include best male R&B-soul album and best male R&B-soul single for Confessions Part II. Usher's work with rappers Ludacris & Lil Jon won him nominations for best R&B-soul or rap music video and best R&B-soul or rap dance cut for the song Yeah!, while his duet with Keys, My Boo, earned the pair a nod for best R&B-soul single. Keys' album The Diary of Alicia Keys was also up for best R&B-soul album by a female. Her song If I Ain't Got You received a best single nomination in the female R&B-soul category. Newcomer Ciara's four nominations include best female R&B-soul album and best R&B-soul or rap by a new artist. Beyonce, Prince, Destiny's Child, Jill Scott and New Edition all received two nominations each. The Soul Train Music Awards, which started 18 years ago, celebrates artists in R&B, hip-hop, rap and gospel music.",entertainment
"US charity anthem is re-released..We Are The World, the American charity anthem inspired by the success of Band Aid, has been re-issued to raise money for Aids research and tsunami victims...More than 40 stars sang as group USA For Africa, including Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen. It topped the charts in the US and UK, raising millions of dollars for African famine relief. The re-release also marks the 20th anniversary of the original recording. It has been re-issued as part of a two-disc DVD set, which will also feature footage from the recording session of the track in January 1985. The single was originally released in the US on 7 March 1985 and sold 800,000 copies in its first week. It went on to win Grammys for song of the year and record of the year.",entertainment
"Queen recruit singer for new tour..The remaining members of rock band Queen are to go on tour next year with former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers taking Freddie Mercury's place...Guitarist Brian May has said he expects to be on the road with Rodgers and drummer Roger Taylor from April. May said: ""Suddenly the Queen Phoenix is rising again from the ashes and will take precedence over... our lives."" Queen have played with many different singers since Mercury's death in 1991 but have reportedly not toured. May performed with Rodgers at a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar in London in September...""We were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in [Free hit] All Right Now, that suddenly it seems blindingly obvious that there was 'something happening here,'"" May wrote on his website. They teamed up again for a concert to mark their induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and were joined by Taylor. ""The show went so incredibly well from our point of view, and we got so many rave reactions from out there, we decided almost then and there that we would look at a tour together,"" May wrote...Queen went to number one in 2000 with a version of We Will Rock You sung by boy band 5ive and they have also played with Robbie Williams, Will Young and Bob Geldof. Queen bassist John Deacon has currently retired from the stage. Rodgers was singer with early 1970s rockers Free, who had a global hit with All Right Now, before forming Bad Company, a successful ""supergroup"" with members of King Crimson and Mott the Hoople. He has also been in The Firm with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and The Law with The Small Faces and The Who drummer Kenny Jones.",entertainment
"Band Aid 20 single storms to No 1..The new version of the Band Aid song Do They Know It's Christmas? has gone straight in at number one in the UK singles chart...The charity record is also tipped to be this year's Christmas number one. It features vocals from the likes of Chris Martin, Dido, Robbie Williams and the Sugababes. The original version - which was the Christmas number one in 1984 - sold 750,000 copies in its first week and 3.5 million in total. It was released in the US, and reached number 13 in the singles chart. However, Band Aid 20 is not going to be released in the US, despite being sold in many countries around the world. US record shops are stocking an import version of Do They Know It's Christmas, which is said to be selling very well in Los Angeles and New York...British stars who appear on the current recording, such as Dido and Coldplay's Chris Martin, are well known to music fans across the Atlantic, along with U2 frontman Bono. Record company Universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single, which will be available across Europe, Asia, South America and Canada. But music fans in the US are still able to access the song and download it on Band Aid 20's official website. In 1985, a group of high-profile American stars known as USA For Africa came together to record their own fund-raising single, We Are The World. The song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, with Quincy Jones as producer...It topped the US charts for three weeks and went on win Grammy awards for best record and song. Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and Tina Turner were among the line-up of performers. Proceeds from the sales of the Band Aid 20 single will go towards aid relief in Africa, in countries such as Ethiopia and Sudan. The money raised will also be used to help combat HIV and Aids across the continent. The Band Aid Trust which was set up 20 years ago, when the original single was released, handed out $144m (£75m) to famine relief projects across Africa between January 1985 and November 2004.",entertainment
"iTunes now selling Band Aid song..Ipod owners can now download the Band Aid single from iTunes after Apple reached agreement with the charity...Apple had been unwilling to raise the cost of the single in line with other download services, said Band Aid. But the single is now on sale for 79p - the usual cost of a song from iTunes - with Apple donating a further 70p to the charity for each song downloaded. A copy of the original 1984 song is also available for download at 79p - with all proceeds going to the charity...More than 72,000 copies of the new Band Aid single were sold on its first day of release on Monday, according to sales figures. The track has become the fastest-selling single of the year so far, shifting more copies than the rest of the top 30 combined, HMV claimed. Dido, Robbie Williams and Chris Martin are among those featured on the new version of Do They Know It's Christmas?, which is raising money to fight hunger in Africa. If the track sold 500,000 copies, more than £1m would be raised for charity. The CD is being sold for £3.99, with HMV, Virgin and Woolworths all donating their profits.",entertainment
"Court halts Mark Morrison album..Premiership footballer and record company boss Kevin Campbell has gained a court injunction stopping R&B singer Mark Morrison from releasing an album...The Everton striker signed Morrison to his fledging 2 Wikid Records label and claims he spent thousands of pounds producing his album Innocent Man. Now he is attempting to prevent Morrison releasing the album on Monday through another label. But Morrison vowed to ignore the order, saying ""no judge is gonna stop me""...Morrison, who is now as well known for his brushes with the law than his music career, rose to fame with the 1996 single Return of the Mack...But the Leicester singer has struggled to repeat its success following two spells in jail. One was for hiring a stand-in to complete his community service for possession of a stun gun and three-months following a nightclub fracas. He signed to Mr Campbell's label a year ago and has released one single, with the label saying the album was due for release on 24 January. But Mr Campbell said he learned that Morrison planned to release the album through Jet Star, which is advertising it on its website. Mr Campbell said: ""I'm glad we were granted the injunction but I'm completely gutted that we have had to go that far. ""Mark Morrison was given everything he asked for by 2 Wikid but it seems that he couldn't help but return to his old ways...""I've worked hard to realise my ambition in football but had hoped that my future career would be in the music business. ""I have always dreamt of starting a record label but now Mark Morrison has spoilt that dream for me. There is no loyalty in this business - just greed.""..But Morrison is determined the album will be released on Monday. He said: ""The injunction is ludicrous. ""I signed a new deal with a new record company because I was not getting the support I needed from 2 Wikid. ""I was with that label for a year and in that time released just one record, which was not properly promoted. He added: ""The whole world is waiting for this album and it will come out on December 27. No injunction or judge will stop it. The Mack will return."" The case is set to be heard in the High Court on 20 December.",entertainment
"Prince crowned 'top music earner'..Prince earned more than any other pop star in 2004, beating artists such Madonna and Elton John in US magazine Rolling Stone's annual list...The singer banked $56.5m (£30.4m) from concerts, album and publishing sales with his Musicology tour and album. He kept Madonna in second place, as she earned $54.9m (£29.5m) while embarking on her global Re-Invention Tour. Veterans Simon and Garfunkel were in 10th place, their comeback tour helping them earn $24.9m (£13.4m) last year...""Prince returned to centre stage after a decade in the commercial wilderness,"" the magazine reported. The singer's 2004 tour took $90.3m (£48.5m) in ticket sales and he sold 1.9 million copies of his latest album Musicology...Although she grossed more than Prince last year, Madonna remained in second place because of the ""monumental"" production costs of her tour. Heavy metal band Metallica's Madly in Anger with the World tour helped push their 2004 earnings up to $43.1m (£23.1m). They were ahead of Sir Elton John, who took fourth place and almost $42.7m (£23m) from performances including a debut on the Las Vegas Strip. Other seasoned performers in the list included Rod Stewart, whose sold-out shows and third volume of The Great American Songbook covers album helped net him £35m (£19m). The highest-ranking rap act in the list was 50 Cent, who at number 19 took $24m (£13m) to the bank.",entertainment
"Early Elvis recordings go on sale..Some of Elvis Presley's earliest recordings - including takes of All Shook Up - are going under the hammer on Sunday at a Los Angeles auction...The six unedited reel-to-reel tapes - which were owned by the engineer who recorded them - are valued at up to $50,000 (£29,000). Highlights of the two hour-long collection will get their public debut at Bonhams auction house on Saturday. The RCA tapes date from September 1956 to September 1957. The ""pre-masters"" include a take of Jailhouse Rock, religious songs, material for his first Christmas album, and banter between Presley, members of his band and engineer Thorne Nogar...""We've had them for a lot of years, and I think the people should enjoy them,"" Nogar's son Stephen, 57, said. ""And frankly, we could use the money."" Nogar, who died in 1994 aged 72, always used to make two tapes of sessions as a back-up in case RCA producers wanted to make late changes to songs. ""He called them his ass-saver tapes,"" his son said. The quality is said to be noticeably crisper than that of a new vinyl record. Because the family does not own the copyright to the music, the tapes can only be sold for ""personal enjoyment"" and they cannot be copied for commercial gain.",entertainment
"Parker's saxophone heads auction..A saxophone belonging to legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker is expected to fetch up to $1m (£535,000) at an auction of jazz memorabilia next month...The sale, at Guernsey's Auction House in New York, will feature instruments from other musicians including John Coltrane and Benny Goodman. Other items will include an evening gown belonging to Ella Fitzgerald. Organisers said the auction was the first in the US to be devoted to items belonging to jazz musicians...Other items that will be auctioned include unreleased tape recordings of music by Parker as well as handwritten sheet music by jazz composers John Coltrane and Theolonius Monk. Among the instruments in the sale will be a trumpet which belonged to Dizzy Gillespie, which is expected to fetch around $500,000 (£267,000), as well as JJ Johnson's trombone and a vibraphone which beloned to Lionel Hampton. Works of art by musicians including Miles Davis and Bruni Sablan will also be featured. The proceeds from the auction, which will take place on 20 February, will go towards several organisations including the John Coltrane Foundation, a foundation set up in memory of Benny Goodman, and the Red Cross.",entertainment
"Comic Morris returns with sitcom..Comedian Chris Morris, who created controversial TV show Brass Eye, is to return to screens with a new sitcom about a spoof London media worker...Morris will direct and co-write Nathan Barley - a character from cult website TV Go Home - for Channel 4. It is a send-up of the stereotypical ""cool"" metropolitan media scene, with Nicholas Burns in the title role. A Brass Eye satire of the media handling of paedophilia sparked 2,500 complaints in 2001...Nathan Barley will be ""a character-driven comedy"", according to Charlie Brooker, who created TV Go Home in 1999 and has co-written the series. Barley is described as a ""webmaster, guerrilla film-maker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a 'self-facilitating media node"". The story will also feature Dan Ashcroft, a style magazine columnist, and his sister Claire, a film-maker who hates the ""cool"" scene. As well as Brass Eye, Morris was behind another news show satire, The Day Today, and dark sketch comedy Jam. The new show is expected to begin in February.",entertainment
"TV station refuses adoption show..A TV station in the US has refused to show a controversial new series where adopted children try and pick their birth father - and win a cash prize...The WRAZ-TV Fox affiliate in North Carolina was the only one of 182 stations to refuse Monday's show. Who's Your Daddy promises $100,000 (£52,000) to the contestant if she correctly identifies her father. It was met with protests by the National Council for Adoption, which said it ""exploits"" sensitive emotions. ""It exploits the sensitive emotions of adoption,"" said Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption. ""It trivialises them. Adoption is a very personal, meaningful experience and it should not be commercialised like this."" On the pre-taped programme, the contestant is presented with eight men who may or may not be her natural father...If she picks the correct man from the line-up, the contestant wins the jackpot prize of US$100,000 (£52,590). However, if she picks the wrong man, then the impostor takes the money. Fox producers defended the show, saying it was a ""positive experience"". They have made six specials, though only one episode has so far been broadcast...""The special was thoroughly vetted by our standards and practices department to ensure that it was appropriate for broadcast,"" said a Fox spokesman. ""However, any network affiliate that feels the programming may be inappropriate for their individual market has the right to pre-empt the schedule."" WRAZ-TV instead chose to air an independently-produced film, I Have Roots and Branches... Personal Reflections on Adoption, a documentary about families with adopted children. ""We just don't think adoption is a game show,"" said Tommy Schenck, WRAZ-TV's general manager, though he said his decision had not been influenced by public protests.",entertainment
"A-listers flock to Gervais sitcom..Hollywood actors Samuel L Jackson and Ben Stiller have signed up for Ricky Gervais' new sitcom, the comedian has told BBC News...He said they had both seen the scripts and had agreed to appear in an episode each of the sitcom Extras. They join British stars Jude Law and Kate Winslet who have been booked for guest roles. The comic and actor said he had drawn up an A-list of stars he wanted and all had agreed to be in it. ""We wanted actors who had iconic status but that we could also deconstruct,"" Gervais told BBC News...""It's not about the zeitgeist. We wanted people who would still be around in 20 years, not just the winner of Big Brother to take part."" Gervais admitted he was cautious about revealing who would be taking part until they had all signed on the dotted line. But he has met with Stiller and Jackson and they enjoyed the scripts enough to commit to it...""I didn't want to start revealing names until it was all sorted because people just mention people who haven't even been asked. ""I have been linked with ridiculous stories recently such as I'm going to be in a remake of 10 taking Dudley Moore's part. I haven't been approached and I wouldn't take it anyway.""..He said Stiller and Jackson would be playing ""twisted"" versions of themselves in Extras and that the jokes about them ""would sail pretty close to the bone"". Gervais and his writing partner Stephen Merchant are currently refining the scripts for the six-part series, in which Gervais plays a struggling actor who bitches about the stars. Meanwhile, Gervais is gearing up to promote his cartoon book Flanimals which is released in the US in March, around the same time as NBC begin showing the US version of The Office. The film rights to Flanimals have already been snapped up but Gervais is keen for the project to be taken slowly. ""A film will happen over the next three years but I don't want it to be a $50m movie straight away because it is not well enough known and it wouldn't be another Spider-Man or Batman. I would like to do something small on TV with it first.""",entertainment
"Campaigners attack MTV 'sleaze'..MTV has been criticised for ""incessant sleaze"" by television indecency campaigners in the US...The Parents Television Council (PTC), which monitors violence and sex on TV, said the cable music channel offered the ""cheapest form"" of programming. The group is at the forefront of a vociferous campaign to clean up American television. But a spokeswoman for MTV said it was ""unfair and inaccurate"" to single out MTV for criticism...The PTC monitored MTV's output for 171 hours from 20 March to 27 March 2004, during the channel's Spring Break coverage. In its report - MTV Smut Peddlers: Targeting Kids with Sex, Drugs and Alcohol - the PTC said it witnessed 3,056 flashes of nudity or sexual situations and 2,881 verbal references to sex. Brent Bozell, PTC president and conservative activist said: ""MTV is blatantly selling raunchy sex to kids. ""Compared to broadcast television programmes aimed at adults, MTV's programming contains substantially more sex, foul language and violence - and MTV's shows are aimed at children as young as 12. ""There's no question that TV influences the attitudes and perceptions of young viewers, and MTV is deliberately marketing its raunch to millions of innocent children.""..The watchdog decided to look at MTV's programmes after Janet Jackson's infamous ""wardrobe malfunction"" at last year's Super Bowl. The breast-baring incident generated 500,000 complaints and CBS - which is owned by the same parent company as MTV - was quick to apologise. MTV spokeswoman Jeannie Kedas said the network follows the same standards as broadcasters and reflects the culture and what its viewers are interested in. ""It's unfair and inaccurate to paint MTV with that brush of irresponsibility,"" she said. ""We think it's underestimating young people's intellect and level of sophistication."" Ms Kedas also highlighted the fact MTV won an award in 2004 for the Fight for Your Rights series that focused on issues such as sexual health and tolerance.",entertainment
"US actor 'found with gun residue'..Actor Robert Blake had gunshot residue on his hands and clothes the night his wife was shot dead, a court has heard...But it may not have come from the shot that killed Bonny Lee Bakley in 2001, Mr Blake's murder trial was told by criminalist Steven Dowell. Mr Dowell told a Los Angeles court the residue may have come from Mr Blake's revolver, his gun collection, his presence at the crime scene or police. The 71-year-old former star of US TV drama Baretta has denied murder. Mr Blake said he found Ms Bakley, 44, dead in a car after they left a restaurant...He said he briefly returned to the restaurant to collect a gun he had left behind and discovered her body when he returned. The gun he collected was not the murder weapon. It could also have been picked up if he touched or leant on the car when he found the body, or from a police box in which his clothes were later stored. The box had come from an area where officers went after being on the firing range. But Mr Dowell also said the residue would have been present if Mr Blake fired a gun that night. Witnesses have already told the trial Mr Blake ""stood out as being quite nervous and agitated"" at the restaurant before the murder. The actor, who won an Emmy for playing a maverick detective in the 1970s TV cop drama Baretta, could face life in prison if convicted.",entertainment
"EastEnders 'is set for US remake'..Plans to create a US soap based on the BBC's EastEnders have reportedly been drawn up by the Fox TV network...EastEnders' head writer Tony Jordan and music mogul Simon Fuller are involved in the project, according to reports in the Hollywood Reporter trade newspaper. It said scripts have been commissioned for a series about a community of working class people in of Chicago. The original EastEnders was pulled from BBC America last year after it proved a failure in the ratings. US versions of other British hits have proved less successful across the Atlantic...BBC comedy Coupling was remade with a US cast, but lost its primetime slot on the NBC network due to disappointing ratings. At home, EastEnders has been facing its own ratings battle, recently losing out to rival ITV soap Emmer dale. Primetime soaps on US television have made a recent comeback, following the success of ABC serial Desperate Housewives. The series takes a ""darkly comedic"" look at the goings-on of a group of characters living in the suburbs.",entertainment
"US 'to raise TV indecency fines'..US politicians are proposing a tough new law aimed at cracking down on indecency and bad language on US TV...Fines of up to $500,000 (£266,582) could be imposed each time broadcasters transmit nudity or profanities. The proposal, unveiled in the House of Representatives, also seeks to revoke a broadcaster's licence after three violations have been committed. The exposure of Janet Jackson's breast at last year's Superbowl landed CBS with a $550,000 (£293,264) fine. Entertainers could also be liable for fines under the proposed legisation from both US politcians and officials from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). A Republican senator from Kansas, Sam Brownbeck, is set to call for a maximum $3 million (£1.6 million) fine for repeated violations...The current maximum fine stands at $32,500 (£17,320) - 20 of the stations in the CBS network were each penalised these lesser amounts for the Jackson incident. Republican politician Fred Upton, who chairs the committee responsible for broadcasting, said current fines are ""more of a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent"". Last year's Janet Jackson 'wardrobe malfunction' encouraged the FCC to impose tougher rules, but the US Congress adjourned last year without agreeing on a new level of fines. New figures have to be decided before new legislation can be put before President Bush. Certain broadcasters, like Fox, claim the material they carry does not violate indecency laws and is protected under the right to free speech.",entertainment
"Eurovision 'greats' to do battle..Stars of the Eurovision Song Contest from the show's 50-year history are to compete against each other to celebrate the contest's anniversary...Viewers will choose 14 past songs to be performed by the original artists or others in the spirit of the originals. Past Eurovision performers include Abba, Celine Dion, Bucks Fizz, Nana Mouskouri, Lulu and Julio Iglesias. Fans will then vote as usual to pick the all-time best Eurovision song during the show in Denmark in October. The first contest was organised by the European Broadcasting Union, or EBU, in 1956, and has become an annual event pitting pop giants against musical minnows - with often surprising results...While some regard it as an essential celebration of continental talent, others see it as an equally unmissable parade of the reasons some countries do not normally produce international stars. The 50th annual contest will be held in Kiev, Ukraine, in May, after Ukrainian singer Ruslana won last year. The 50th anniversary special will be held in Denmark later this year because the Danish Broadcasting Corporation came up with the idea for the all-time contest. A plan to hold it in London was scrapped because of problems finding a suitable venue. Ireland has been the most successful country in the show's history with seven victories, followed by the UK, France and Luxembourg with five each.",entertainment
"UK TV channel rapped for CSI ad..TV channel Five has been criticised for sending ""offensive"" and ""threatening"" advertising material to viewers for a new show about murder scene scientists...Five mailed thousands of fake dossiers including photos of murder victims and an e-mail suggesting the recipient was being stalked by a serial killer. Following complaints, the Advertising Standards Authority contacted Five to cease promotion of crime show CSI:NY. Five admitted it had sent out 55,000 promotion packs but had now stopped. The promotion material was sent in brown envelope of the type used by investigators in the series, a spin-off from the highly successful CSI: Crime Scene Investigation series, which also runs on Five. The pack also features pictures of forensic evidence from a crime scene and a wanted poster, which did have a CSI:NY logo printed in large at the bottom...Five said it had received 100 complaints but that it had been surprised at the reaction because it was ""obvious this material is promoting a drama"". A Five spokesman said: ""In light of the efforts we have made to make the nature of the contents so transparent we are surprised a very small minority of recipients have mistaken it as anything else. ""Everyone who was sent this promotion has expressed an interest in receiving details about this particular genre of programming on various websites. ""We have also received emails and calls from recipients praising the originality and imagination of the campaign.""",entertainment
"X Factor show gets second series..TV talent show The X Factor is to return for a second series after being recommissioned by ITV...Judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne are in discussions to sign up for the new series. The final of the first series will take place on 11 December. Last Saturday's show was beaten in the ratings by the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. ""Working on the X Factor has been a blast... I predict series two will be even better,"" said Cowell. ""I think the production team have done an amazing job,"" he added...The Pop Idol-style show votes off a group or contestant every week - the two that receive the lowest public vote have to perform a second time before the judges make a final decision. Rowetta Satchell, Steve Brookstein, Tabby Callaghan and group G4 are the remaining finalists. ITV's controller of entertainment, Claudia Rosencrantz, said she had no hesitation in recommissioning the show. ""There's much more to come this series as we build towards the final next month and it's great to have secured this terrific format for our viewers for another series,"" she said.",entertainment
"Alicia Keys to open US Super Bowl..R&B star Alicia Keys is to open February's Super Bowl singing a song only previously performed there by Ray Charles and Vicki Carr...Keys, who will sing America the Beautiful, will be accompanied by 150 students from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. Charles, who died last year, attended the school as a child in 1937. Keys said she was ""very excited"", describing Charles as ""an artist I admire, miss and respect"". ""I know that this is going to be a very touching and memorable moment,"" she said...It will be her first performance at the Super Bowl, which will be watched by millions in the US on 6 February. Sir Paul McCartney will provide the half-time entertainment in the slot filled by Janet Jackson last year. Organisers have promised there will be no repeat of her nipple-baring incident that sparked thousands of complaints on US TV's most-watched broadcast. A National Football League spokesman said they were ""comfortable"" this show would be acceptable to a mass audience. The game and show were watched by 144 million people in the US in 2003...Twenty CBS-owned TV stations were fined $550,000 (£300,000) by the country's TV regulatory agency after more than 542,000 complaints were made about Janet Jackson's ""wardrobe malfunction"". Sir Paul said: ""There's nothing bigger than being asked to perform at the Super Bowl. ""We're looking forward to rocking the millions at home and in the stadium.""",entertainment
"'Comeback' show for Friends star..Friends actress Lisa Kudrow is to play the lead role in a new series about a one-time sitcom star, according to the Hollywood reporter...Thirteen episodes of Comeback have been commissioned by cable channel HBO, home of hits such as Sex And The City. Kudrow, who played Phoebe in Friends, co-wrote the pilot episode and will also act as executive producer. HBO has been looking for its next big comedy hit since Sex And The City drew to a close in the US in February. Comeback is the first 30-minute comedy series that the channel has picked up since the Sex And The City drew to the end of its six-year-run. Friends ended its 10-year run on the NBC network in May, and attentions have turned to which projects its six individual stars would pursue...Matt LeBlanc is starring in a Friends spin-off sitcom, charting Joey's fortunes in Los Angeles as he pursues his acting career. Jennifer Aniston, who was Rachel in the long-running show, has enjoyed a series of successful film appearances, with further projects in the pipeline. Courteney Cox Arquette (Monica) has been working on a drama project along with husband David Arquette for HBO, called The Rise And Fall Of Taylor Kennedy. Matthew Perry, who played Chandler, has appeared on the West End stage, and has a film, The Beginning Of Wisdom, currently in production. And David Schwimmer (Ross) directed during his time on Friends, and has also worked on Joey.",entertainment
"Hillbillies singer Scoggins dies..Country and Western musician Jerry Scoggins has died in Los Angeles at the age of 93, his family has said...Scoggins was best remembered for singing the theme tune to popular US TV show The Beverly Hillbillies. The Texan-born singer approached the producers of the programme with theme tune The Ballad of Jed Clampett for the pilot which was screened in 1962. The show, which told the story of a poor man striking oil and moving to Beverly Hills, ran until 1971...Scoggins' daugher Jane Kelly Misel said that her father never tired of the song and would sing it at least once a day. ""He'd sing it at birthdays and anniversaries and variety shows. He never stopped performing it,"" she said. When a film version of The Beverly Hillbillies was made in 1993, Scoggins came out of retirement to perform the theme tune. Scoggins sang the lyrics while bluegrass stars Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs played guitar and banjo.",entertainment
"Branson show flops on US screens..Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson's US TV show, The Rebel Billionaire, is proving a flop in the ratings...The programme suffered poor viewing figures on its debut on the Fox network three weeks ago, and has lost one in five of its viewers since then. The show is seen as Fox's answer to The Apprentice featuring tycoon Donald Trump, a ratings hit for rivals NBC. Sir Richard's show sees a group of young entrepreneurs compete to become the president of his business empire. The Rebel Billionaire has averaged five million viewers and is 91st in the rankings of all prime-time shows. The Apprentice, which has already completed its first season, is still managing to pull in 16 million viewers, while its prime-time ranking is number four...But Fox has said it plans to stick with Branson's show throughout its 12-episode run. ""It's going to remain on the air,"" said the network's spokesman Scott Grogin. ""Creatively we're extremely pleased with the show and hope the audience will find it,"" he added. Contestants on Sir Richard's show are confronted with business tasks to solve, similar to The Apprentice. They are also subjected to stunts like walking a plank suspended in mid-air. The Rebel Billionaire has marketed itself as a less materialistic version of The Apprentice, with Sir Richard shown jumping out of a taxi, while Trump is seen in a limousine.",entertainment
"Housewives lift Channel 4 ratings..The debut of US television hit Desperate Housewives has helped lift Channel 4's January audience share by 12% compared to last year...Other successes such as Celebrity Big Brother and The Simpsons have enabled the broadcaster to surpass BBC Two for the first month since last July. BBC Two's share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in comparison with January 2004. Celebrity Big Brother attracted fewer viewers than its 2002 series...Comedy drama Desperate Housewives managed to pull in five million viewers at one point during its run to date, attracting a quarter of the television audience. The two main television channels, BBC1 and ITV1, have both seen their monthly audience share decline in a year on year comparison for January, while Five's proportion remained the same at a slender 6.3%. Digital multi-channel TV is continuing to be the strongest area of growth, with the BBC reporting Freeview box ownership of five million, including one million sales in the last portion of 2004. Its share of the audience soared by 20% in January 2005 compared with last year, and currently stands at an average of 28.6%.",entertainment
"McCririck out of Big Brother show..Racing pundit John McCririck has become the latest contestant to be evicted from Celebrity Big Brother...He was nominated to leave the Channel 4 show by fellow housemates, alongside Happy Mondays dancer Bez. At one time Bez was among the most popular contestants but he has since become withdrawn and argumentative. McCririck was ordered to leave the house on Monday, following Jackie Stallone, the actor Sylvester's mother, who was first to be evicted. Bez reacted badly to the news that he had been nominated by five of his fellow housemates, whilst John received four votes against him. Sylvester Stallone's ex-wife Brigitte Nielsen nominated both John and Bez. She said: ""Bez is a difficult human being. There's something wrong with him. Even though he's making an effort, he's not very happy in here."" Former Holby City actor Jeremy Edwards said he had nominated Bez after he became agitated on Friday night and talked about escaping over the wall to go clubbing. He said Bez was being ""loopy"" and ""stressed"". According to bookmaker Ladbrokes, John McCririck was 1/3 favourite to be evicted on Monday while Bez was at 9/4 . McCririck faced the public vote on Friday and received 67% of the vote to keep him in the house, whilst Jackie Stallone was evicted.",entertainment
"Chris Evans back on the market..Broadcaster Chris Evans has begun selling thousands of his possessions from a stall in Camden Market, London...Evans perched on a stool as shoppers wandered around the open-fronted shop packed with his furniture. Among the items from his homes in Los Angeles and London were countless sofas, chairs, pictures, beds and memorabilia from his past TV shows. Asked the reason for the sale, Evans said: ""I just want to get rid of it all, it's just a headache."" He added: ""It feels good to be selling this stuff, it's a weight off my mind. ""Look at it all, there's so much clutter. I've enjoyed every bit of furniture and every poster but it's not important anymore."" The normally gregarious Evans cut a peculiarly unshowbusiness-like figure as he sipped coffee and smoked cigarettes, wrapped in a big coat and scarf in front of his Aladdin's cave...However, the ostentation of some of the items on sale painted a picture of the eccentricity that endeared him to the British public in shows such as Channel 4's gameshow Don't Forget Your Toothbrush. The most striking thing about many of the pieces was their sheer size. Sofas looked like they could seat a small party and a bed seemed big enough for four. The elaborate nature of the pieces, many custom-made, had to be admired, particularly a huge red and gold upholstered ""throne"" and a stripy deckchair from the Queen Mary liner...To help people in their browsing, Evans had given the pieces labels with not only the price but a helpful, often comic, aside. ""Isn't it great"" was the comment on the £1,950 throne and ""Bob Dylan's old sofa - honest"" was written on a dark wood couch priced £4,250...The prices were steep by a lot of people's standards but Evans said it was not deterring shoppers. ""I've sold quite a lot already. Everything here is on sale for less than I bought it for but it's not really about the money. It's about getting rid of it all. We've all been bartering, that's what it's all about."" He added that he was not going to reveal what he was going to do with the money he was making. Vintage TV and film posters also lined the walls, including a rare portrait of Raquel Welch and an original advertising print from the Benny Hill Show. And, almost hidden at the back of the lock-up, were the two giant toothbrushes from his former Channel 4 show, although these were not for sale...Despite the sheer curiosity value of the sale, there was a healthy trickle of interest from the public rather than the perhaps expected crowds. Some wandered in just to browse, as they would any of the other stalls, not knowing that it belonged to Evans...Paul Burgess said: ""I didn't realise. I thought it was just a load of junk. I should go back and have a better look."" But local resident Francesca Detakats came specially to the stall and left happy with her purchase of an original 1960s photograph of The Who by David Wedgburg. Ms Detakats said she was a collector and did not mind paying £350 for the print. ""If you like something, you don't really count it like that,"" she said...Martin Hellewell, who had also made a point of visiting Evans' shop, said he thought it was a great idea. ""Why not, if you've got stuff to get rid of it's a good place to do it,"" said Mr Hellewell. Evans has taken out the stall with business partner Pete Winterbottom. They plan to open every day if possible, although Evans did not know how often he would be there. ""We'll stay definitely until Christmas and then maybe a week after that,"" said Evans.",entertainment
"Top stars join US tsunami TV show..Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro and Hugh Grant have been added to the line-up for a two-hour US TV special to raise money for victims of the Asian tsunami...Andy Garcia, Lucy Liu, Natalie Portman and Jay Leno are also among the new names for Saturday's Tsunami Aid. They will join A-list singers Madonna, Sir Elton John, Nelly and Usher plus actors Kevin Spacey, Halle Berry and George Clooney on the NBC broadcast. Viewers will be urged to phone in to make donations throughout the night. Norah Jones, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Maroon 5, Mary J Blige and Eric Clapton will give musical performances on the show described as ""A Concert of Hope""...Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Douglas, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore and Tim Robbins are among the other movie superstars due to put in an appearance. George Clooney recently reacted angrily to a TV host's suggestion that not all funds raised would go towards tsunami relief. Fox TV's Bill O'Reilly said he would be ""watching to see if the money gets to the tsunami victims"" and warned the celebrities taking part ""had better be involved all the way down the line"". But Clooney accused O'Reilly of creating a fuss for his own personal gain, saying viewers may now be ""afraid that their money will do no good""...He urged O'Reilly to co-present the TV special, adding in a letter: ""We're not playing games here, we're trying to save lives. It's as simple as this - you're either with this joint effort or against it."" Organisers say all funds will go to the American Red Cross. The commercial-free benefit show will also be aired by a string of cable broadcasters and Clear Channel's radio stations across the US. In addition, performances will be available to buy on the internet as downloads from Sony's Connect music store. A similar TV benefit carried by all four primary US TV networks after the 11 September terror attacks raised more than $150m (£80m).... - The Bangkok International Film Festival got under way on Thursday in the Thai capital in the shadow of the country's 5,300 deaths from the tsunami. The red carpet gala opening night was ditched in favour of a more subdued first night. Six different films were shown at six cinemas, with all money from ticket sales going to charity.",entertainment
"Star Trek fans fight to save show..Star Trek fans have taken out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times in an attempt to persuade TV executives not to scrap Star Trek: Enterprise...Made by the UPN TV network, the latest spin-off from the hit sci-fi show is due to end in May after four series. But fans around the world have pitched in to pay for the advert, which had the headline ""Save Star Trek"". They are also asking the Sci-Fi Channel to pick it up from UPN and will stage a rally in Los Angeles on 25 February...The advert described the Star Trek franchise as a ""cultural icon"". Enterprise stars former Quantum Leap actor Scott Bakula as Captain Archer and is set before the original 1960s Star Trek series. ""Captain Archer and the crew of the NX-01 need your help to continue their journeys!"" the advert said. It also included a cut-out coupon for fans to send to UPN's parent companies Paramount and Viacom plus the Sci-Fi Channel. It also urged supporters to join the rally outside the Paramount studios...Fan website Trek United is hoping to raise $32m (£17m) from donations by the end of March to pay for a fifth series. More than $23,000 (£12,000) has been pledged so far, according to the site. The 98th and final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise will air in the US on 13 May. The fourth series has averaged 2.9 million viewers per episode - half the amount it got in its first series. Star Trek: Enterprise began in 2001 following other Star Trek spin-off series The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.",entertainment
"Top of the Pops leaves BBC One..The BBC's flagship pop music programme Top of the Pops is to move from BBC One on Fridays to Sundays on BBC Two...The new programme will combine with archive show TOTP2, mixing new music with footage of classic bands. The corporation said the new show ""aims to appeal to a diverse audience of music lovers"". The move is the biggest shake-up in the history of the show, which was first broadcast in 1964 and has always been on BBC One. Top of the Pops was relaunched in a blaze of publicity in December last year in an attempt to reverse a long-term decline in audience figures...The All New Top of the Pops was fronted by newcomer Tim Kash and was put together by producer Andi Peters, who was brought back to the BBC from Channel 4 to revitalise the series...About three million people a week were watching the show on Fridays - less than half the total it was attracting in the mid-1990s - as the programme went up against popular ITV soap Coronation Street. But despite the relaunch audience figures failed to rise and still remain around the three million mark. Tim Kash has since been replaced as host by Fearne Cotton. The new show will launch in Spring next year in an extended format. BBC Two controller Roly Keating: ""It's an exciting new era for Top of the Pops. We want to make it bigger and better so that it becomes the ultimate pop music show for music lovers of every generation."" Mr Keating described BBC Two as the ""natural home"" of Top of the Pops. He added: ""The addition of Top of the Pops will also extend BBC Two's offering to younger audiences.""..A BBC spokeswoman said Andi Peters would continue as executive producer on the show. She said that issues over the exact format of the programme and a time slot were still to be decided. The programme will have a close relationship with the BBC Radio 1 chart show, which suggests the relaunched show may be transmitted at about 1900 on Sundays. ""Hopefully the audience for Top of the Pops will find it on BBC Two. ""We think that the new slot will create a buzz around the programme as for the first time viewers will discover the news of who is number one as it happens.""",entertainment
"Oscar host Rock to keep it clean..Oscar host Chris Rock said he will steer clear of bad language when he fronts the awards on 27 February...The comedian, who recently got into trouble for poking fun at the ceremony, is renowned for his heavy use of expletives during his stand-up routine. The live ceremony will be broadcast with a transmission delay on US network ABC to ensure swear words are removed. ""I've been on TV and been funny not cursing,"" he said during an interview for CBS network's 60 Minutes show. ""As far as content is concerned, I will talk about the movies. I'm not really worried about it. I'm sure ABC might be more worried about it than me,"" he added...The 40-year-old comedian caused a furore when he said in an interview with US magazine Entertainment Weekly recently that he hardly ever watched the Oscars and labelled awards ceremonies ""idiotic"". The show's producers defended Rock and confirmed that he would still be presenting the Oscar ceremony, saying his comments were ""humorous digs"". Meanwhile, the Academy has announced that Oscar-nominated actress Natalie Portman will present an award at the ceremony. Portman, who has been nominated for a best supporting actress gong for her role in Mike Nichols' Closer, joins a growing list of stars set to bestow an award at the ceremony including Dustin Hoffman, Drew Barrymore, Renee Zellweger and British-born actress Kate Winslet.",entertainment
"Johnny and Denise lose Passport..Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen's Saturday night entertainment show Passport to Paradise will not return to screens, the BBC has said...The ex-Big Breakfast presenters were recruited to host the BBC One family variety show last July. ""There are currently no plans for another series,"" a spokeswoman said. She added the pair ""brought a real warmth to Saturday night, but in the end we felt we had done enough with the format of the show""...Passport to Paradise involved a combination of games and outside broadcasts with a high level of audience participation. The first instalment attracted more than 4.1 million viewers - but that had dropped to fewer than 2.7 million by the time it ended. The BBC spokeswoman said Graham Norton's Strictly Dance Fever would be a priority for 2005. ""That's very much on the cards for next year, and we're concentrating at the moment on Strictly Come Dancing, which is doing phenomenally well,"" she said.",entertainment
"Double eviction from Big Brother..Model Caprice and Holby City actor Jeremy Edwards have both left the Celebrity Big Brother house in a surprise double eviction on Friday...Caprice, who left in the scheduled fourth eviction having gained just 5% of the public vote, afterwards said: ""I am so happy, I am so glad I'm out."" Edwards then left in a surprise eviction, with 12% of the vote. Nineteen-year-old Blazin' Squad singer Kenzie is currently favourite to win the £50,000 charity prize. Caprice had been the pre-show favourite to be voted out of the house, with bookmakers Ladbrokes offering odds of 1/5 on her departure. Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush had said she was ""the hottest eviction favourite so far this series""...Odds on Kenzie's victory have been slashed from 4/6 to 1/2, although bookmakers have said they are not ruling out a late rally from former Happy Mondays star Bez. The other remaining housemate is actress Brigitte Nielsen. DJ Lisa I'Anson became the third housemate to be voted out on Wednesday when she became the victim of a surprise eviction during a game of hide-and-seek on the Channel 4 show. I'Anson said she was ""glad to be out"" and predicted that Kenzie would emerge as the winner. The winner is due to be announced on Sunday night.",entertainment
"Celebrities get their skates on..Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne will join EastEnders' actress Scarlett Johnson on BBC One's Strictly Ice Dancing...The one-off Christmas special will also star television presenter Carol Smillie and Jessica Taylor from Liberty-X. Each celebrity will be paired with a professional skater to impress a panel of judges and win the audience vote. The BBC is yet to confirm the final two stars who will battle it out to become Ice King or Queen...Veteran presenter Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly will host the programme, which follows hot on the heels of the current Saturday night series Strictly Come Dancing. The celebrities will have to practise a stipulated ice dance and perform it at an ice rink with their partner. The judges will have 50% of the vote to decide who wins the contest, with the ice rink audience making up the rest of the vote. The show forms part of the BBC's festive schedule. Ice skating duo Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are to front a similar celebrity ice dance show for ITV, titled Stars on Thin Ice. The contestants on Stars on Thin Ice will each be paired up with a professional skater and will learn a new routine every week. At the end of the series, one celebrity will be crowned the winner.",entertainment
"Holmes wins '2004 top TV moment'..Sprinter Kelly Holmes' Olympic victory has been named the top television moment of 2004 in a BBC poll...Holmes' 800m gold medal victory beat favourite moments from drama, comedy and factual programmes, as voted by television viewers. Natasha Kaplinsky's Strictly Come Dancing win was top entertainment moment and a Little Britain breast feeding sketch won the comedy prize. The 2004 TV Moments will be shown on BBC One at 2000 GMT on Wednesday. Double gold medal winner Holmes topped the best sports moment category, beating Maria Sharapova's Wimbledon triumph and Matthew Pinsent's rowing victory at the Olympics...She then went on to take the overall prize of Golden TV Moment. The sight of former royal correspondent Jennie Bond with dozens of rats crawling over her in ITV's I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was named best factual entertainment moment. Michael Buerk's return to Ethiopia, 20 years after originally reporting its famine, topped the factual category for BBC programme This World. Long-running soap EastEnders won the best popular drama moment title when character Dot confided in Den Watts that she was unwell.",entertainment
"Veteran comic Cyril Fletcher dies..Veteran comedian and broadcaster Cyril Fletcher has died aged 91 at his home in Guernsey...Fletcher will be remembered for his ""odd odes"" and amusing misprints on TV show That's Life in the 1970s and 80s, as well as a long variety career. He was also a regular on Does the Team Think?, a comic version of radio information show The Brains Trust. That's Life host Esther Rantzen said he was ""so lovely"" and a ""delight"" to work with. ""The thing about Cyril was that he was, to use a slightly old-fashioned phrase, an English gentleman,"" she said. ""He was courteous, and understated, and he adored gardens, particularly creating them for his beautiful wife...""He was funny and witty to work with. He was a real friend and I shall miss him."" One of the last comedians of old-time variety era, Fletcher made his first TV appearance in 1937. A year after BBC Television began, he was seen reciting humorous poems, appearing in a revue, Tele-Ho, and playing the Emperor of Morocco in the first televised pantomime, Dick Whittington. He went on to become a regular voice on radio, have a string of TV shows in the 1950s and appear in several films, including 1947's Nicholas Nickleby. He married actress Betty Astell in 1941 and in the 1950s and 60s, they produced pantos and summer shows, discovering new stars including Harry Secombe. In the mid-1990s, Fletcher said he had made a ""fabulous living"" since the age of 22 and had never had a day out of work...He was most recently seen presenting a gardening programme for Channel TV. Fletcher was described as a ""consummate professional"" by his friend and fellow broadcaster Michael Pointon. ""It really was a pleasure to work with him - he had met everyone and done everything,"" Mr Pointon said. ""He was a whimsical, droll fellow, but also a very artistic man. As a friend, he was very kind, and generous."" Fletcher's daughter Jill said her father would be sorely missed. ""He was greatly loved by the public,"" she said.",entertainment
"Little Britain vies for TV trophy..BBC hits Little Britain and Strictly Come Dancing are among numerous British shows nominated for the prestigious Golden Rose television awards...Homegrown reality programmes dominated that category, including Channel 4's Supernanny and ITV1's Hell's Kitchen. EastEnders and Coronation Street were overlooked in the soap category, but Doctors and Family Affairs gained nods. The festival, which honours the best TV from around the globe, will take place in Lucerne, Switzerland from 3-8 May...Little Britain, which is now in its second series, faces competition from BBC Two's The Catherine Tate Show and Sacha Baron Cohen's creations Borat and Bruno. In the separate sitcom category, dark comedy Nighty Night - which began life on BBC Three - will do battle with mainstream BBC One show My Family...BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, which saw celebrities compete against each other to become champions of the dancefloor, is among five British nominations in the varirty category. Lenny Henry, who won a Golden Rose for his In Pieces series in 2001, picks up another nomination for his recent BBC show. British television music shows have picked up six nominations, with BBC Three's Flashmob - The Opera up against the UK Music Hall of Fame series, which was screened on Channel 4. British television has performed very well in the arts and specials category, gaining a total of 11 nominations. The BBC leads the way with its programmes on The Sound of Music, Agatha Christie and Rolf On Art - The Big Event - which saw Harris lead an effort to produce a life-size painting in London's Trafalgar Square...British shows - which picked up a total of 48 nominations - will have to overcome competition from a host of other countries, including the US, Canada, Japan and across Europe. UK nominee TV Diaries, which is shown around the world, is owned by a British company but has yet to be screened in this country. Previous UK winners have included Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Pop Idol, Channel 4 show Faking It and comedy duo French and Saunders, who became the first winners to receive and honorary Golden Rose. Individual performers will also be rewarded, with prizes for best comics, best sitcom actor and actress and best gameshow host. Last year actor Shane Richie won an award for his portrayal of Alfie Moon in EastEnders.",entertainment
"Springer criticises Opera musical..Talk show host Jerry Springer, whose programme inspired the controversial opera shown by the BBC, has said he would not have written it himself...The BBC received 47,000 complaints before the musical was broadcast, and protesters demonstrated outside BBC buildings across the UK. Springer helped launch the West End show and attended the opening night. ""I wouldn't have written it. I don't believe in making fun of other religions,"" he said...The TV host said he understood how people could have thought the musical had gone too far. ""You know, on our TV show if people use inappropriate language we bleep it out, if there's nudity we cover it up, so that viewers at home don't get to see any of this,"" he said...Asked whether he thought the BBC should have screened the controversial musical he said: ""I don't know if they should have had it on television but, good Lord, if you don't like what's on television, that's why God gave us remote controls. ""My show is about dysfunctional people and I defy anyone to watch the show and suggest to me the people on it aren't to some degree dysfunctional.""..""If I did a show about the war in Iraq, it wouldn't make me a warmonger, I would just be doing my job to report on the war. ""In the case of my show, it's my job to report on the dysfunctions that take place in society."" The British-born presenter is in London to speak at a fundraising dinner for the United Jewish Israel Appeal. The dinner, on Tuesday, is expected to be attended by more than 800 guests.",entertainment
"CSI shows give 'unrealistic view'..People have unrealistic expectations of forensic science thanks to the success of the CSI TV shows, real experts say...Evidence submitted to forensic labs has shot up as a result of the programmes, at a time when many have large backlogs, science investigators claim. Lawyers also fear the effect because jurors have a distorted view of how forensic evidence is used. The issue was discussed at a major science conference in Washington DC. Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) and its spin-offs, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, have proven exceptionally popular with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic...Each episode, a team of forensic investigators goes about solving a crime through the ingenious appliance of science - and the extensive resources at their disposal. ""The CSI effect is basically the perception of the near-infallibility of forensic science in response to the TV show,"" said Max Houck, who runs a forensic science graduate course at West Virginia University, US. ""This TV show comes on and everyone starts watching it - including the cops and prosecutors - and submissions to forensic laboratories go through the roof,"" he told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The American forensics expert said there were roughly 200,000-300,000 backlogged DNA samples in US labs. Yet these constituted just 10% of the total test backlog, said Dr Houck. Forensic pathologist Dr Patricia McFeeley said she had started to see the show's influence in dealing with the families of victims. ""What I find is that families now are more dissatisfied with the investigation than was previously the case,"" she explained. ""For example, on television, the toxicology results are available almost instantaneously. But when people find out that it can take several months, they can find that very difficult.""..Dr McFeeley added that the accuracy with which forensic investigators can determine time of death was far lower than most people's perceptions. The show's influence can follow forensic investigators all the way into the courtroom, making lawyers jittery. ""Prosecutors fear the CSI effect with juries because, for example, they wonder: 'why wasn't everything tested?' Well, in fact, not everything needs to be tested,"" Dr Houck explained. ""Defence attorneys also worry about the CSI effect because they think that jurors come in and have this view of science as a juggernaut; this objective method that's always accurate."" However, he admitted the show had had positive as well as negative effects on the field. ""My university course started with four graduates in 1999; we're now the largest major on campus - with 400 students,"" he said. Dr Houck added that there was an urgent need for better funding of forensic science at the university level: ""There's more money spent in this country on holistic medicine than there is on forensic science research.""",entertainment
"Ethnic producers 'face barriers'..Minority ethnic led (Mel) production companies face barriers in succeeding in the film and television industries, research has suggested...The study, commissioned by Pact and the UK Film Council, included interviews with industry experts and individuals. They indicated that career progression and a lack of role models are among the main problems within such companies. The research indicated that about 10% of independent production companies in the UK are minority ethnic led...A minority ethnic led company is defined as one in which the majority of decision-making power rests with an individual or individuals from a minority ethnic group. The report also explored the problems faced by such companies when attempting to compete within the film and TV industries. It said they are often smaller than other companies and lack the resources, so are often squeezed out of the market by bigger firms. The research recommended that minority ethnic led companies could benefit from such positive actions as career training and business advice, plus improved communication within the film and TV sectors. ""The UK has a rich and diverse culture and it is essential that it is reflected on film and television,"" said Arts minister Estelle Morris of the findings. ""I welcome this report which I hope will lead to more doors being opened and all businesses in our film and television industries being given the same opportunities.""",entertainment
"US TV special for tsunami relief..A US television network will screen a celebrity TV special to benefit the tsunami relief effort in South Asia...NBC will encourage viewer donations during an hour-long show featuring musical performances on 15 January. Actress Sandra Bullock has donated $1m (£525,000) to The American Red Cross and actor Leonardo DiCaprio pledged a ""sizable"" aid contribution to Unicef. Meanwhile 70 Hong Kong music and movie stars re-recorded We Are the World in Mandarin and Cantonese to raise funds...The song will not be released as a single, but will be played regularly during a Chinese telethon on Friday in aid of victims of the Boxing Day disaster. Around 140,000 people were killed and five million left homeless or without food and water after an earthquake below the Indian Ocean sent waves crashing into coastal communities in 11 countries...The United Nations warned that the number killed in the disaster could rise sharply, with aid yet to reach some remote areas. Performers have yet to be confirmed for NBC's aid relief benefit later this month. It follows a two-hour telethon carried by all four major US television networks 10 days after the 11 September terror attacks in 2001. America: A Tribute to Heroes raised more than $150m (£79m) to help victims of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.",entertainment
"Gervais writing Simpsons episode..The Office's Ricky Gervais is writing an episode of hit US cartoon The Simpsons, following an invitation from its creator Matt Groening...Gervais has already begun writing the script but is keeping its subject matter a closely guarded secret. He will also write a part for himself in the episode. ""I've got the rough idea but this is the most intimidating project of my career. The Simpsons is the greatest TV show of all time,"" he said. Groening recently heaped praise on The Office, saying: ""Everybody on The Simpsons is a fan of The Office - it's one of the best shows on TV in the last decade."" Gervais has already said he would not guest star in the show as his Office character David, having left him behind for good in the Christmas specials. The Office became a surprise US success when it was screened on cable channel BBC America. The first series won two Golden Globes in 2004 for best comedy and best TV actor for Gervais...In winning it beat the likes of Sex and the City and Will and Grace. An American version was produced, but so far only a pilot has been broadcast - to much criticism that it failed to live up to the original. At the British Comedy Awards on Wednesday, Gervais was handed a special achievement award for writing. But The Office missed out in the best comedy show category to Little Britain. Matt Groening was also at the awards to collect the award for best international comedy for The Simpsons.",entertainment
"John Peel replacement show begins..The permanent replacement for late DJ John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show goes on air on Tuesday, with three hosts chosen to fill the legendary presenter's slot...Rock DJ Huw Stephens will go on air in the 2300 slot every Tuesday, with black music champion Ras Kwame on Wednesdays and dance DJ Rob Da Bank on Thursdays. Rob Da Bank filled in after Peel had a heart attack aged 65 in October. All three will play ""diverse, unpredictable and non-commercial"" songs under the banner of the OneMusic show...Radio 1 said the station was not trying to replace Peel, but would rise to the ""challenge"" of ""keeping his legacy alive"" with unpredictable music. The three DJs were chosen for their ""in-depth musical knowledge across a variety of musical genres"", the station said...Rob Da Bank is one of the hosts of The Blue Room, an early morning weekend show which plays electronic and dance music. Huw Stephens has been one half of the Thursday night show Bethan and Huw in Wales, which explores new music, especially up-and-coming acts in Wales. And Ras Kwame is host of 100% Homegrown on Radio 1's digital station 1Xtra, dedicated to showcasing the best hip-hop and garage. Another change to the station line-up will see Sara Cox return after maternity leave. She will host the lunchtime show on Saturdays from this week...Good luck to all three of them, not one DJ could fill Peels boots so it's probably a good idea to get them all contributing. This time next year I hope we are saying how well these DJs have done, but I fear this time next year we will really realise how much John Peel will be forever missed...Very good idea to continue the legacy without attempting to replace John Peel. Also, there will surely be a wider spectrum for international music as three top radio DJs unite under the One World name. Congratulations!..The whole glory of John Peel was the fact he was not commited to one genre. He played what he liked across the range of music.... this is not going to be the same, and all they seem to be doing is what they already have. Bring back Steve Lamacq...The obvious heir to John Peel is the marvellous, wonderful and talented Claire Kember from totallyradio.com. This lady is young and fresh and is one of the most knowledgeable and likeable people in British broadcasting today. Everyone who listens to her show understands and compares her to the ledgendary John Peel. BBC Radio should seek out the real talent from internet radio stations, people who are making a real impact on the world of music and the world in general.",entertainment
"Brookside actress Keaveney dies..Actress Anna Keaveney, who appeared in Brookside, My Family and A Touch of Frost, has died of lung cancer aged 55...Keaveney, who played Brookside's Marie Jackson when the Channel 4 soap began in 1982, died on Saturday. Born in Runcorn, Cheshire, she also starred in numerous films including 1989's Shirley Valentine. She played Nellie in Mike Leigh's latest film Vera Drake, which won the Golden Lion prize for best film at this year's Venice Film Festival...And most recently she appeared alongside Richard Wilson in ITV's King of Fridges and with Martin Clunes in Doc Martin. Other TV appearances included the part of Matron in ITV drama Footballers' Wives and a cameo role as Tom Farrell's mother Sheila in BBC comedy Gimme Gimme Gimme. Keaveney's career also included stage performances in Neaptide for the National Theatre, Private Lives and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. The actress died in hospital. Her agent Barry Brown said: ""Anna was due to have had another operation on Friday but unfortunately she was too weak.""",entertainment
"£1.8m indecency fine for Viacom..Media giant Viacom has paid out $3.5m (£1.8m) to end investigations into indecency in its US radio and TV shows...The settlement to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ends a long-running saga dating back to 2001. The FCC was looking into 50 shows, including those by ""shock jock"" Howard Stern and two New York DJs. Stern recently announced he was leaving Viacom while the two DJs were sacked after their show featured a couple purporting to have sex in a church. After the church incident two years ago Viacom agreed to install audio delay equipment at its radio stations that broadcast live programming...It also agreed to train its broadcasters and employees about indecency laws. The agreement cancels investigations into about 50 radio and television shows, said Richard Diamond, FCC deputy secretary of communications. The shows were broadcast by Viacom-owned stations across the United States. Viacom has five days to pay the $3.5m fine, according to the agreement. The payment is not related to the FCC's $550,000 (£293,000) fine levied against Viacom after the exposure of singer Janet Jackson's breast during the CBS Super Bowl halftime show in January. Viacom is contesting that fine. It is not the first time that Viacom has paid out over indecency charges. Infinity Broadcasting, which is owned by Viacom, paid cumulative fines totalling $1.7m (£907,000) in 1995 to settle FCC violations by Stern.",entertainment
"Celebrities get to stay in jungle..All four contestants still remain in I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here as no evictions were made on the television show on Saturday...Contestants Paul Burrell, Joe Pasquale, Janet Street-Porter and Fran Cosgrave were told by hosts Ant and Dec. Natalie Appleton's decision to quit the show last Monday had given them all a stay of execution, the group were told. Model Sophie Anderton was the last person to be voted off the ITV1 show, set in the Australian jungle. The four remaining stars will do a joint Bushtucker Trial on Sunday...Former All Saints singer Natalie Appleton,31, walked out of the show after learning she would face a fifth so-called Bushtucker Trial. The celebrities are chosen by the viewers to pass trials in order to win food for the rest of the camp. Appleton had endured a torrid time during the programme, including a well-publicised row with Sophie Anderton. And on 26 November singer Brian Harvey quit as a contestant after he had a blazing row with Janet Street-Porter.",entertainment
"Ad sales boost Time Warner profit..Quarterly profits at US media giant TimeWarner jumped 76% to $1.13bn (£600m) for the three months to December, from $639m year-earlier...The firm, which is now one of the biggest investors in Google, benefited from sales of high-speed internet connections and higher advert sales. TimeWarner said fourth quarter sales rose 2% to $11.1bn from $10.9bn. Its profits were buoyed by one-off gains which offset a profit dip at Warner Bros, and less users for AOL...Time Warner said on Friday that it now owns 8% of search-engine Google. But its own internet business, AOL, had has mixed fortunes. It lost 464,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter profits were lower than in the preceding three quarters. However, the company said AOL's underlying profit before exceptional items rose 8% on the back of stronger internet advertising revenues. It hopes to increase subscribers by offering the online service free to TimeWarner internet customers and will try to sign up AOL's existing customers for high-speed broadband. TimeWarner also has to restate 2000 and 2003 results following a probe by the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), which is close to concluding...Time Warner's fourth quarter profits were slightly better than analysts' expectations. But its film division saw profits slump 27% to $284m, helped by box-office flops Alexander and Catwoman, a sharp contrast to year-earlier, when the third and final film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy boosted results. For the full-year, TimeWarner posted a profit of $3.36bn, up 27% from its 2003 performance, while revenues grew 6.4% to $42.09bn. ""Our financial performance was strong, meeting or exceeding all of our full-year objectives and greatly enhancing our flexibility,"" chairman and chief executive Richard Parsons said. For 2005, TimeWarner is projecting operating earnings growth of around 5%, and also expects higher revenue and wider profit margins...TimeWarner is to restate its accounts as part of efforts to resolve an inquiry into AOL by US market regulators. It has already offered to pay $300m to settle charges, in a deal that is under review by the SEC. The company said it was unable to estimate the amount it needed to set aside for legal reserves, which it previously set at $500m. It intends to adjust the way it accounts for a deal with German music publisher Bertelsmann's purchase of a stake in AOL Europe, which it had reported as advertising revenue. It will now book the sale of its stake in AOL Europe as a loss on the value of that stake.",business
"Dollar gains on Greenspan speech..The dollar has hit its highest level against the euro in almost three months after the Federal Reserve head said the US trade deficit is set to stabilise...And Alan Greenspan highlighted the US government's willingness to curb spending and rising household savings as factors which may help to reduce it. In late trading in New York, the dollar reached $1.2871 against the euro, from $1.2974 on Thursday. Market concerns about the deficit has hit the greenback in recent months. On Friday, Federal Reserve chairman Mr Greenspan's speech in London ahead of the meeting of G7 finance ministers sent the dollar higher after it had earlier tumbled on the back of worse-than-expected US jobs data. ""I think the chairman's taking a much more sanguine view on the current account deficit than he's taken for some time,"" said Robert Sinche, head of currency strategy at Bank of America in New York. ""He's taking a longer-term view, laying out a set of conditions under which the current account deficit can improve this year and next.""..Worries about the deficit concerns about China do, however, remain. China's currency remains pegged to the dollar and the US currency's sharp falls in recent months have therefore made Chinese export prices highly competitive. But calls for a shift in Beijing's policy have fallen on deaf ears, despite recent comments in a major Chinese newspaper that the ""time is ripe"" for a loosening of the peg. The G7 meeting is thought unlikely to produce any meaningful movement in Chinese policy. In the meantime, the US Federal Reserve's decision on 2 February to boost interest rates by a quarter of a point - the sixth such move in as many months - has opened up a differential with European rates. The half-point window, some believe, could be enough to keep US assets looking more attractive, and could help prop up the dollar. The recent falls have partly been the result of big budget deficits, as well as the US's yawning current account gap, both of which need to be funded by the buying of US bonds and assets by foreign firms and governments. The White House will announce its budget on Monday, and many commentators believe the deficit will remain at close to half a trillion dollars.",business
"Yukos unit buyer faces loan claim..The owners of embattled Russian oil giant Yukos are to ask the buyer of its former production unit to pay back a $900m (£479m) loan...State-owned Rosneft bought the Yugansk unit for $9.3bn in a sale forced by Russia to part settle a $27.5bn tax claim against Yukos. Yukos' owner Menatep Group says it will ask Rosneft to repay a loan that Yugansk had secured on its assets. Rosneft already faces a similar $540m repayment demand from foreign banks. Legal experts said Rosneft's purchase of Yugansk would include such obligations. ""The pledged assets are with Rosneft, so it will have to pay real money to the creditors to avoid seizure of Yugansk assets,"" said Moscow-based US lawyer Jamie Firestone, who is not connected to the case. Menatep Group's managing director Tim Osborne told the Reuters news agency: ""If they default, we will fight them where the rule of law exists under the international arbitration clauses of the credit.""..Rosneft officials were unavailable for comment. But the company has said it intends to take action against Menatep to recover some of the tax claims and debts owed by Yugansk. Yukos had filed for bankruptcy protection in a US court in an attempt to prevent the forced sale of its main production arm. The sale went ahead in December and Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and has vowed to sue any participant in the sale.",business
"High fuel prices hit BA's profits..British Airways has blamed high fuel prices for a 40% drop in profits...Reporting its results for the three months to 31 December 2004, the airline made a pre-tax profit of £75m ($141m) compared with £125m a year earlier. Rod Eddington, BA's chief executive, said the results were ""respectable"" in a third quarter when fuel costs rose by £106m or 47.3%. BA's profits were still better than market expectation of £59m, and it expects a rise in full-year revenues...To help offset the increased price of aviation fuel, BA last year introduced a fuel surcharge for passengers...In October, it increased this from £6 to £10 one-way for all long-haul flights, while the short-haul surcharge was raised from £2.50 to £4 a leg. Yet aviation analyst Mike Powell of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein says BA's estimated annual surcharge revenues - £160m - will still be way short of its additional fuel costs - a predicted extra £250m. Turnover for the quarter was up 4.3% to £1.97bn, further benefiting from a rise in cargo revenue. Looking ahead to its full year results to March 2005, BA warned that yields - average revenues per passenger - were expected to decline as it continues to lower prices in the face of competition from low-cost carriers. However, it said sales would be better than previously forecast. ""For the year to March 2005, the total revenue outlook is slightly better than previous guidance with a 3% to 3.5% improvement anticipated,"" BA chairman Martin Broughton said. BA had previously forecast a 2% to 3% rise in full-year revenue...It also reported on Friday that passenger numbers rose 8.1% in January. Aviation analyst Nick Van den Brul of BNP Paribas described BA's latest quarterly results as ""pretty modest"". ""It is quite good on the revenue side and it shows the impact of fuel surcharges and a positive cargo development, however, operating margins down and cost impact of fuel are very strong,"" he said. Since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, BA has cut 13,000 jobs as part of a major cost-cutting drive. ""Our focus remains on reducing controllable costs and debt whilst continuing to invest in our products,"" Mr Eddington said. ""For example, we have taken delivery of six Airbus A321 aircraft and next month we will start further improvements to our Club World flat beds."" BA's shares closed up four pence at 274.5 pence.",business
"Pernod takeover talk lifts Domecq..Shares in UK drinks and food firm Allied Domecq have risen on speculation that it could be the target of a takeover by France's Pernod Ricard...Reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times suggested that the French spirits firm is considering a bid, but has yet to contact its target. Allied Domecq shares in London rose 4% by 1200 GMT, while Pernod shares in Paris slipped 1.2%. Pernod said it was seeking acquisitions but refused to comment on specifics...Pernod's last major purchase was a third of US giant Seagram in 2000, the move which propelled it into the global top three of drinks firms. The other two-thirds of Seagram was bought by market leader Diageo. In terms of market value, Pernod - at 7.5bn euros ($9.7bn) - is about 9% smaller than Allied Domecq, which has a capitalisation of £5.7bn ($10.7bn; 8.2bn euros). Last year Pernod tried to buy Glenmorangie, one of Scotland's premier whisky firms, but lost out to luxury goods firm LVMH. Pernod is home to brands including Chivas Regal Scotch whisky, Havana Club rum and Jacob's Creek wine. Allied Domecq's big names include Malibu rum, Courvoisier brandy, Stolichnaya vodka and Ballantine's whisky - as well as snack food chains such as Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins ice cream. The WSJ said that the two were ripe for consolidation, having each dealt with problematic parts of their portfolio. Pernod has reduced the debt it took on to fund the Seagram purchase to just 1.8bn euros, while Allied has improved the performance of its fast-food chains.",business
"Japan narrowly escapes recession..Japan's economy teetered on the brink of a technical recession in the three months to September, figures show...Revised figures indicated growth of just 0.1% - and a similar-sized contraction in the previous quarter. On an annual basis, the data suggests annual growth of just 0.2%, suggesting a much more hesitant recovery than had previously been thought. A common technical definition of a recession is two successive quarters of negative growth...The government was keen to play down the worrying implications of the data. ""I maintain the view that Japan's economy remains in a minor adjustment phase in an upward climb, and we will monitor developments carefully,"" said economy minister Heizo Takenaka. But in the face of the strengthening yen making exports less competitive and indications of weakening economic conditions ahead, observers were less sanguine. ""It's painting a picture of a recovery... much patchier than previously thought,"" said Paul Sheard, economist at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo. Improvements in the job market apparently have yet to feed through to domestic demand, with private consumption up just 0.2% in the third quarter.",business
"Jobs growth still slow in the US..The US created fewer jobs than expected in January, but a fall in jobseekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years...According to Labor Department figures, US firms added only 146,000 jobs in January. The gain in non-farm payrolls was below market expectations of 190,000 new jobs. Nevertheless it was enough to push down the unemployment rate to 5.2%, its lowest level since September 2001. The job gains mean that President Bush can celebrate - albeit by a very fine margin - a net growth in jobs in the US economy in his first term in office. He presided over a net fall in jobs up to last November's Presidential election - the first President to do so since Herbert Hoover. As a result, job creation became a key issue in last year's election. However, when adding December and January's figures, the administration's first term jobs record ended in positive territory...The Labor Department also said it had revised down the jobs gains in December 2004, from 157,000 to 133,000...Analysts said the growth in new jobs was not as strong as could be expected given the favourable economic conditions. ""It suggests that employment is continuing to expand at a moderate pace,"" said Rick Egelton, deputy chief economist at BMO Financial Group. ""We are not getting the boost to employment that we would have got given the low value of the dollar and the still relatively low interest rate environment."" ""The economy is producing a moderate but not a satisfying amount of job growth,"" said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. ""That means there are a limited number of new opportunities for workers.""",business
"India calls for fair trade rules..India, which attends the G7 meeting of seven leading industrialised nations on Friday, is unlikely to be cowed by its newcomer status...In London on Thursday ahead of the meeting, India's finance minister, lashed out at the restrictive trade policies of the G7 nations. He objected to subsidies on agriculture that make it hard for developing nations like India to compete. He also called for reform of the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF...Palaniappan Chidambaram, India's finance minister, argued that these organisations need to take into account the changing world order, given India and China's integration into the global economy. He said the issue is not globalisation but ""the terms of engagement in globalisation."" Mr Chidambaram is attending the G7 meeting as part of the G20 group of nations, which account for two thirds of the world's population. At a conference on developing enterprise hosted by UK finance minister Gordon Brown on Friday, he said that he was in favour of floating exchange rates because they help countries cope with economic shocks. ""A flexible exchange rate is one more channel for absorbing both positive and negative shocks,"" he told the conference. India, along with China, Brazil, South Africa and Russia, has been invited to take part in the G7 meeting taking place in London on Friday and Saturday. China is expected to face renewed pressure to abandon its fixed exchange rate, which G7 nations, in particular the US, have blamed for a surge in cheap Chinese exports. ""Some countries have tried to use fixed exchange rates. I do not wish to make any judgements,"" Mr Chidambaram said. Separately, the IMF warned on Thursday that India's budget deficit was too large and would hamper the country's economic growth, which it forecast to be around 6.5% in the year to March 2005. In the year to March 2004, the Indian economy grew by 8.5%.",business
"Ethiopia's crop production up 24%..Ethiopia produced 14.27 million tonnes of crops in 2004, 24% higher than in 2003 and 21% more than the average of the past five years, a report says...In 2003, crop production totalled 11.49 million tonnes, the joint report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme said. Good rains, increased use of fertilizers and improved seeds contributed to the rise in production. Nevertheless, 2.2 million Ethiopians will still need emergency assistance...The report calculated emergency food requirements for 2005 to be 387,500 tonnes. On top of that, 89,000 tonnes of fortified blended food and vegetable oil for ""targeted supplementary food distributions for a survival programme for children under five and pregnant and lactating women"" will be needed...In eastern and southern Ethiopia, a prolonged drought has killed crops and drained wells. Last year, a total of 965,000 tonnes of food assistance was needed to help seven million Ethiopians. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommend that the food assistance is bought locally. ""Local purchase of cereals for food assistance programmes is recommended as far as possible, so as to assist domestic markets and farmers,"" said Henri Josserand, chief of FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System. Agriculture is the main economic activity in Ethiopia, representing 45% of gross domestic product. About 80% of Ethiopians depend directly or indirectly on agriculture.",business
"Court rejects $280bn tobacco case..A US government claim accusing the country's biggest tobacco companies of covering up the effects of smoking has been thrown out by an appeal court...The demand for $280bn (£155bn) - filed by the Clinton administration in 1999 - was rejected in a 2-1 decision. The court in Washington found that the case could not be brought under federal anti-racketeering laws. Among the accused were Altria Group, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco, Liggett Group and Brown and Williamson. In its case, the government claimed tobacco firms manipulated nicotine levels to increase addiction, targeted teenagers with multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns, lied about the dangers of smoking and ignored research to the contrary...Prosecutors wanted the cigarette firms to surrender $280bn in profits accumulated over the past 50 years and impose tougher rules on marketing their products. But the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the US government could not sue the firms under legislation drawn up to counteract Mafia infiltration of business. The tobacco companies deny that they illegally conspired to promote smoking and defraud the public. They also say they have already met many of the government's demands in a landmark $206bn settlement reached with 46 states in 1998. Shares of tobacco companies closed higher after the ruling, with Altria rising 5% and Reynolds showing gains of 4.5%.",business
"Ask Jeeves tips online ad revival..Ask Jeeves has become the third leading online search firm this week to thank a revival in internet advertising for improving fortunes...The firm's revenue nearly tripled in the fourth quarter of 2004, exceeding $86m (£46m). Ask Jeeves, once among the best-known names on the web, is now a relatively modest player. Its $17m profit for the quarter was dwarfed by the $204m announced by rival Google earlier in the week. During the same quarter, Yahoo earned $187m, again tipping a resurgence in online advertising...The trend has taken hold relatively quickly. Late last year, marketing company Doubleclick, one of the leading providers of online advertising, warned that some or all of its business would have to be put up for sale. But on Thursday, it announced that a sharp turnaround had brought about an unexpected increase in profits. Neither Ask Jeeves nor Doubleclick thrilled investors with their profit news, however. In both cases, their shares fell by some 4%. Analysts attributed the falls to excessive expectations in some quarters, fuelled by the dramatic outperformance of Google on Tuesday.",business
"Indonesians face fuel price rise..Indonesia's government has confirmed it is considering raising fuel prices by as much as 30%...Millions of Indonesians use kerosene for basic cooking, and prices have been heavily subsidised for years. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government has said it wants to curb fuel subsidies and direct the money into aid programmes for the poor. But critics argue cutting subsidies will hurt the poorer families that his government says it wants to help. Millions of people were left homeless in Indonesia Aceh's region following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in late December...Indonesia pays subsidies to importers in order to stabilise domestic fuel prices, but higher oil prices have forced the government to spend more on holding prices down. It spent 59.2 trillion rupiah ($6.58bn; £3.5bn) on fuel subsidies in 2004, a sum far in excess of its original projection of 14.5 trillion rupiah. Since President Yudhoyono's government came to power in October, it has indicated its intention of raising domestic fuel prices by cutting subsidies. ""The (January to March) quarter of this year is the best time for us to increase fuel prices,"" said Sri Mulyani Indrawati, State Minister for National Development Planning. ""We are still considering if a 30% hike is suitable at the moment. The sooner the better for the state budget."" The BBC's correspondent in Jakarta, Rachel Harvey, told World Business Report that there was likely to be a strong public reaction to any price rise. ""The big question is whether they go for one big, short, sharp shock and raise prices between 20% and 30% or whether they try to stagger it,"" she said. Indonesia's previous government, led by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, also attempted to cut subsidies in 2003, but was forced to back down in the face of public protests.",business
"Peugeot deal boosts Mitsubishi..Struggling Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors has struck a deal to supply French car maker Peugeot with 30,000 sports utility vehicles (SUV)...The two firms signed a Memorandum of Understanding, and say they expect to seal a final agreement by Spring 2005. The alliance comes as a badly-needed boost for loss-making Mitsubishi, after several profit warnings and poor sales. The SUVs will be built in Japan using Peugeot's diesel engines and sold mainly in the European market. Falling sales have left Mitsubishi Motors with underused capacity, and the production deal with Peugeot gives it a chance to utilise some of it...In January, Mitsubishi Motors issued its third profits warning in nine months, and cut its sales forecasts for the year to March 2005. Its sales have slid 41% in the past year, catalysed by the revelation that the company had systematically been hiding records of faults and then secretly repairing vehicles. As a result, the Japanese car maker has sought a series of financial bailouts. Last month it said it was looking for a further 540bn yen ($5.2bn; £2.77bn) in fresh financial backing, half of it from other companies in the Mitsubishi group. US-German carmaker DaimlerChrylser, a 30% shareholder in Mitsubishi Motors, decided in April 2004 not to pump in any more money. The deal with Peugeot was celebrated by Mitsubishi's newly-appointed chief executive Takashi Nishioka, who took over after three top bosses stood down last month to shoulder responsibility for the firm's troubles. Mitsubishi Motors has forecast a net loss of 472bn yen in its current financial year to March 2005. Last month, it signed a production agreement with Japanese rival Nissan Motor to supply it with 36,000 small cars for sale in Japan. It has been making cars for Nissan since 2003.",business
"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.",business
"Air passengers win new EU rights..Air passengers who are unable to board their flights because of overbooking, cancellations or flight delays can now demand greater compensation...New EU rules set compensation at between 250 euros (£173) and 600 euros, depending on the length of the flight. The new rules will apply to all scheduled and charter flights, including budget airlines. Airlines have attacked the legislation saying they could be forced to push prices higher to cover the extra cost. The European Commission is facing two legal challenges - one from the European Low-fare Airlines Association (ELAA) and the other from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which has attacked the package as a ""bad piece of legislation"". Previously, passengers could claim between 150 euros and 300 euros if they had been stopped from boarding...However, only scheduled flight operators were obliged to offer compensation in cases of overbooking and they did not have to offer compensation for flight cancellations...The EU decided to increase passenger compensation in a bid to deter airlines from deliberately overbooking flights. Overbooking can often lead to 'bumping' - when a passenger is moved to a later flight. When this happens against a passenger's will, airlines will now have to offer compensation. In addition, if a flight is cancelled or delayed for more than two hours through the fault of the airline, all passengers must be paid compensation...However, airlines do not have to offer compensation if flights are cancelled or delayed due to ""extraordinary circumstances"". Airlines fear that ""extraordinary circumstances"" may not include bad weather, security alerts or strikes - events which are outside of their control. All EU-based airlines and operators of flights which take off from the EU will have to adhere to the new compensation regime which came into force on Thursday. Low-cost airlines have criticised the new compensation levels, arguing that the pay-out could be worth more than the ticket. ""It's a preposterous piece of legislation, we among all airlines are fighting this,"" Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley told Radio 4's Today programme...The European Regions Airline Association (ERAA) claims that neither airlines nor consumers were consulted over the changes. Andy Clarke, ERAA director of air transport, said that the EC advice misleads customers as it leads them to believe that airlines could be liable for payouts if flights are delayed because of bad weather...EC spokeswoman Marja Quillinan-Meiland conceded there were ""grey areas"" but said ""these are not as big as the airlines are making out"". In cases of dispute, national enforcement bodies would decide whether the passenger had a case, she said. New technology means it is easier for airlines to take off and land in bad weather, she added. The ERAA's Mr Clarke also warned that while airlines would comply with the new rules, the extra costs would be passed onto passengers. ""We reckon it's going to cost European air passengers - not the airlines, the airlines have no money, it has to be paid by passengers - 1.5bn euros, that's over £1bn a year loaded onto European passengers,"" Mr Clarke said. ""That's basically a transfer of money from passengers whose journeys are not disrupted to passengers whose journeys are disrupted.""..On Wednesday, Jacques Barrot, vice president of the European Commission and also Commissioner for Transport, said that the changes were necessary. ""The boom in air travel needs to be accompanied by proper protection of passengers' right."" ""This is a concrete example of how the Union benefits people's daily lives,"" he added. The EC has launched an information campaign in airports and travel agencies to inform airline passengers of their new rights.",business
"China keeps tight rein on credit..China's efforts to stop the economy from overheating by clamping down on credit will continue into 2005, state media report...The curbs were introduced earlier this year to ward off the risk that rapid expansion might lead to soaring prices. There were also fears that too much stress might be placed on the fragile banking system. Growth in China remains at a breakneck 9.1%, and corporate investment is growing at more than 25% a year. The breakneck pace of economic expansion has kept growth above 9% for more than a year. Rapid tooling-up of China's manufacturing sector means a massive demand for energy - one of the factors which has kept world oil prices sky-high for most of this year. In theory, the government has a 7% growth target, but continues to insist that the overshoot does not mean a ""hard landing"" in the shape of an overbalancing economy. A low exchange rate - China's yuan is pegged to a rate of 8.28 to the dollar, which seems to be in relentless decline - means Chinese exports are cheap on world markets. China has thus far resisted international pressure to break the link or at least to shift the level of its peg. To some extent, the credit controls do seem to be taking effect. Industrial output grew 15.7% in the year to October, down from 23% in February, and inflation slowed to 4.3% - although retail sales are still booming.",business
"Parmalat boasts doubled profits..Parmalat, the Italian food group at the centre of one of Europe's most painful corporate scandals, has reported a doubling in profit...Its pre-tax earnings in the fourth quarter were 77m euros (£53m; $100m), up from 38m in the same period of 2003. Less welcome was the news that the firm had been fined 11m euros for having violated takeover rules five years ago. The firm sought bankruptcy protection in December 2003 after disclosing a 4bn-euro hole in its accounts. Overall, the company's debt is close to 12bn euros, and is falling only slowly. Its brands, well-known in Italy and overseas, have continued to perform strongly, however, and have barely lost revenue since the scandal broke...But a crucial factor for the company's future is the legal unwinding of its intensely complex financial position. On Tuesday, the company's administrator, turnaround expert Enrico Bondi, sued Morgan Stanley, its former banker, to return 136m euros relating to a 2003 bond deal. That brought to 49 the number of banks that Mr Bondi has sued, a mass of legal action that could bring in as much as 3bn euros. The company has also sued former auditors and financial advisors for damages. And criminal cases against the company's former management are proceeding separately.",business
"India's rupee hits five-year high..India's rupee has hit a five-year high after Standard & Poor's (S&P) raised the country's foreign currency rating...The rupee climbed to 43.305 per US dollar on Thursday, up from a close of 43.41. The currency has gained almost 1% in the past three sessions. S&P, which rates borrowers' creditworthiness, lifted India's rating by one notch to 'BB+'. With Indian assets now seen as less of a gamble, more cash is expected to flow into its markets, buoying the rupee...""The upgrade is positive and basically people will use it as an excuse to come back to India,"" said Bhanu Baweja, a strategist at UBS. ""Money has moved out from India in the first two or three weeks of January into other markets like Korea and Thailand and this upgrade should lead to a reversal."" India's foreign currency rating is now one notch below investment grade, which starts at 'BBB-'. The increase has put it on the same level as Romania, Egypt and El Salvador, and one level below Russia.",business
"India widens access to telecoms..India has raised the limit for foreign direct investment in telecoms companies from 49% to 74%...Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that there is a need to fund the fast-growing mobile market. The government hopes to increase the number of mobile users from 95 million to between 200 and 250 million by 2007. ""We need at least $20bn (£10.6bn) in investment and part of this has to come as foreign direct investment,"" said Mr Maran. The decision to raise the limit for foreign investors faced considerable opposition from the communist parties, which give crucial support to the coalition headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Potential foreign investors will however need government approval before they increase their stake beyond 49%, Mr Maran said. Key positions, such as those of chief executive, chief technology officer and chief financial officer are to be held by Indians, he added...Analysts and investors have welcomed the government decision. ""It is a positive development for carriers and the investment community, looking to take a longer-term view of the huge growth in the Indian telecoms market,"" said Gartner's principal analyst Kobita Desai. ""The FDI relaxation coupled with rapid local market growth could really ignite interest in the Indian telecommunication industry,"" added Ernst and Young's Sanjay Mehta. Investment bank Morgan Stanley has forecast that India's mobile market is likely to grow by about 40% a year until 2007. The Indian mobile market is currently dominated by four companies, Bharti Televentures which has allied itself with Singapore Telecom, Essar which is linked with Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, the Sterling group and the Tata group.",business
"Call centre users 'lose patience'..Customers trying to get through to call centres are getting impatient and quicker to hang up, a survey suggests...Once past the welcome message, callers on average hang up after just 65 seconds of listening to canned music. The drop in patience comes as the number of calls to call centres is growing at a rate of 20% every year. ""Customers are getting used to the idea of an 'always available' society,"" says Cara Diemont of IT firm Dimension Data, which commissioned the survey. However, call centres also saw a sharp increase of customers simply abandoning calls, she says, from just over 5% in 2003 to a record 13.3% during last year. When automated phone message systems are taken out of the equation, where customers have to pick their way through multiple options and messages, the number of abandoned calls is even higher - a sixth of all callers give up rather than wait. One possible reason for the lack in patience, Ms Diemont says, is the fact that more customers are calling 'on the move' using their mobile phones...The surge in customers trying to get through to call centres is also a reflection of the centres' growing range of tasks. ""Once a call centre may have looked after mortgages, now its agents may also be responsible for credit cards, insurance and current accounts,"" Ms Diemont says. Problems are occurring because increased responsibility is not going hand-in-hand with more training, the survey found...In what Dimension Data calls an ""alarming development"", the average induction time for a call centre worker fell last year from 36 to just 21 days, leaving ""agents not equipped to deal with customers"". This, Ms Diemont warns, is ""scary"" and not good for the bottom line either. Poor training frustrates both call centre workers and customers. As a result, call centres have a high ""churn rate"", with nearly a quarter of workers throwing in the towel every year, which in turn forces companies to pay for training new staff. Resolution rates - the number of calls where a customer's query is resolved to mutual satisfaction - are running at just 50%. When the query is passed on to a second or third person - a specialist or manager - rates rise to about 70%, but that is still well below the industry target of an 85% resolution rate...Suggestions that ""outsourcing"" - relocating call centres to low-cost countries like India or South Africa - is to blame are wrong, Ms Diemont says...There are ""no big differences in wait time and call resolution"" between call centres based in Europe or North America and those in developing countries around the world. ""You can make call centres perform anywhere if you have good management and the right processes in place,"" she says. However, companies that decide to ""offshore"" their operations are driven not just by cost considerations. Only 42% of them say that saving money is the main consideration when closing domestic call centre operations. Half of them argue that workers in other countries offer better skills for the money. But not everybody believes that outsourcing and offshoring are the solution. Nearly two-thirds of all firms polled for the survey have no plans to offshore their call centres. They give three key reasons for not making the move:..- call centre operations are part of their business ""core function"",. - they are worried about the risk of going abroad,. - they fear that they will damage their brand if they join the offshoring drive. The survey was conducted by Sunovate on behalf of Dimension Data, and is based on in-depth questionnaires of 166 call centres in 24 countries and five continents. What are your experiences with call centres? Are you happy to listen to Vivaldi or Greensleeves, or do you want an immediate response? And if you work in a call centre: did your training prepare you for your job?",business
"Rank 'set to sell off film unit'..Leisure group Rank could unveil plans to demerge its film services unit and sell its media business, reports claim...Rank, formerly famous for the Carry On series, will expose the shake-up at the announcement of its results on Friday, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Advisors Goldman Sachs are understood to have valued its demerged Deluxe Film unit at £300m, the report added. Speculation of a possible shake-up has mounted since Rank announced a study into a possible demerger in September. Since Mike Smith's appointment as chief executive in 1999, the group has focused on fewer businesses and embarked on a major cost-cutting programme which has seen it dispose of a number of businesses, including the Odeon cinema chain and the Pinewood studios. The move left the group with three core divisions: gaming, Hard Rock and Deluxe Films, which provides technical services to Hollywood studios...Rank now aims to concentrate on its gaming, bars and hotels business, including extending its Hard Rock brand to its casinos - trials of which have been a success. It also owns Deluxe Media, which makes and distributes DVDs and videos. However, that business is seen as less successful. Last year it made profits of £21.5m on a turnover of £392.1m and experts suggest its success in moving to DVDs from VHS video could make it an attractive target for a private equity buyer. A spokesman for the firm refused to comment on the reports, but said any results from the demerger study were likely to be set out when it unveiled its results on Friday. Analysts predict the firm is likely to report a slight drop in annual pre-tax profits to £170m from £194m last year. Formed in the 1940s the firm was a leading UK film producer and cinema owner for many years. It has now diversified into a range of other leisure activities - mainly in the UK - including hotels, roadside service areas and holiday centres. It now owns 34 Grosvenor casinos, the Mecca Bingo chain and more than 100 Hard Rock Cafes in 38 countries.",business
"Sluggish economy hits German jobs..The number of people out of work in Europe's largest economy has risen for the tenth straight month as growth remains stubbornly slow...German unemployment rose 7,000 in November to 4.464 million people, or 10.8% of the workforce. The seasonally adjusted rise showed a smaller rise than expected, as government measures to encourage job creation began to take effect. But officials said stagnant growth was still stifling the job market. ""There are clear signs of a revival in domestic demand,"" said Frank-Juergen Weise, head of the Federal Labour Agency, in a statement. ""But growth of 0.1%... in the third quarter is still insufficient to deliver positive momentum to the labour market."" High oil prices and the soaring euro - which damages the competitiveness of exporters - were also having a negative effect, he said. The brunt of the unemployment is still being felt in the eastern part of Germany, where the rate is 18.8%...With unemployment stuck above 4 million for years, the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has put job creation at the top of the agenda. A controversial package of measures to shake up incentives to get back to work, paid for by cutting some cherished benefits, has sparked anger among some German workers. Strikes in a number of industries, notably among the country's iconic carmakers, have demonstrated the displeasure - as well as fears about further job losses as outsourcing takes hold. Among the new initiatives are the so-called ""one-euro jobs"" which top up unemployment benefit. The scheme's formal launch is January, but hirings for these positions are already taking place and affecting the unemployment statistics, economists said. ""The deterioration of the labour market does not come as a surprise,"" said Isabelle Kronawitter at Hypovereinsbank. ""Job creation measures probably prevented a stronger increase in the seasonally adjusted numbers.""",business
"Mixed signals from French economy..The French economy picked up speed at the end of 2004, official figures show - but still looks set to have fallen short of the government's hopes...According to state statistics body INSEE, growth for the three months to December was a seasonally-adjusted 0.7-0.8%, ahead of the 0.6% forecast. If confirmed, that would be the best quarterly showing since early 2002. It leaves GDP up 2.3% for the full year, but short of the 2.5% which the French government had predicted...Despite the apparent shortfall in annual economic growth, the good quarterly figures - a so-called ""flash estimate"" - mark a continuing trend of improving indicators for the health of the French economy. The government is reiterating a 2.5% target for 2005, while the European Central Bank is making positive noises for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole. Also on Friday, France's industrial output for December was released, showing 0.7% growth. ""The numbers are good,"" said David Naude, economist at Deutsche Bank. ""They send a positive signal of a rebound in output... and open the way for a continuation in that trend into the New Year."" Service sector activity improved in January, hitting a seven-month high. But unemployment remains high at about 10%.",business
"US trade gap hits record in 2004..The gap between US exports and imports hit an all-time high of $671.7bn (£484bn) in 2004, latest figures show...The Commerce Department said the trade deficit for all of last year was 24.4% above the previous record - 2003's imbalance of $496.5bn. The deficit with China, up 30.5% at $162bn, was the largest ever recorded with a single country. However, on a monthly basis the US trade gap narrowed by 4.9% in December to £56.4bn. The US consumer's appetite for all things from oil to imported cars, and even wine and cheese, reached record levels last year and the figures are likely to spark fresh criticism of President Bush's economic policies...Democrats claim the administration has not done enough to clamp down on unfair foreign trade practices. For example, they believe China's currency policy - which US manufacturers claim has undervalued the yuan by as much as 40% - has given China's rapidly expanding economy an unfair advantage against US competitors...Meanwhile, the Bush administration argues that the US deficit reflects the fact the America is growing at faster rate than the rest of the world, spurring on more demand for imported goods. Some economists say this may allow an upward revision of US economic growth in the fourth quarter. But others point out that the deficit has reached such astronomical proportions that foreigners many choose not to hold as many dollar-denominated assets, which may in turn harm growth. For all of 2004, US exports rose 12.3% to $1.15 trillion, but imports rose even faster by 16.3% to a new record of $1.76 trillion. Foreign oil exports surged by 35.7% to a record $180.7bn, reflecting the rally in global oil prices and increasing domestic demand. Imports were not affected by the dollar's weakness last year. ""We expect the deficit to continue to widen in 2005 even if the dollar gets back to its downward trend,"" said economist Marie-Pierre Ripert at IXIS.",business
"Yukos loses US bankruptcy battle..A judge has dismissed an attempt by Russian oil giant Yukos to gain bankruptcy protection in the US...Yukos filed for Chapter 11 protection in Houston in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the auction of its Yugansk division by the Russian authorities. The court ruling is a blow to efforts to get damages for the sale of Yugansk, which Yukos claims was illegally sold. Separately, former Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky began testimony on Friday in his trial for fraud and tax evasion...Mr Khodorkovsky - who has been in jail for more than a year - pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him and denied involvement in any criminal activities. ""I pride myself on heading for 15 years a number of successful companies and helping other enterprises rise from their knees,"" he told a Russian court...Yugansk was auctioned to help pay off $27.5bn (£14.5bn) in unpaid taxes. It was bought for $9.4bn by a previously-unknown group, which was in turn bought up almost immediately by state-controlled oil company Rosneft...Texas Judge Letitia Clark said Yukos did not have enough of a US presence to establish US jurisdiction. ""The vast majority of the business and financial activities of Yukos continue to occur in Russia,"" Judge Clark said in her ruling. ""Such activities require the continued participation of the Russian government."" Yukos had argued that a US court was entitled to declare it bankrupt before its Yugansk unit was sold, since it has local bank accounts and its chief finance officer Bruce Misamore lives in Houston. Yukos claimed it sought help in the US because other forums - Russian courts and the European Court of Human Rights - were either unfriendly or offered less protection. Russia had indicated it would in any case not abide by the rulings of the US courts...In her ruling, the judge acknowledged that ""it appears likely that agencies of the Russian government have acted in a manner that would be considered confiscatory under United States law"". But she said her role was simply to decide on jurisdiction. The US court's jurisdiction had been challenged by Deutsche Bank and Gazpromneft, a former unit of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom which is due to merge with Rosneft. Analysts said the ability of Gazprom and Rosneft to trade freely overseas had been stifled while the ownership of Yugansk remained unclear...Yukos said it would consider its options in light of the ruling. However, it claimed that the court had backed its argument in four out of five key issues. ""We believe the merits of our case are strong and simple,"" said chief executive Steven Theede. ""Our assets were illegally seized. We want them back or damages paid.""",business
"Safety alert as GM recalls cars..The world's biggest carmaker General Motors (GM) is recalling nearly 200,000 vehicles in the US on safety grounds, according to federal regulators...The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the largest recall involves 155,465 pickups, vans and sports utility vehicles (SUVs). This is because of possible malfunctions with the braking systems. The affected vehicles in the product recall are from the 2004 and 2005 model years, GM said. Those vehicles with potential faults are the Chevrolet Avalanche, Express, Kodiak, Silverade and Suburban; the GMC Savana, Sierra and Yukon...The NHTSA said a pressure accumulator in the braking system could crack during normal driving and fragments could injure people if the hood was open. This could allow hydraulic fluid to leak, which could make it harder to brake or steer and could cause a crash, it warned. GM is also recalling 19,924 Cadillac XLR coupes, SRX SUVs and Pontiac Grand Prix sedans from the 2004 model year. This is because the accelerator pedal may not work properly in extremely cold temperatures, requiring more braking. In addition, the car giant is calling back 17,815 Buick Raniers, Chevrolet Trailblazers, GMC Envoys and Isuzu Ascenders from the 2005 model years because the windshield is not properly fitted and could fall out in a crash. However, GM stressed that it did not know of any injuries related to the problems. News of the recall follows an announcement last month that GM expects earnings this year be lower than in 2004. The world's biggest car maker is grappling with losses in its European business, weak US sales and now a product recall. In January, GM said higher healthcare costs in North America, and lower profits at its financial services subsidiary would hurt its performance in 2005.",business
"Steel firm 'to cut' 45,000 jobs..Mittal Steel, one of the world's largest steel producers, could cut up to 45,000 jobs over the next five years, its chief executive has said...The Netherlands-based company is due to complete its $4.5bn acquisition of US firm ISG next month, making it one of the largest global firms of its kind. However, Lakshmi Mittal has told investors the combined company will have to shed thousands of jobs. The Indian-born magnate did not say where the job losses would fall...Mr Mittal told US investors that once the acquisition of International Steel Group was completed, the company would aim to reduce its workforce by between 7,000 and 8,000 annually. This could see its workforce trimmed from 155,000 to 110,000 staff by 2010. ""We are investing in modernisation so employees will go down,"" Mr Mittal told the conference in Chicago...Mittal Steel was formed last year when Mr Mittal's LNM Holdings merged with Dutch firm Ispat. A combination of Mittal Steel and ISG would have annual sales of $32bn (£16.7bn; 24.1bn euros) and a production capacity of 70 million tonnes...A Mittal Steel spokeman said that no decisions on job cuts have been made yet. ""We are trying to create a sustainable steel industry and if we want to do that, we have to invest in new technology,"" a spokesman said. Mittal Steel has operations in 14 countries. Many of its businesses - particularly those in eastern Europe - were previously state owned and have huge workforces. It employs 50,000 staff in Kazakhstan alone, and has large operations in Romania, the Czech Republic, South Africa and the United States.",business
"Strong demand triggers oil rally..Crude oil prices surged back above the $47 a barrel mark on Thursday after an energy market watchdog raised its forecasts for global demand...The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned demand for Opec's crude in the first quarter would outstrip supply. The IEA raised its estimate of 2005 oil demand growth by 80,000 barrels a day to 84 million barrels a day. US light crude rose $1.64 to $47.10, while Brent crude in London gained $1.32 to $44.45...The Paris-based IEA watchdog, which advises industrialized nations on energy policy, said the upward revision was due to stronger demand from China and other Asian countries. The fresh rally in crude prices followed gains on Wednesday which were triggered by large falls in US crude supplies following a cold spell in North America in January. The US Department of Energy reported that crude stockpiles had fallen 1m barrels to 294.3m. On top of that, ongoing problems for beleaguered Russian oil giant Yukos have also prompted the IEA to revise its output estimates from Russia - a major non-Opec supplier. ""I think that prices are now beginning to set a new range and it looks like the $40 to $50 level,"" said energy analyst Orin Middleton of Barclays Capital.",business
"UK firm faces Venezuelan land row..Venezuelan authorities have said they will seize land owned by a British company as part of President Chavez's agrarian reform programme...Officials in Cojedes state said on Friday that farmland owned by a subsidiary of the Vestey Group would be taken and used to settle poor farmers. The government is cracking down on so-called latifundios, or large rural estates, which it says are lying idle. The Vestey Group said it had not been informed of any planned seizure...The firm, whose Agroflora subsidiary operates 13 farms in Venezuela, insisted that it had complied fully with Venezuelan law. Prosecutors in the south of the country have targeted Hato El Charcote, a beef cattle ranch owned by Agroflora. According to Reuters, they plan to seize 12,900 acres (5,200 hectares) from the 32,000 acre (13,000 hectare) farm...Officials claim that Agroflora does not possess valid documents proving its ownership of the land in question. They also allege that areas of the ranch are not being used for any form of active production. ""The legal boundaries did not match up with the actual boundaries and there is surplus,"" state prosecutor Alexis Ortiz told Reuters. ""As a consequence the government has taken action.""..Controversial reforms passed in 2001 give the government the right to take control of private property if it is declared idle or ownership cannot be traced back to the 19th Century...Critics say the powers - which President Chavez argues are needed to help the country's poorest citizens and develop the Venezuelan economy - trample all over private property rights. The Vestey Group said it had owned the land since 1920 and would co-operate fully with the authorities. But a spokesman added: ""Agroflora is absolutely confident that what it has submitted will demonstrate the legality of its title to the land."" The company pointed out that the farm, which employs 300 workers, provides meat solely for the Venezuelan market...Last month, the government said it had identified more than 500 idle farms and had yet to consider the status of a further 40,000. The authorities said landowners whose titles were in order and whose farms were productive had ""nothing to fear"". Under President Chavez, the Venezuelan government has steadily expanded the state's involvement in the country's economy. It recently said all mining contracts involving foreign firms would be examined to ensure they provided sufficient economic benefits to the state.",business
"Soaring oil 'hits world economy'..The soaring cost of oil has hit global economic growth, although world's major economies should weather the storm of price rises, according to the OECD...In its latest bi-annual report, the OECD cut its growth predictions for the world's main industrialised regions. US growth would reach 4.4% in 2004, but fall to 3.3% next year from a previous estimate of 3.7%, the OECD said. However, the Paris-based economics think tank said it believed the global economy could still regain momentum...Forecasts for Japanese growth were also scaled back to 4.0% from 4.4% this year and 2.1% from 2.8% in 2005. But the outlook was worst for the 12-member eurozone bloc, with already sluggish growth forecasts slipping to 1.8% from 2.0% this year and 1.9% from 2.4% in 2005, the OECD said. Overall, the report forecast total growth of 3.6% in 2004 for the 30 member countries of the OECD, slipping to 2.9% next year before recovering to 3.1% in 2006. ""There are nonetheless good reasons to believe that despite recent oil price turbulence the world economy will regain momentum in a not-too-distant future,"" said Jean-Philippe Cotis, the OECD's chief economist. The price of crude is about 50% higher than it was at the start of 2004, but down on the record high of $55.67 set in late October...A dip in oil prices and improving jobs prospects would improve consumer confidence and spending, the OECD said. ""The oil shock is not enormous by historical standards - we have seen worse in the seventies. If the oil price does not rise any further, then we think the shock can be absorbed within the next few quarters,"" Vincent Koen, a senior economist with the OECD, told the BBC's World Business Report. ""The recovery that was underway, and has been interrupted a bit by the oil shock this year, would then regain momentum in the course of 2005."" China's booming economy and a ""spectacular comeback"" in Japan - albeit one that has faltered in recent months - would help world economic recovery, the OECD said. ""Supported by strong balance sheets and high profits, the recovery of business investment should continue in North America and start in earnest in Europe,"" it added. However, the report warned: ""It remains to be seen whether continental Europe will play a strong supportive role through a marked upswing of final domestic demand."" The OECD highlighted current depressed household expenditure in Germany and the eurozone's over-reliance on export-led growth.",business
"Irish markets reach all-time high..Irish shares have risen to a record high, with investors persuaded to buy into the market by low inflation and strong growth forecasts...The ISEQ index of leading shares closed up 23 points to 6661.89 on Thursday, fuelled by strong growth in banking and financial stocks. A fall in the rate of inflation to 2.3% in January gave a fresh boost to shares which have advanced 4% this month. The economy is set for strong growth in 2005 while interest rates remain low...Several of Ireland's biggest companies saw their market value hit recent highs on Thursday. Allied Irish Banks, Ireland's biggest company by capitalisation, touched a five year peak while Bank of Ireland shares rose to their highest level since August 2002...Telecoms firm Eircom, which recently revealed that it would re-enter the Irish mobile phone market, hit a yearly high. Analysts said that economic conditions were benign and Irish shares were still trading at a discount to other European markets. ""Ireland ticks all the boxes as far as international investors are concerned,"" Roy Asher, chief investment officer of Hibernian Investment Managers, told Reuters. ""Buoyant economic conditions are set to continue in Ireland over the next few years and Irish equities continue to offer quality growth at a reasonable valuation.""..Bernard McAlinden, head of equity research at NCB Stockbrokers, said equities represented good value compared to other investments. ""It is still looking good,"" he told Reuters. ""We have seen good economic data on Ireland which benefits the financial stocks."" Ireland's economic 'miracle' is enjoying a second wind, with 5% growth forecast for 2005 and 2006. The economy cooled markedly between 2001 and 2003 after enjoying spectacular growth of more than 10% in 2000. However, it has bounced back strongly with growth of just under 5% expected in 2004.",business
"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.",business
"Rich grab half Colombia poor fund..Half of the money put aside by the Colombian government to help the country's poor is benefiting people who do not need it, a study has found...A total of 24.2 trillion pesos ($10.2bn; £5.5bn) is earmarked for subsidies for the poor, the government department for planning said. But it also found 12.1 trillion pesos was going to the richest part of the population, rather than to those in need. Sound distribution of the cash could cut poverty levels to 36% from 53%, the government believes. ""Resources are more than enough to reduce poverty and there is no need for more tax reforms but a better distribution,"" deputy planning director Jose Leibovich said...Colombia has a population of about 44 million and half lives below poverty line. However, some large properties are paying less in tax as they are situated inside poor areas, which benefit from cheaper utilities such as electricity and water, government research found. Government expenditure in areas such as pensions, public services, education, property and health should be revised, Mr Leibovich said. He added that the government is now examining the report, but warned there would be no easy solution to the problem. With a good distribution of such subsidies and economic growth of just 2%, by 2019 poverty could fall as low as 15.3%, he said.",business
"Rover deal 'may cost 2,000 jobs'..Some 2,000 jobs at MG Rover's Midlands plant may be cut if investment in the firm by a Chinese car maker goes ahead, the Financial Times has reported...Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp plans to shift production of the Rover 25 to China and export it to the UK, sources close to the negotiations tell the FT. But Rover told BBC News that reports of job cuts were ""speculation"". A tie-up, seen as Rover's last chance to save its Longbridge plant, has been pushed by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown. Rover confirmed the tie-up would take place ""not very far away from this time""...Rover bosses have said they are ""confident"" the £1bn ($1.9bn) investment deal would be signed in March or early April...Transport & General Worker's Union general secretary Tony Woodley repeated his view on Friday that all mergers led to some job cuts. He said investment in new models was needed to ensure the future of the Birmingham plant. ""This is a very crucial and delicate time and our efforts are targeted to securing new models for the company which will mean jobs for our people,"" he said. SAIC says none of its money will be paid to the four owners of Rover, who have been accused by unions of awarding themselves exorbitant salaries, the FT reports. ""SAIC is extremely concerned to ensure that its money is used to invest in the business rather than be distributed to the shareholders,"" the newspaper quotes a source close to the Chinese firm. Meanwhile, according to Chinese state press reports, small state-owned carmaker Nanjing Auto is in negotiations with Rover and SAIC to take a 20% stake in the joint venture. SAIC was unavailable for comment on the job cuts when contacted by BBC News. Rover and SAIC signed a technology-sharing agreement in August.",business
"Ad firm WPP's profits surge 15%..UK advertising giant WPP has posted larger-than-expected annual profits and predicted that it will outperform the market in 2005...Pre-tax profits rose 15% from a year ago to reach £546m ($1.04bn), ahead of average analysts' forecasts of £532m. Revenues were £4.3bn while the firm's operating margins were 14.1%, which it said could reach 14.8% by 2006. During the year WPP bought US rival Grey Global, creating a giant big enough to rival sector leader Omnicom...Chief Executive Martin Sorrell on Friday told Reuters news agency that WPP had submitted a proposal for United Business Media's NOP World market research unit. Analysts say the unit sell could sell for up to £350m. WPP in recent years has also bought firms such as Ogilvy & Mather and Cordiant Communications. It also includes the firms Young & Rubicam and J Walter Thompson. Events such as the Olympics helped boost WPP's profits in 2004. The company said the US Congressional elections and the FIFA World Cup are likely to present advertising opportunities in the near future. The long-term outlook looks ""very favourable"" because of media and technology developments and the strength of the US economy, WPP said.",business
"US gives foreign firms extra time..Foreign firms have been given an extra year to meet tough new corporate governance regulations imposed by the US stock market watchdog...The Securities and Exchange Commission has extended the deadline to get in line with the rules until 15 July 2006. Many foreign firms had protested that the SEC was imposing an unfair burden. The new rules are the result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, part of the US clean-up after corporate scandals such as Enron and Worldcom. Section 404 of the Sox Act, as the legislation is nicknamed, calls for all firms to certify that their financial reporting is in line with US rules. Big US firms already have to meet the requirements, but smaller ones and foreign-based firms which list their shares on US stock markets originally had until the middle of this year...Over the past few months, delegations of European and other business leaders have been heading to the SEC's Washington DC headquarters to protest. They say the burden is too expensive and the timescale too short and some, particularly the UK's CBI, warned that companies would choose to let their US listings drop rather than get in line with section 404. The latest delegation from the CBI met SEC officials on Wednesday, just before the decision to relax the deadline was announced. ""I think this signifies a change of heart at the SEC,"" CBI director-general Sir Digby Jones told the BBC's Today programme. ""They have been listening to us and to many overseas companies, who have reminded America what globalisation really means: that they can't make these rules in isolation."" The SEC said it had taken into consideration the fact that foreign companies were already working to meet more onerous financial reporting rules in their home countries. The European Union, in particular, was imposing new international financial reporting standards in 2005, it noted. ""I don't underestimate the effort (compliance) will require... but this extension will provide additional time for those issuers to take a good hard look at their internal controls,"" said Donald Nicolaisen, the SEC's chief accountant.",business
"Japanese mogul arrested for fraud..One of Japan's best-known businessmen was arrested on Thursday on charges of falsifying shareholder information and selling shares based on the false data...Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was once ranked as the world's richest man and ran a business spanning hotels, railways, construction and a baseball team. His is the latest in a series of arrests of top executives in Japan over business scandals. He was taken away in a van outside one of his Prince hotels in Tokyo...There was a time when Mr Tsutsumi seemed untouchable. Inheriting a large property business from his father in the 1960s, he became one of Japan's most powerful industrialists, with close connections to many of the country's leading politicians. He used his wealth and influence to bring the Winter Olympic Games to Nagano in 1998. But last year, he was forced to resign from all the posts he held in his business empire, after being accused of falsifying the share-ownership structure of Seibu Railways, one of his companies. Under Japanese stock market rules, no listed company can be more than 80% owned by its 10 largest shareholders. Now Mr Tsutsumi faces criminal charges and the possibility of a prison sentence because he made it look as if the 10 biggest shareholders owned less than this amount. Seibu Railways has been delisted from the stock exchange, its share value has plunged and it is the target of a takeover bid...Mr Tsutsumi's fall from grace follows the arrests of several other top executives in Japan as the authorities try to curb the murky business practices which were once widespread in Japanese companies. His determination to stay at the top at all costs may have had its roots in his childhood. The illegitimate third son of a rich father, who made his money buying up property as Japan rebuilt after World War II, he has described the demands his father made. ""I felt enormous pressure when I dined with him and it was nothing but pain,"" Tsutsumi told a weekly magazine in 1987. ""He scolded me for pouring too much soy sauce or told me fruit was not for children. He didn't let me use the silk futon, saying it's a luxury."" There have been corporate governance issues at some other Japanese companies too. Last year, twelve managers from Mitsubishi Motors were charged with covering up safety defects in their vehicles and three executives from Japan's troubled UFJ bank were charged with concealing the extent of the bank's bad loans.",business
"Deutsche Telekom sees mobile gain..German telecoms firm Deutsche Telekom saw strong fourth quarter profits on the back of upbeat US mobile earnings and better-than-expected asset sales...Net profit came in at 1.4bn euros (£960m; $1.85bn), a dramatic change from the loss of 364m euros in 2003. Sales rose 2.8% to 14.96bn euros. Sales of stakes in firms including Russia's OAO Mobile Telesystems raised 1.17bn euros. This was more than expected and helped to bring debt down to 35.8bn euros...A year ago, debt was more than 11bn euros higher. T-Mobile USA, the company's American mobile business, made a strong contribution to profits. ""It's a seminal achievement that they cut debt so low. That gives them some head room to invest in growth now,"" said Hannes Wittig, telecoms analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. The company also said it would resume paying a dividend, after two years in which it focused on cutting debt.",business
"Chinese wine tempts Italy's Illva..Italy's Illva Saronno has agreed to buy 33% of Changyu, the largest wine maker in China...Changyu said in a statement to the Shenzhen stock exchange that Illva will pay 481.42m yuan ($58.16m; £30.7m), once the government approves the deal. The Italian liqueur maker will acquire the shares from the Yantai State Asset Management Bureau. Chinese wine sales are growing, the US Agriculture Department said, with wine sales in 2003 up 25% at 61.1bn yuan...China is encouraging state-owned companies to sell shares to foreign investors. Anheuser-Busch, Heineken and Scottish & Newcastle have all invested in the Chinese beer industry in the last two years and now Illva Saronno is betting on the Chinese wine market. Yantai State Asset Management Bureau - a government agency in the north-eastern city of Yantai - owns 55% of Changyu. The state agency will also sell 10% of its stake in Changyu to another overseas company, although it didn't say who. The remaining 12% will be retained by the Yantai city government. The consumption of wine in China is still low, at just 0.22 litres per capita, said the US Agriculture Department. This compares with 59 litres in France, 12 litres in the US and three litres in Japan.",business
"Umbro profits lifted by Euro 2004..UK sportswear firm Umbro has posted a 222% rise in annual profit after sales of replica England football kits were boosted by the Euro 2004 tournament...Pre-tax profit for 2004 was £15.4m ($29.4m). Umbro, which recently lost sponsorship deals with Chelsea and Celtic, said on Thursday it had signed a new four-year agreement with Scottish club Rangers. It hopes 2005 sales will benefit from the launch of a new England replica shirt ahead of the 2006 World Cup. In January, Umbro announced its sponsorship agreement with Chelsea, which gave Umbro the lucrative right to make replica shirts, would end in 2006, five years earlier than expected. The firm, which is to receive a payment from Chelsea of £24.5m, said it is ""appraising a number of additional investment opportunities as a result of this compensation"" . Chief executive Peter McGuigan said the firm plans to grow sales both in the UK and internationally...The firm, reporting its first annual results since listing on the London Stock Exchange in June, said the UK market had seen sales growth of 8% last year. It said the launch of its Evolution X fashion range had boosted sales. Umbro supplies more than 150 teams across the world including the national sides of Ireland, Sweden and Norway. Shares in Umbro were up 1.76% at 115.5 pence in morning trade.",business
"Fed chief warning on US deficit..Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has warned that allowing huge US budget deficits to continue could have ""severe"" consequences...Speaking to the House Budget Committee he urged Congress to take action to cut the deficit, such as increasing taxes. While the US economy is growing at a ""reasonably good pace"" he warned that budget concerns were clouding the economic outlook for the US. Pension and healthcare costs posed the greatest risks to the economy, he said...The government program faces severe financial strains in coming decades as the massive baby-boom generation retires. ""I fear that we may have already committed more physical resources to the baby-boom generation in its retirement years than our economy has the capacity to deliver. If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later,"" Mr Greenspan said. He also warned that unless the nation sees unprecedented rises in productivity ""retirement and health programmes would need ""significant"" changes. He called on Congress to cut promised benefits for retirees, as the promised benefits for the soon-to-retire baby boom generation were much larger than the government could afford...Meanwhile any move to narrow the deficit gap by raising taxes could pose a significant risk to the economy by dampening growth and spending, he added. He also urged Congress to reinstate lapsed rules that require tax cuts and spending to be offset elsewhere in the budget in an effort to prevent the US heading further into the red. Despite the dire warnings, Mr Greenspan did offer some good news for the short term. As US growth gathers steam and incomes rise that should lead to a narrowing of the deficit. Recent increases in defence and homeland security spending were also not expected to continue indefinitely, which should cut some costs. Since President George W Bush came to office the federal budget has swung from a record surplus to a record deficit of $412bn last year.",business
"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.",business
"Saudi ministry to employ women..Women will be employed in Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry for the first time this year, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has been reported as saying...The move comes as the conservative country inches open the door to working women. Last year, Crown Prince Abdullah, the de-facto ruler, told government departments to put plans in place for employing women. But progress has been slow, reports from the country say...Earlier this week, the local Arab News said Labour Minister Ghazi al-Gosaibi had ""caused uproar"" when he said his ministry was having difficulty hiring women because they demanded segregated offices. The newspaper said many Saudi women found his explanation ""a pitiful excuse for not employing women"". Women now make up more than half of all graduates from Saudi universities but only 5% of the workforce. ""Our educational reforms have created a new generation of highly-educated and professionally trained Saudi women who are acquiring their rightful position in Saudi society,"" Arab News quoted Prince Saud as saying. ""I am proud to mention here that this year we shall have women working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the first time.""",business
"Japan economy slides to recession..The Japanese economy has officially gone back into recession for the fourth time in a decade...Gross domestic product fell by 0.1% in the last three months of 2004. The fall reflects weak exports and a slowdown in consumer spending, and follows similar falls in GDP in the two previous quarters. The Tokyo stock market fell after the figures were announced, but rose again on a widespread perception that the economy will recover later this year. On Wednesday, the government revised growth figures from earlier in 2004 which, when taking into account performance in the most recent period, effectively tips Japan into recession...A previous estimate of 0.1% growth between July and September was downgraded to a 0.3% decline. A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, although the Japanese government takes other factors into account when judging the status of its economy...Figures released by the government's Cabinet Office showed that GDP, on an annualised basis, fell 0.5% in the last three months of 2004. However, politicians remain upbeat about prospects for an economic boost later in the year. ""The economy has some soft patches but if you look at the bigger picture, it is in a recovery stage,"" said Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Heizo Takenaka. Gross domestic product measures the overall value of goods and services produced in a country. ""The economy must be assessed comprehensively and we cannot look at GDP alone,"" Mr Takenaka stressed...Ministers pointed to the fact that consumer spending had been depressed by one-off factors such as the unseasonably mild winter. Analysts said the figures were disappointing but argued that Japan's largest companies had been recording healthy profits and capital spending was on the rise. Japan's economy grew 2.6% overall last year - fuelled by a strong performance in the first few months - and is forecast to see growth of 2.1% in 2005. However, the economy's fragile recovery remains dependent on an upturn in consumer spending, a fall in the value of the yen and an improvement in global economies. ""The results came in at the lower end of expectations but we shouldn't be too pessimistic about the current state and the outlook for the economy,"" said Naoki Iizuka, senior economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. Japan's economy has seen stretches of moderate growth over the past decade but has periodically slipped back into recession.",business
"US crude prices surge above $53..US crude prices have soared to fresh four-month highs above $53 in the US as refinery problems propelled petrol prices to an all-time high...US light sweet crude futures jumped to $53.09 a barrel in New York before closing at $53.03. The gains tracked a surge in US gasoline futures to a record high of $1.4850 a gallon. The jump followed a fire at Western Refining Company's refinery in Texas, which shut down petrol production. A spokesman for the group was unable to say when the production unit would be back up and running. ""This market simply wants to go up,"" Citigroup Global Markets analyst Kyle Cooper told Reuters news agency. Ed Silliere, analyst at Energy Merchant, added: ""Gasoline is up because of the refinery issues in Texas, which means there will be a scramble for product in the (US) Gulf Coast.""..Elsewhere, a refinery in Houston was closed due to mechanical problems, while on Tuesday production at BP's Texas City refinery was taken down for a short time. In the approach to Spring, the market becomes much more sensitive to problems with petrol production as dealers anticipate rising demand for fuel ahead of the holiday season. The rise in prices came despite a US government report that showed domestic supplies of fuel oil and fuel were rising. Meanwhile, oil production cartel Opec's recent announcement that it was now unlikely to cut production levels has also failed to calm fears on the market. Oil prices are roughly 45% higher than a year ago and have risen sharply in recent weeks due to a combination of colder weather, the declining value of the dollar and fears that Opec could rein in production to head off a seasonal drop in demand. Instability in Iraq and underlying fears about terrorism have also played a part in the rally.",business
"Industrial output falls in Japan..Japanese industrial output fell in October while unemployment rose, casting further doubt on the strength of the country's economic recovery...Production dropped 1.6% in October, reflecting a decline in exports, while unemployment levels edged up 0.1% to 4.7%, slightly higher than forecast. The economy has grown for six quarters but growth slowed dramatically in the last quarter amid weaker global demand. Japan's government remains optimistic due to strong domestic demand...Analysts had been forecasting a 0.1% rise in month on month industrial output...According to figures from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the decline was led by a fall in demand for electronic parts for mobile phones and digital televisions. Although inventories fell 0.7% month on month, they were 36% higher than a year ago. ""It's a sign that the economy's adjustment phase is stronger than expected,"" said Takashi Yamanaka, an economist with UFJ Bank. Japan downgraded its overall economic assessment earlier this month for the first time in a year...Growth slowed to 0.3% in the quarter ending September 30, down from 6.3% in the first quarter of 2004. Experts believe the economy -which stagnated for most of the 1990s -may be entering a softer patch on the back of rising oil prices and the falling dollar. Japanese government officials played down the latest data, arguing that domestic consumer demand was still resilient. ""The outlook for November is positive so I don't think one can say that conditions have worsened just because of the fall in October,"" said a METI official. Despite the rise in unemployment, jobless figures are still some way below historical highs of recent years. The comparatively weak economic date preyed on shares with the Nikkei down 1% in afternoon trade.",business
"Ryanair in $4bn Boeing plane deal..Budget airline Ryanair has placed an order for 70 Boeing 737-800 planes, in a deal valued at $4bn (£2.1bn) which should lead to 2,500 new Ryanair jobs...It also has an option for a further 70 aircraft, a move which brings the Ryanair/Boeing order book up to 225 firm orders and options on 193 more. Ryanair said the new planes would help it to cut operating costs further. The carrier reported a drop in quarterly profit earlier this year after it was hit by higher fuel costs. However, when it reported the results, the airline was upbeat about prospects for 2005, despite tough competition in the budget airline market...Ryanair chairman David Bonderman said that the 737-800 had ""significantly reduced our unit operating costs and allowed us to reduce air fares each year for the last five years""...""With this new order and new pricing in place, Ryanair expects that unit operating costs (excluding fuel) will continue to fall each year for the next five years,"" he added. At the end of this year, Ryanair will have taken delivery of about 100 new planes, while the 70 new orders are due for delivery between 2008 and 2012. The airline said that when all these planes have been delivered, it will be able to carry more than 70 million passengers a year, making it Europe's largest airline. About 2,500 new jobs should be created in the next seven years, it added. The order can be seen as good news for Boeing, which in recent years has been overtaken by European plane maker Airbus as the world's biggest-selling plane maker.",business
"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.",business
"BMW cash to fuel Mini production..Less than four years after the new Mini was launched, German car maker BMW has announced £100m of new investment...Some 200 new jobs are to be created at the Oxford factory, including modernised machinery and a new body shell production building. The result of the investment could be to raise output to more than 200,000 cars from 2007. The rise, from 189,000 last year, is a response to rapidly-rising demand and could help wipe out waiting lists. Before Wednesday's announcement, BMW had invested some £280m in Mini production...Since its launch during summer 2001, the new Mini has gone from strength to strength...Last year, almost one in six cars sold by the BMW group was a Mini. The company admits that the success of the brand came despite scepticism from many in the industry. ""Our decision to produce a new Mini was not received well right away,"" said Norbert Reithofer, a member of the BMW management board. Initially, BMW said it would produce 100,000 Mini models a year at its vast Cowley factory on the outskirts of Oxford, but the target was quickly reached, then raised, time and time again. Not everyone is convinced that the boom can continue. ""The risk is that after they've invested massively in the brand, demand tapers off like it did with the new VW Beetle,"" said Brad Wernle, from Automotive News Europe...The price of the car has also gone up. When it was launched, the cheapest Mini cost just more than £10,000. These days, buyers will have to fork out almost £11,500 to own a new Mini One, or even more for the Cooper S which costs up to £17,730. The Mini Convertible, which was launched last spring, costs up to £15,690 for the top model, and there is even a waiting list. Second-hand Minis are not cheap either. A Mini One bought when the model was launched should still fetch at least £8,000 for the cheapest model, while a used Cooper S is likely to be priced from £12,556, according to the-car buying website Parker's. The consumers' association Which operates with slightly different numbers, yet it confirms that the Mini Cooper 1.6 depreciates slower than any other car, other than the Mercedes Benz C180 SE and the BMW 1 Series 116i SE...The Cowley factory, which initially seemed far too large a production plant for just 100,000 Minis, is increasingly being put to good use...There are plans to tear down old buildings and build new ones and there are rumours that a new paint shop could be included in the plans. BMW's Mini adventure has made good much of what went wrong during its stewardship of the UK car maker Rover which it sold for £10 five years ago to the Phoenix consortium. In 1999, when BMW still owned Rover, the Oxford factory was producing the award-winning Rover 75. During that year, 3,500 people produced 56,000 cars. Last year, in the same factory, almost four times as many vehicles were produced by just 4,500 Mini-workers. The Mini factory's current output is equally impressive when compared with the main Rover factory in Longbridge, which in 1999 produced 180,000 Rover cars. Last year, MG Rover, which employs more than 6,000 people, produced just 110,000 cars, though it hopes to land a deal with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) that could help double the number of cars produced at Longbridge. Indeed, Mini is not only producing more cars than MG Rover does; it remains ahead even when the current sales of Land Rovers and Range Rovers (which are made by the former Rover unit that BMW sold to Ford) are taken into account.",business
"Bad weather hits Nestle sales..A combination of bad weather, rising raw material costs and the sluggish European economy has hit sales at Swiss food and drink giant Nestle...Revenue dipped 1.4% to 86.7bn Swiss francs ($74.6bn; £39.1bn) in 2004 as sales of ice cream and mineral water were dampened by the wet summer. However, Nestle's profits margins were helped by a strong performance in the Americas and China. Nestle is to raise its dividend by 11% after paying back some of its debt...Nestle said that the strength of the Swiss franc against the US dollar, the disposal of businesses and challenging trading conditions in Europe all dented sales. A poor summer across the continent - in contrast to the prolonged heat wave in 2003 - ""severely affected"" demand for ice cream. Sales of bottled water also fell, although chocolate, coffee, frozen goods and petcare products performed better...Elsewhere, Nestle said it had enjoyed an ""exceptional"" year in North America, outperforming the market in terms of sales growth. Nestle added that it had performed strongly in Africa and Asia despite the impact of high oil prices and political instability. Nestle's total earnings before interest remained broadly flat over the past year, despite the company managing to boost profit margins. As well as increasing its dividend, Nestle plans to buy back shares worth 1bn Swiss francs ($861m; £451m). Looking forward, Nestle forecasts organic earnings growth of about 5% in 2005, although it warned that trading would remain just as competitive...Uncertainty remains over the future of Perrier, the iconic French mineral water owned by Nestle. Perrier has been locked in a long-standing dispute with unions about productivity levels at the business, which has lead Nestle to consider selling the firm. ""The option of selling is Perrier is still on the table,"" chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe confirmed on Thursday.",business
"Fiat mulls Ferrari market listing..Ferrari could be listed on the stock market as part of an overhaul of Fiat's carmaking operations, the Financial Times has reported...It said Fiat was set to restructure its business after reaching a $2bn (1.53bn euros; £1.05bn) settlement with GM about Fiat's ownership. Steps being considered include listing Ferrari and bringing Maserati and Alfa Romeo closer together, it said. Despite strong sales of Alfa Romeo, Fiat's car business is making a loss...Under the proposals - which the paper said could be announced within days - the iconic sportscar maker could be listed separately on the market. Fiat owns a 56% stake in Ferrari -best known for its dominant Formula One motor racing team - having first bought into the business in 1969. It considered floating Ferrari in 2002 but opted to sell a minority stake to Italian bank Mediobanca for 775m euros ($1bn). That sale valued Ferrari - which owns the Maserati brand - at 2.3bn euros. The price tag would change if Maserati was stripped out. The Financial Times said Fiat may transfer Maserati within its wholly- owned Alfa Romeo division in an effort to exploit commercial synergies. Such a move would help Alfa Romeo and Maserati to share marketing, distribution and research & development costs. Maserati and Ferrari sell about 10,000 cars between them and both companies broke even in 2003...Fiat, Italy's largest private sector employer, did not comment on the reported changes. Fiat recently negotiated an end to its alliance with General Motors. The US firm agreed to pay $2bn to exit an agreement under which it could have been liable to buy Fiat outright. Analysts said the reported restructuring was evidence of the greater flexibility which Fiat now had to develop the business.",business
"Italy to get economic action plan..Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will unveil plans aimed at kickstarting the country's sputtering economy on Thursday night in Rome...He will present an ""Action Plan for the Development of Italy"" in a meeting with industrialists and trade union leaders. Mr Berlusconi is expected to table reforms aimed at boosting research and development (R&D) spending, and the competitiveness of small firms. Also in focus will be bankruptcy laws and the slow pace of the legal system. The prime minister is scheduled to start the meeting at 1830 GMT...The government has been accused of underfunding R&D, making it harder for Italy to compete with other European nations and leading to a ""brain-drain"" of the country's brightest talents. Analysts say that hiring and firing staff is still too difficult and expensive, hampering the development of small- and medium-sized businesses. As a result, they say, Italy's corporate landscape is filled with numerous smaller companies that are often reluctant to become bigger because of all the extra hassle that would accompany the running of a larger firm. At the same time, bankruptcy laws make it difficult for failed company directors to set up new businesses and emerge from their debts, a situation that is hampering Italy's entrepreneurial spirit...The government says that it has set about tackling the problems, adding that getting growth going was the responsibility of all of Italy's 60 million population. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy's business newspaper, the government will focus on ""opening up markets, infrastructure, research, making more incentives available, bankruptcy law, the slow pace of the justice system""...Mr Berlusconi has previously promised to cut taxes by 6.5bn euros ($8.6bn; £4.5bn) this year in an effort to get people and companies to spend. He has also promised to cap spending on transport, education and health so as to trim the ballooning budget deficit. Italy plans to raise as much as 25bn euros from privatisations in 2005, including a partial flotation of the post office and utility Enel. Critics argue that these moves do not go far enough and could make Italy's problems worse. Limiting government spending will lead to job losses, they counter, while the income tax cuts will have a negligible effect on sentiment and ultimately favour the wealthy...The country has been one of the eurozone's worst economic performers in recent years. Growth was 1.1% in 2004, up from just 0.3% in 2003 and 0.4% in 2002 - an improvement but still a long way from ideal. At the same time, business and consumer confidence has dipped and analysts have raised concerns that what little spending there is stems from Italians dipping into their savings accounts or using credit cards. Without a pick up in national growth, they say, the money could eventually run out, bringing Italy's economy to a juddering halt. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of Italy's economy.",business
"Weak dollar hits Reuters..Revenues at media group Reuters slipped 11% during 2004, mainly due to the weakness of the dollar, the group said...The company said it was optimistic about growth even as revenues slipped 11% from £3.24bn ($6.13bn) in 2003 to £2.89bn in 2004. Reuters beat profit forecasts, posting a 52% rise in profits for the year to £198m from the £130m seen a year earlier. Reuters also beat its savings target for 2004, delivering £234m of cuts. Under its three-year Fast Forward turnaround plan it had aimed to save £220m during the 12 months to 31 December...Reuters also managed to slow a decline in underlying revenues to 5.4% from 10.2% in 2003 and cut its debt back to £160m from £610m a year earlier. The news and financial data seller said the year had begun well, adding it expected ""further gradual improvement"" in the second quarter of the year after good January sales. It added it was planning to deliver a further £105m of savings over the coming year - but said it expects to be hit with an £80m restructuring charge to pay for the cost of moving from Fleet Street to new headquarters in London at Canary Wharf. ""Improving customer relationships, more competitive products and continued strong cost discipline position us well for 2005,"" chief executive Tom Glocer said, adding the company was beginning ""to look beyond recovery to growth"".",business
"Hyundai to build new India plant..South Korea's Hyundai Motor has announced that it plans to build a second plant in India to meet the country's growing demand for cars...The company didn't give details of its investment but it said the new plant would produce 150,000 cars a year. This will boost the annual production capacity of the company - India's second-largest car manufacturer - to 400,000 units. Hyundai expects its sales in India to grow 16% to 250,000 in 2005. By 2010, it expects to nearly double sales to 400,000 cars. The new plant will be built close to the existing one in Chennai, in the southern province of Tamil Nadu...South Korea's top car maker estimates that the Indian market will grow 15% this year, to 920,000 vehicles, reaching 1.6 million vehicles by 2010. Demand in India has been driven by the poor state of public transport and the very low level of car ownership, analysts said. Figures show that currently only eight people per thousand are car owners. ""We desperately need to expand our production in order to meet growing demand in the Indian auto market, which is growing over 12 percent every year, and to top our competitors,"" chairman Chung Mong-koo said in the statement. He said the company plans to use India as a base for exports to Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The company - which controls half of the South Korean's market - aims to become a global top five auto maker by 2010.",business
"SA unveils 'more for all' budget..The South African government has put tax cuts and increased social spending at the centre of its latest budget...Aiming to both stir economic growth and aid the country's poor, finance minister Trevor Manuel said the focus of the 2005 budget was ""more for all"". The tax cuts target firms and individuals, cutting corporate tax from 30% to 29% and offering income tax cuts worth 6.8bn rand ($1.2bn; £910m). Spending on health and education will rise by 9.4% and 8.1% respectively. Spending on housing and sanitation will rise by 12%. All the spending increases will run over the next three years...Unveiling the 418bn-rand budget to parliament, Mr Manuel said the South African economy had grown by an average of 3.2% over the past four years, slightly below the African average of 4%...He predicted that the South African economy would grow by 4.3% in 2005 and 4.2% in 2006. Mr Manuel added that inflation fell to 4.3% in 2004 and is expected to remain at between 3% and 6% from now until at least 2008, helped by interest rates which are at their lowest level in 24 years. Given that both corporate and personal taxes are being cut - under the new measures, those earning less than 35,000 rand a year will be exempt from income tax - the extra 22.3bn rand in social spending will be partly met by higher fuel, tobacco and alcohol taxes...""In this budget, the focus is on more for all, not more for some, and not a hell of a lot more for a few, but spread across all of South Africa,"" said Mr Manuel. He said that the economic situation was a ""marked improvement"" on the position at the end of apartheid, but acknowledged that more needed to be done to improve the lives and livelihoods of the disadvantaged. About 280,000 jobs a year have been created in South Africa since 2000 but unemployment remains high, currently close to 30%. Economist Colen Garrow said the budget looked as if it would stimulate economic growth. ""It's pleasant to see the cut in company taxes, it's a good incentive for business,"" he said.",business
"BMW drives record sales in Asia..BMW has forecast sales growth of at least 10% in Asia this year after registering record sales there in 2004...The luxury carmaker saw strong sales of its three marques - BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce - in Asia last year after the launch of three new models. The company, which is vying with Mercedes-Benz for the title of leading premium carmaker, is confident about its prospects for the region in 2005. It is launching a revamped version of its 3-Series saloon class next month...BMW sold nearly 95,000 cars in Asia last year, up 2.6% on 2003...BMW-brand sales rose 2.3% to 80,600 while sales of Mini models rose 3.6% to 14,800. There was also a significant increase in sales of Rolls-Royces on the continent. BMW sold more than 100 of the iconic models compared with just ten the previous year. The German carmaker is aiming to boost annual sales in Asia to 150,000 by 2008. ""Here in Asia, we consider a double-digit increase in retail on the order of 10 to 15% to be realistic on the basis of current features,"" said Helmut Panke, BMW's group chief executive...China remains the main area of concern for BMW after sales there fell 16% last year. However, BMW is hopeful of a much better year in 2005 as its direct investment in China begins to pay dividends. The company only began assembling luxury high-powered sedans in China in 2003. 2004 was generally a good year for BMW, which saw revenues from its core car-making operations rise 11%.",business
"Economy 'stronger than forecast'..The UK economy probably grew at a faster rate in the third quarter than the 0.4% reported, according to Bank of England deputy governor Rachel Lomax...Private sector business surveys suggest a stronger economy than official estimates, Ms Lomax said. Other surveys collectively show a rapid slowdown in UK house price growth, she pointed out. This means that despite a strong economic growth, base rates will probably stay on hold at 4.75%. Official data comes from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Though reliable, ONS data takes longer to publish, so now the BoE is calling for faster delivery of data so it can make more effective policy decisions. ""Recent work by the Bank has shown that private sector surveys add value, even when preliminary ONS estimates are available,"" Ms Lomax said in a speech to the North Wales Business Club...The ONS is due to publish its second estimate of third quarter growth on Friday. ""The MPC judges that overall growth was a little higher in the third quarter than the official data currently indicate,"" Ms Lomax said. The Bank said successful monetary policy depends on having good information. Rachel Lomax cited the late 1980s as an example of a time when weak economic figures were published, but substantially revised upwards years later...""The statistical fog surrounding the true state of the economy has proved a particularly potent breeding ground for policy errors in the past,"" she said. Improving the quality of national statistics is the single the best way of making sure the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) makes the right decisions, she said. The Bank of England is working in tandem with the ONS to improve the quality and speed of delivery of data. Her remarks follow criticism from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, which said the MPC had held interest rates too high given that inflation was way below the 2% target...A slowdown in the housing market and this year's surge in oil prices has made economic forecasting all the more tricky, leading to a more uncertain outlook. ""This year rising oil prices and a significant slowdown in the housing market have awoken bad memories of the 1970s and 1980s,"" Ms Lomax said. ""The MPC will be doing well if it can achieve the same stability over the next decade as we have enjoyed over the past 10 years."" Decisions on interest rates are made after the MPC gathers together the range of indicators available every month. The clearest signals come when all indicators are pointing the same direction, Ms Lomax intimated. ""In economic assessment, there is safety in numbers.""",business
"Electrolux to export Europe jobs..Electrolux saw its shares rise 14% on Tuesday after it said it would be shifting more of its manufacturing to low-cost countries...The Swedish firm, the world's largest maker of home appliances, said it is to relocate about 10 of its 27 plants in western Europe and North America. It did not say which facilities would be affected, but intends moving them to Asia, eastern Europe and Mexico. The company has two manufacturing sites in County Durham. It makes lawn and garden products in Newton Aycliffe, and cookers and ovens in Spennymoor. The Newton Aycliffe plant could also be affected by Electrolux's separate announcement that it is to spin-off its outdoor products unit into a new separate company...Electrolux's subsidiary brands include AEG, Zanussi and Frigidaire. The company said it was speeding up its restructuring programme, which aims to save between £190m and £265m annually from 2009. ""We see that about half the plants in high-cost countries - that is around 10 - are at risk,"" said Electrolux chief executive Hans Straberg. ""It looks pretty grim,"" said Swedish trades union official Ulf Carlsson. ""What are we going to end up producing in Sweden?""",business
"Worldcom ex-boss launches defence..Lawyers defending former WorldCom chief Bernie Ebbers against a battery of fraud charges have called a company whistleblower as their first witness...Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom's ex-head of internal accounting, alerted directors to irregular accounting practices at the US telecoms giant in 2002. Her warnings led to the collapse of the firm following the discovery of an $11bn (£5.7bn) accounting fraud. Mr Ebbers has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and conspiracy...Prosecution lawyers have argued that Mr Ebbers orchestrated a series of accounting tricks at WorldCom, ordering employees to hide expenses and inflate revenues to meet Wall Street earnings estimates. But Ms Cooper, who now runs her own consulting business, told a jury in New York on Wednesday that external auditors Arthur Andersen had approved WorldCom's accounting in early 2001 and 2002. She said Andersen had given a ""green light"" to the procedures and practices used by WorldCom. Mr Ebber's lawyers have said he was unaware of the fraud, arguing that auditors did not alert him to any problems...Ms Cooper also said that during shareholder meetings Mr Ebbers often passed over technical questions to the company's finance chief, giving only ""brief"" answers himself. The prosecution's star witness, former WorldCom financial chief Scott Sullivan, has said that Mr Ebbers ordered accounting adjustments at the firm, telling him to ""hit our books"". However, Ms Cooper said Mr Sullivan had not mentioned ""anything uncomfortable"" about WorldCom's accounting during a 2001 audit committee meeting. Mr Ebbers could face a jail sentence of 85 years if convicted of all the charges he is facing. WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004, and is now known as MCI. Last week, MCI agreed to a buyout by Verizon Communications in a deal valued at $6.75bn.",business
"Insurance bosses plead guilty..Another three US insurance executives have pleaded guilty to fraud charges stemming from an ongoing investigation into industry malpractice...Two executives from American International Group (AIG) and one from Marsh & McLennan were the latest. The investigation by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer has now obtained nine guilty pleas. The highest ranking executive pleading guilty on Tuesday was former Marsh senior vice president Joshua Bewlay...He admitted one felony count of scheming to defraud and faces up to four years in prison. A Marsh spokeswoman said Mr Bewlay was no longer with the company. Mr Spitzer's investigation of the US insurance industry looked at whether companies rigged bids and fixed prices. Last month Marsh agreed to pay $850m (£415m) to settle a lawsuit filed by Mr Spitzer, but under the settlement it ""neither admits nor denies the allegations"".",business
"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"".",business
"Wembley firm won't make a profit..Shares in Multiplex Group, which is building the new Wembley stadium, fell as much as 19% after it said it would not make any money on the project...The Australian firm said it would only break even on the 1.2bn Australian dollars (£458m; $874m) rebuild, after a rise in costs on the work. Any profits would depend on the outcome of legal cases resulting from a change in steel contractor, it added. It cut A$68m from profit targets for Wembley and another UK project...Investors were shaken by the news and the firm's shares fell to a four month low of A$4.50, before recovering to close 16% down at A$4.67. The decline came despite Multiplex reporting an 11% rise in pre-tax profits to A$67.7m for 2004 and reaffirming its 2005 profit forecasts. Increased costs at Wembley and a separate development in London's Docklands saw Multiplex's construction division report profits of A$35.1m...The firm said the result was below expectations but stressed that the majority of its UK projects - which also include the White City redevelopment scheme in west London - were performing strongly...To recoup any profit from Wembley, where the firm changed its steel contractor due to a legal dispute, Multiplex will have to win legal claims against subcontractors. These claims could take up to two years to resolve. ""Multiplex believes its claim are sound and ultimately will exceed the level needed to support the break even position,"" it said. ""It is expected that profits will be possible in future periods as the claims are finalised."" Wembley Stadium is to due to be completed in January and will officially open for the 2006 FA Cup Final. Analysts expressed concern at the unexpected paring back in profit. ""Such a big writeback on the Wembley project in such a short period has impacted on management credibility,"" Simon Wheatley, from Goldman Sachs, told Reuters.",business
"Cars pull down US retail figures..US retail sales fell 0.3% in January, the biggest monthly decline since last August, driven down by a heavy fall in car sales...The 3.3% fall in car sales had been expected, coming after December's 4% rise in car sales, fuelled by generous pre-Christmas special offers. Excluding the car sector, US retail sales were up 0.6% in January, twice what some analysts had been expecting. US retail spending is expected to rise in 2005, but not as quickly as in 2004...Steve Gallagher, US chief economist at SG Corporate & Investment Banking, said January's figures were ""decent numbers""...""We are not seeing the numbers that we saw in the second half of 2004, but they are still pretty healthy,"" he added. Sales at appliance and electronic stores were down 0.6% in January, while sales at hardware stores dropped by 0.3% and furniture store sales dipped 0.1%. Sales at clothing and clothing accessory stores jumped 1.8%, while sales at general merchandise stores, a category that includes department stores, rose by 0.9%. These strong gains were in part put down to consumers spending gift vouchers they had been given for Christmas...Sales at restaurants, bars and coffee houses rose by 0.3%, while grocery store sales were up 0.5%. In December, overall retail sales rose by 1.1%. Excluding the car sector, sales rose by just 0.3%. Parul Jain, deputy chief economist at Nomura Securities International, said consumer spending would continue to rise in 2005, only at a slower rate of growth than in 2004. ""Consumers continue to retain their strength in the first quarter,"" he said. Van Rourke, a bond strategist at Popular Securities, agreed that the latest retail sales figures were ""slightly stronger than expected"".",business
"Lufthansa may sue over Bush visit..German airline Lufthansa may sue federal agencies for damages after the arrival of US president George W Bush disrupted flights...Lufthansa said that it may lose millions of euros as a result of Air Force One landing at Frankfurt airport. Flights were affected for an hour on Wednesday morning, double the time that had been expected, leading to cancellations and delays. Lufthansa accounts for six out of every 10 planes using Frankfurt's airport...""We are doing research into the possibilities we have,"" Michael Lamberty, a Lufthansa spokesman told the BBC. ""We are checking if there is action to be taken and in which courts it could be taken."" Mr Lamberty explained that the company did not plan to pursue Germany's air traffic controllers' organisation or the airport authority but wanted instead to see if it was possible to sue the German federal agencies that gave the orders. The company said that it had to cancel 77 short and medium-distance flights, affecting about 5,000 passengers. Long-haul travellers were not disrupted...Central to the problem was that instead of half an hour, the arrival of President Bush on the German leg of his European tour took the best part of an hour, Lufthansa said. During that time, restrictions were put on planes taxiing, taking off and landing at Frankfurt's Rhein-Main airport. The extra time taken by President Bush and his entourage meant that there was a knock-on effect that led to significant delays. Mr Lamberty said that 92 outgoing flights and 86 income flights were delayed by an average of an hour following President Bush's arrival, affecting almost 17,000 passengers. Despite the problems, Mr Lamberty said that it was not certain that Lufthansa would take legal action.",business
"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.",business
"German business confidence slides..German business confidence fell in February knocking hopes of a speedy recovery in Europe's largest economy...Munich-based research institute Ifo said that its confidence index fell to 95.5 in February from 97.5 in January, its first decline in three months. The study found that the outlook in both the manufacturing and retail sectors had worsened. Observers had been hoping that a more confident business sector would signal that economic activity was picking up...""We're surprised that the Ifo index has taken such a knock,"" said DZ bank economist Bernd Weidensteiner. ""The main reason is probably that the domestic economy is still weak, particularly in the retail trade."" Economy and Labour Minister Wolfgang Clement called the dip in February's Ifo confidence figure ""a very mild decline"". He said that despite the retreat, the index remained at a relatively high level and that he expected ""a modest economic upswing"" to continue...Germany's economy grew 1.6% last year after shrinking in 2003. However, the economy contracted by 0.2% during the last three months of 2004, mainly due to the reluctance of consumers to spend. Latest indications are that growth is still proving elusive and Ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn said any improvement in German domestic demand was sluggish. Exports had kept things going during the first half of 2004, but demand for exports was then hit as the value of the euro hit record levels making German products less competitive overseas. On top of that, the unemployment rate has been stuck at close to 10% and manufacturing firms, including DaimlerChrysler, Siemens and Volkswagen, have been negotiating with unions over cost cutting measures. Analysts said that the Ifo figures and Germany's continuing problems may delay an interest rate rise by the European Central Bank. Eurozone interest rates are at 2%, but comments from senior officials have recently focused on the threat of inflation, prompting fears that interest rates may rise.",business
"FAO warns on impact of subsidies..Billions of farmers' livelihoods are at risk from falling commodity prices and protectionism, the UN's Food & Agriculture Organisation has warned...Trade barriers and subsidies ""severely"" distort the market, the FAO report on the ""State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2004"" said. As a result, the 2.5 billion people in the developing world who rely on farming face food insecurity. The most endangered are those who live in the least-developed countries. The FAO report said that support for farmers in industrialised nations was equivalent to 30 times the amount provided as aid for agricultural development in poor countries...The FAO has urged the World Trade Organisation to swiftly conclude negotiations to liberalise trade, easing developing countries' access to the world market. It also criticised the high tariffs imposed by both developed and developing nations. It recommends that developing countries reduce their own tariffs to encourage trade and take advantage of market liberalisation...According to the organisation, subsidies and high tariffs have a strong impact on the trade of products such as cotton and rice. Global exports of these products are mainly in the hands of the European Union and the US, who - thanks to subsidies - sell them at very low prices. In fact, almost 30 wealthy nations spend more than $300bn (£158.8bn; 230.9bn euros) in agricultural subsidies. The market situation has divided developing nations in two groups, the FAO said. The first group have a reasonably diverse range of agricultural products while in the second group, agriculture lies largely in the hands of small-scale producers. For 43 developing countries, more than 20% of their export incomes come from the sale of just one product. These countries are mainly situated in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.",business
"India seeks to boost construction..India has cleared a proposal allowing up to 100% foreign direct investment in its construction sector...Kamal Nath, Commerce and Industry Minister, announced the decision in Delhi on Thursday following a cabinet meeting. Analysts say improving India's infrastructure will boost foreign investment in other sectors too. The Indian government's decision has spread good cheer in the construction sector, according to some Indian firms...A spokesman for DLF Builders, Dr Vancheshwar, told the BBC this will mean ""better offerings"" for consumers as well as builders. He said the firm will benefit from world class ""strategic partnerships, design expertise and technology, while consumers will have better choice.""..The government proposal states that foreign investment of up to 100% will be allowed on the 'automatic route' in the construction sector, on projects including housing, hotels, resorts, hospitals and educational establishments. The automatic route means that construction companies need only get one set of official approvals and do not need to gain clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, which can be bureaucratic. The government hopes its new policy will create employment for construction workers, and benefit steel and brick-making industries...Mr Nath also announced plans to allow foreign investors to develop a smaller area of any land they acquired. ""Foreign investors can enter any construction development area, be it to build resorts, townships or commercial premises but they will have to construct at least 50,000 square meters (538,000 square feet) within a specific timeframe,"" said Mr Nath, without specifying the timeframe. Previously foreign investors had to develop a much larger area, discouraging some from entering the Indian market. This measure is designed to discourage foreign investors from buying and selling land speculatively, without developing it. Anshuman Magazine, managing director, of CB Richard Ellis - an international real estate company - told the BBC this was ""a big positive step.""..However, Chittabrata Majumdar, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said allowing FDI in the country is compromising India's own ""self reliance"". He said, ""No country can develop on the basis of foreign investment alone."" Mr Majumdar also said an assessment should be made as to whether foreign investment is indeed beneficial to the country - in terms of employment and money generated - or just another way of international companies filling their deep pockets.",business
"Boeing unveils new 777 aircraft..US aircraft firm Boeing has unveiled its new long-distance 777 plane, as it tries to regain its position as the industry's leading manufacturer...The 777-200LR will be capable of flying almost 11,000 miles non-stop, linking cities such as London and Sydney. Boeing, in contrast to European rival Airbus, hopes airlines will want to fly smaller aircraft over longer distances. Airbus, which overtook Boeing as the number one civilian planemaker in 2003, is focusing on so-called super jumbos...Analysts are divided over which approach is best and say that this latest tussle between Boeing and Airbus may prove to be a defining moment for the airline industry. Boeing plans to offer twin-engine planes that are able to fly direct to many of the world's airports, getting rid of the need for connecting flights...It is banking on smaller, slimmer planes such as the 777-200LR and its much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner plane, which is set to take to the skies in 2008. The 777-200LR, which had its launch delayed by the 11 September attacks in the US, is the fifth variation of Boeing's twin-aisle 777 plane. The company offically ""rolled-out"" the new 777 in Seattle at 2200 GMT. Better fuel efficiency from engines made by GE and lighter materials mean that the plane can connect almost any two cities worldwide...""Boeing has the latest variant in a very successful line of airplanes and there is no doubt it will continue to be very successful,"" said David Learmount, operations and safety editor at industry magazine Flight International. But the 777-200LR ""is a niche player"", Mr Learmount continued, adding that reach was not the only criteria airlines used when picking their aircraft. Mr Learmount pointed out that the 777-200LR has been on the market for a couple of years and only had limited success at attracting orders. He also said that while the plane may be able to fly to Sydney from London in one hit, prevailing winds meant that it would have to stop somewhere on the return journey...For Airbus, the future is big - it is pinning its hopes on planes that can carry as many as 840 people between large hub airports. From there, passengers would be ferried to their final destinations by smaller planes. Airbus is also keeping its options open and plans to compete in all the main categories of aircraft. It has been producing a rival to Boeing's 777 line for more than a year. ""Airbus is now where Boeing was a few years ago"" with its product range, said Flight International's Mr Learmount...Both Boeing and Airbus have been taking orders for their new planes. Boeing said it expected to sell about 500 of its 777-200LR planes over the next 20 years. It already has orders from Pakistan International Airlines and EVA of Taiwan. These orders should help underpin the company's profits. Boeing said earnings during the last three months of 2004 dropped by 84% because of costs relating to stopping production of its smallest airliner, the 717, and the cancellation of a US air force 767 tanker contract. Net profit was $186m (£98m; 143m euros) in the quarter, compared with $1.13bn in the same period in 2003.",business
"Circuit City gets takeover offer..Circuit City Stores, the second-largest electronics retailer in the US, has received a $3.25bn (£1.7bn) takeover offer...The bid has come from Boston-based private investment firm Highfields Capital Management, which already owns 6.7% of Circuit City's shares. Shares in the retailer were up 19.6% at $17.04 in Tuesday morning trading in New York following the announcement. Highfield said that it intends to take the Virginia-based firm private...""Such a transformation would eliminate the public-company transparency into the company's operating strategy that is uniquely damaging in a highly competitive industry where Circuit City is going head-to-head with a tough and entrenched rival,"" Highfield said. One analyst suggested that a bidding battle may now begin for the company. Bill Armstrong, a retail analyst at CL King & Associates, said he expected to see other private investment firms come forward for Circuit City. The retailer is debt free with a good cash flow, despite the fact that it is said to be struggling to keep up with market leader Best Buy and cut-price competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, said Mr Armstrong.",business
"Japan turns to beer alternatives..Japanese brewers are increasingly making money from beer-flavoured drinks rather than beer itself..Beer and spirits are heavily taxed in Japan, driving breweries to search for alternatives. Japan's long economic downturn helped drive the trend, as drinkers looked for cheaper opportunities to drown their sorrows. Now, according to Asahi Breweries, the market for so-called ""beer-like"" drinks is set to grow 84% this year...Asahi is predicting profits to rise 50% in 2005 as it launches a drink based on soybean peptides rather than malt. The chosen name, ""Shinnama"" or ""new draft"", disguises its non-beer nature. But despite a record profit in 2004 of 30.6bn yen ($291m; £154m), up 31.8% on the previous year, Asahi is coming late to the market. Key rival Sapporo is already well-established with the beer-flavoured ""Draft One"". Suntory, meanwhile, is doing well with ""Super Blue"", which combines happoshu - an existing low-cost beer alternative made with malt and seawater - and shochu, a distilled alcohol derived from sweet potatoes or barley. Happoshu has been a mainstay of brewery profits for years, taking over from beer thanks to its low tax and therefore low cost. Kirin, the fourth big name, is launching its own ""third-type"" drink in April.",business
"S Korean consumers spending again..South Korea looks set to sustain its revival thanks to renewed private consumption, its central bank says...The country's economy has suffered from an overhang of personal debt after its consumers' credit card spending spree. Card use fell sharply last year, but is now picking up again with a rise in spending of 14.8% year-on-year. ""The economy is now heading upward rather than downward,"" said central bank governor Park Seung. ""The worst seems to have passed."" Mr Park's statement came as the bank decided to keep interest rates at an all-time low of 3.25%. It had cut rates in November to help revive the economy, but rising inflation - reaching 0.7% month-on-month in January - has stopped it from cutting further. Economic growth in 2004 was about 4.7%, with the central bank predicting 4% growth this year. Other indicators are also suggesting that the country is inching back towards economic health. Exports - traditionally the driver for expansion in Asian economies - grew slower in January than at any time in 17 months. But domestic demand seems to be taking up the slack. Consumer confidence has bounced back from a four-year low in January, and retail sales were up 2.1% in December. Credit card debt is falling, with only one in 13 of the 48 million cards now in default - down from one in eight at the end of 2003. One of its biggest card issuers, LG Card, was rescued from collapse in December, having almost imploded under the weight of its customers' bad debts. The government last year tightened the rules for card lending to keep the card glut under control.",business
"German growth goes into reverse..Germany's economy shrank 0.2% in the last three months of 2004, upsetting hopes of a sustained recovery...The figures confounded hopes of a 0.2% expansion in the fourth quarter in Europe's biggest economy. The Federal Statistics Office said growth for the whole of 2004 was 1.6%, after a year of contraction in 2003, down from an earlier estimate of 1.7%. It said growth in the third quarter had been zero, putting the economy at a standstill from July onward. Germany has been reliant on exports to get its economy back on track, as unemployment of more than five million and impending cuts to welfare mean German consumers have kept their money to themselves. Major companies including Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and Siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and costs. According to the statistics office, Destatis, rising exports were outweighed in the fourth quarter by the continuing weakness of domestic demand...But the relentless rise in the value of the euro last year has also hit the competitiveness of German products overseas. The effect has been to depress prospects for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole, as well as Germany. Eurozone interest rates are at 2%, but senior officials at the rate-setting European Central Bank are beginning to talk about the threat of inflation, prompting fears that interest rates may rise. The ECB's mandate is to fight rising prices by boosting interest rates - and that could further threaten Germany's hopes of recovery.",business
"Turkey-Iran mobile deal 'at risk'..Turkey's investment in Iran's mobile industry looks set to be scrapped after its biggest mobile firm saw its investment there slashed by MPs...Iran's parliament voted by a large majority to cut Turkcell's stake in a new mobile network from 70% to 49%. The move, which was justified on national security grounds, follows an earlier vote by MPs to give themselves a veto over foreign investments. Turkcell said the decision ""increases the risks"" attached to the project. Although the company's statement said it would continue to monitor developments, observers said they thought Turkcell was set to pull out of the $3bn deal. ""The possibility of carrying out this project is next to zero,"" said Atinc Ozkan, analyst at Finans Investment in Istanbul. If Turkcell does back out, MTN - the South African firm which lost out in the original tender - may well be back in the running. The company has said it is prepared to accept a minority stake if Iran will award it the mobile deal...Turkcell's mobile deal is the second Turkish investment in Iran to run into trouble. Turkish-Austrian consortium TAV was chosen to build and run Tehran's new Imam Khomeini International Airport - but the army closed it just hours after it opened in May 2004. In both cases, the justification has been national security, amid allegations that the Turkish firms are too close to Israel. The hardline posture taken by parliament, which is dominated by religious conservatives, could yet impact other inward investments.",business
"EU ministers to mull jet fuel tax..European Union finance ministers are meeting on Thursday in Brussels, where they are to discuss a controversial jet fuel tax...A levy on jet fuel has been suggested as a way to raise funds to finance aid for the world's poorest nations. Airlines and aviation bodies have reacted strongly against the plans, saying they would hurt companies at a time when earnings are under pressure. The EU said a tax would only be passed after full consultation with airlines. It was keen to point out earlier this week that any new tax on jet fuel should not hurt the ""competitiveness of the airlines"". Ministers will also be discussing reforms to regulations governing European public spending...Global leaders have focused attention on poverty reduction and development at recent meetings of the G7 Group and World Economic Forum. The world's richest countries have said they want to boost the amount of aid they give to 0.7% of their annual gross national income by 2015. Many EU ministers are thought to support the plan to tax jet fuel - tabled by France and Germany following the recent G7 meeting. At present, the fuel used by airlines enjoys either a very low tax rate or is untaxed in EU member states.",business
"Palestinian economy in decline..Despite a short-lived increase in Palestinian jobs in 2003, the economy is performing well below its potential, said a World Bank report...Unemployment stood at 25%, compared with 10% before the uprising against Israeli occupation four years ago. Young people are particularly hard hit with 37% out of work, compared with 14% four years ago. But 104,000 new jobs were created last year during a brief easing of violence and closures. However, during the first half of this year, the Palestinian economy lost more than 22,000 jobs. Last year's growth rate of 6% can also be attributed to this temporary gap in violence, the report said. According to the report, Intifada, Closures and Palestinian Economic Crisis: An Assessment, there is a close link between the number of closures - both border closures and internal closures between cities - and Palestinian economic problems. The closures arranged by Israel restrict the movement of Palestinian people and goods, slowing down trade...""Closures are a key factor behind today's economic crisis in the West Bank,"" said Nigel Roberts, World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza. Nearly half of all Palestinians - some 47% - live below the poverty line and are particularly vulnerable to economic shocks. The report said even more would be on the poverty line without an average of $950m a year from international donors, some of which goes towards job creation. It also called on the Palestinian Authority to revive its reform programme and maintain financial discipline to create an investment-friendly climate. This week Colin Powell, US Secretary of State was visiting the West Bank to stress US support for a smooth Palestinian election in January.",business
"China had role in Yukos split-up..China lent Russia $6bn (£3.2bn) to help the Russian government renationalise the key Yuganskneftegas unit of oil group Yukos, it has been revealed...The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the $6bn which Russian state bank VEB lent state-owned Rosneft to help buy Yugansk in turn came from Chinese banks. The revelation came as the Russian government said Rosneft had signed a long-term oil supply deal with China. The deal sees Rosneft receive $6bn in credits from China's CNPC...According to Russian newspaper Vedomosti, these credits would be used to pay off the loans Rosneft received to finance the purchase of Yugansk. Reports said CNPC had been offered 20% of Yugansk in return for providing finance but the company opted for a long-term oil supply deal instead. Analysts said one factor that might have influenced the Chinese decision was the possibility of litigation from Yukos, Yugansk's former owner, if CNPC had become a shareholder. Rosneft and VEB declined to comment. ""The two companies [Rosneft and CNPC] have agreed on the pre-payment for long-term deliveries,"" said Russian oil official Sergei Oganesyan. ""There is nothing unusual that the pre-payment is for five to six years.""..The announcements help to explain how Rosneft, a medium-sized, indebted, and relatively unknown firm, was able to finance its surprise purchase of Yugansk. Yugansk was sold for $9.3bn in an auction last year to help Yukos pay off part of a $27bn bill in unpaid taxes and fines...The embattled Russian oil giant had previously filed for bankruptcy protection in a US court in an attempt to prevent the forced sale of its main production arm. But Yugansk was sold to a little known shell company which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Once the country's richest man, Mr Khodorkovsky is on trial for fraud and tax evasion...The deal between Rosneft and CNPC is seen as part of China's desire to secure long-term oil supplies to feed its booming economy. China's thirst for products such as crude oil, copper and steel has helped pushed global commodity prices to record levels. ""Clearly the Chinese are trying to get some leverage [in Russia],"" said Dmitry Lukashov, an analyst at brokerage Aton. ""They understand property rights in Russia are not the most important rights, and they are more interested in guaranteeing supplies."" ""If the price of oil is fixed under the deal, which is unlikely, it could be very profitable for the Chinese,"" Mr Lukashov continued. ""And Rosneft is in desperate need of cash, so it's a good deal for them too.""",business
"Deadline nears for Fiat-GM deal..Fiat and General Motors (GM) have until midnight on 1 February to settle a disagreement over a potential takeover...The deadline marks the point at which Fiat will gain the right to sell its car division to GM, part of an alliance agreed in 2000. GM, whose own European operations are losing money, no longer wants to own the unprofitable Fiat unit. Reports of deadlocked talks sent Fiat shares down 1.2% on Tuesday, after Monday's 4% gain on hopes of a payoff. The US firm is thought to be offering about $2bn (£1.06bn) to extricate itself from the arrangement. It has argued the deal was voided by Fiat's decision to sell off Fiat's finance arm and halve GM's stake via a capital-raising effort...The 2000 deal resulted from a race between GM and DaimlerChrysler to ally with Fiat. The German firm wanted to buy Fiat outright. But Gianni Agnelli, the godfather of the group, wanted to keep control, and preferred GM's offer to buy a 20% stake and give Fiat the right to sell in the future, known as a ""put option"". Since then, however, Fiat cars have lost market share and the firm has piled up losses, while a plan to raise new money in 2003 cut GM's stake in half to 10%. For its part, GM's European units Opel and Saab have both had trouble, with Opel management threatening to cut 12,000 jobs. ""The last thing they need is additional production capacity in Europe,"" said Patrick Juchemich, auto analyst at Sal Oppenheim Bank.",business
"ID theft surge hits US consumers..Almost a quarter of a million US consumers complained of being targeted for identity theft in 2004, official figures suggest...The Federal Trade Commission said two in five of the 635,173 reports it had from consumers concerned ID fraud. ID theft occurs when criminals use someone else's personal information to steal credit or commit other crimes. Internet auctions were the second biggest source of fraud complaints, comprising 16% of the total. The total cost of fraud reported by consumers was $546m (£290m)...The report marks the fifth year in a row in which identity fraud has topped the table. The biggest slice of the 246,570 ID fraud cases reported - almost 30% - concerned abuses of people's credit. Misusing someone's identity to claim new credit cards or loans comprised 16.5% of the total, with almost 12% coming from false claims on existing credit. Another 18% came from attempts to rip off people's bank accounts, while 13% of cases concerned attempts to defraud employers by abusing someone else's identity. Outside the field of ID theft, 53% of the near-400,000 complaints were internet-related. Among the 100,000 internet auction complaints, the failure of sellers to deliver or the supply of sub-standard goods were the most common woes reported. Catalogue and home-shopping frauds were next in line, accounting for 8% of total complaints, while concerns about internet services and computers - including spyware found on people's PCs and undisclosed charges for websites - amounted to 6% of complaints.",business
"Argentina, Venezuela in oil deal..Argentina and Venezuela have extended a food-for-oil deal, which helped the former to overcome a severe energy crisis last year...Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed the deal in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. Last April, Argentina signed a $240m agreement to import Venezuelan fuel in exchange for agricultural goods and this deal has now been extended. Venezuela will now import cattle, medicines and medical equipment. Last year, Argentina's severe energy crisis forced President Kirchner to suspend gas exports to Chile. Argentina fears that rising demand could spark another crisis and wants to prevent it by signing this deal. The two countries also formalised a co-operation deal between Venezuelan energy firm PDVSA and Argentina's Enarsa. Under this deal, the Argentine market will be opened to Venezuelan investment. President Chavez added that Brazil's Petrobras could join soon the co-operation deal. President Chavez is an ardent promoter of the concept of a South American oil company, which could include the state-owned companies of Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia. The two presidents also agreed to create 'Television Sur', a Latin American network of state-owned television channels.",business
"BMW to recall faulty diesel cars..BMW is to recall all cars equipped with a faulty diesel fuel-injection pump supplied by parts maker Robert Bosch...The faulty part does not represent a safety risk and the recall only affects pumps made in December and January. BMW said that it was too early to say how many cars were affected or how much the recall would cost. The German company is to extend a planned production break at one of its plants due to the faulty Bosch part. The Dingolfing site will now be closed all next week instead of for just two days. The additional three-day stoppage will mean a production loss of up to 3,600 vehicles, BMW said, adding that it was confident it could make up the numbers later...Bosch has stopped production of the part but expects to restart by 2 February. The faulty component does not represent a safety risk but causes the motor to stall after a significant amount of mileage. When asked if BMW would be seeking compensation from Bosch, the carmaker's chief executive Helmut Panke said: ""we will first solve the problem before talking about who will pay"". Audi and Mercedes Benz were also supplied with the defective diesel fuel-injection pumps but neither of them have to recall any vehicles. A spokesman for DaimlerChrysler, parent company of Mercedes Benz, said it will however have to halt some production. It is to close the Mercedes factory in Sindelfingen on Monday and Tuesday. Audi said it had been hit by production bottlenecks, due to a shortage of unaffected Bosch parts.",business
"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.""",business
"Yukos accused of lying to court..Russian oil firm Yukos lied to a US court in an attempt to stop the Russian government selling off its key production unit, the court has heard...The unit, Yugansk, was sold to pay off a $27.5bn (£14.5bn) back tax bill. Yukos argued that since it had a US subsidiary and local bank accounts, the US court could declare it bankrupt and stop the auction of Yugansk. But Deutsche Bank - itself a target of a Yukos lawsuit - said documents had been backdated to strengthen the case...Deutsche Bank's evidence came on the first day of a two-day hearing in Houston. Its lawyer, Hugh Ray, told the court that Yukos had claimed it had transferred $27m into two Texas bank accounts opened by its new US subsidiary. By doing so, he said, the firm had intended to reinforce its US presence - and thus its chances of getting its case heard in US courts. But he said that the papers documenting the transaction were not drawn up till weeks after Yukos made its bankruptcy application on 14 December, and then backdated...Yukos chief financial officer Bruce Misamore, who had moved to the US in early December to set up Yukos USA, acknowledged the point. He said the discrepancy was only in the paperwork, but that money had indeed been transferred on 14 December. Even so, he told the court that only $480,000 had been in the accounts that day, with the rest arriving a day later...Deutsche Bank is involved in the case because it is itself being sued by Yukos. It had agreed to loan to an arm of Russian state gas firm Gazprom the money to bid for Yuganskneftegaz, as the Yukos unit is formally known. The sale went ahead, despite an order from the US bankruptcy court ordered that it should be stopped. In the end, the auction was won by an unknown shell company for $9.4bn - much less than most assessments of its value - before ending up in the hands of state-controlled oil firm Rosneft. Rosneft, meanwhile, has agreed to merge with Gazprom, bringing a large chunk of Russia's very profitable oil business back under state control...Yukos maintains that it filed for bankruptcy in the US because it feared it would not be able to do so in Russia. It also said that in the event of going bust, it could offer the chance of restructuring. ""It gives us a kind of life after death alternative,"" said Yukos chief executive Steven Theede. Yukos is currently suing four companies - Gazprom, its unit Gazpromneft, Rosneft and the shell company which won the bidding - for their part in Yugansk's disposal. It has also threatened to sue the Russian government for $28bn. Analysts have questioned whether a US court has any jurisdiction over Russian companies, while Moscow officials have dismissed Yukos' legal wrangling as meaningless. Yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders have been ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is in prison, having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail.",business
"Mexican in US send $16bn home..Mexican labourers living in the US sent a record $16.6bn (£8.82bn) home last year...The Bank of Mexico said that remittances grew 24% last year and now represent the country's second-biggest source of income after oil. Better records and greater prosperity of Mexican expatriates in the US are the main reasons behind the increase. About 10 million Mexicans live in the US, where there are 16 million citizens of Mexican origin. Remittances now represent more than 2% of the country's GDP, according to the Bank of Mexico's figures. Last year, there were 50.9 million transactions, with an average value of $327 per remittance, the bank said. According to Standard & Poor's, which has recently upgraded Mexico's sovereign debt rating, the rise in remittances helps protect the Mexican economy against a potential fall in the international oil prices...The growth in remittances has sparked fierce competition between banks. Bank of America announced last week that it planned to eliminate transfer fees for some customers. Remittance charges are estimated to have dropped by between 50 and 60%, reports from the US Treasury and the Inter-American Development Bank have said. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates that remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean reached $45bn in 2004.",business
"Home loan approvals rising again..The number of mortgages approved in the UK has risen for the first time since May last year, according to lending figures from the Bank of England...New loans in December rose to 83,000, slightly higher than November's nine-year low of 77,000. Mortgage lending rose by £7.1bn in December, up from a £6.4bn rise in November. The figures contradict a survey from the British Bankers' Association, which said approvals were at a five-year low...Analysts say the figures show the market may be stabilising but still point to further house price softness. ""The modest rise in mortgage approvals and lending in December reinforces the impression that the housing market is currently slowing steadily rather than sharply,"" said Global Insight analyst Howard Archer, commenting on the BoE's figures. The BBA believes that the property market is continuing to cool down. Changes to mortgage regulation may have artificially depressed figures in November, thus flattering the December figures, analysts said. In October last year, new rules came into force, which meant some lenders were forced to withdraw mortgage products temporarily in November and defer some lending until they had made sure they had complied with the rules properly. Separately, the Bank of England said that consumer credit rose by £1.5bn in December, more than the £1.4bn expected and above the £1.4bn reported in the previous month.",business
"Manufacturing recovery 'slowing'..UK manufacturing grew at its slowest pace in one-and-a-half years in January, according to a survey...The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) said its purchasing manager index (PMI) fell to 51.8 from a revised 53.3 in December. But, despite missing forecasts of 53.7, the PMI number remained above 50 - indicating expansion in the sector. The CIPS said that the strong pound had dented exports while rising oil and metals prices had kept costs high...The survey added that rising input prices and cooling demand had deterred factory managers from hiring new workers in an effort to cut costs. That triggered the second successive monthly fall in the CIPS employment index to 48.3 - its lowest level since June 2003. The survey is more upbeat than official figures - which suggest that manufacturing is in recession - but analysts said the survey did suggest that the manufacturing recovery was running out of steam. ""It appears that the UK is in a two-tier economy again,"" said Prebon Yamane economist Lena Komileva. ""You have weakness in manufacturing, which I think would concern policymakers at the Bank of England.""",business
"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.",business
"Metlife buys up Citigroup insurer..US banking giant Citigroup has sold its Travelers Life & Annuity insurance arm to Metlife for $11.5bn (£6.1bn)...The sale is a further move by Citigroup away from its 1990s strategy of offering every financial service - insurance, broking and banking. Profit growth in the insurance market has not matched expansion at Citigroup's other businesses. For Metlife, the US's leading insurance company, the purchase gives it access to a much larger distribution network...Robert Benmosche, Metlife's chairman and chief executive, said that it was a ""great opportunity for the brand of Metlife to be distributed through Citigroup"". Under the agreement, Metlife will be able to sell its products through Citigroup over the next 10 years. The deal includes Smith Barney retail brokerages and Citibank branches. The company will pay between $1bn and $3bn in Metlife stock with the rest being made up of cash. Travelers had sales of $5.2bn in 2004 and made a profit of $901m. It has total net assets of $96bn. ""This deal employs some of Metlife's excess capital in a potentially higher-return business and gives it more distribution,"" said Stuart Quint, an analyst at Gartmore.",business
"Europe blames US over weak dollar..European leaders have openly blamed the US for the sharp rise in the value of the euro...US officials were talking up the dollar, they said, but failing to take action to back up their words. Meeting in Brussels, finance ministers of the 12 eurozone countries voiced their concern that the rise of the european currency was harming exports. The dollar is within touching distance of an all-time low reached earlier in November. At 0619 GMT on Tuesday, the dollar was up slightly at just above $1.29 to the euro, and buying 105.6 yen in Tokyo. It rallied briefly on Monday amid signs that oil prices are easing...But analysts said the respite was likely to be only temporary. The European ministers' comments, said Junya Tanase of JPMorgan Chase bank in Tokyo, were ""generally too weak to produce a market reaction""...Still, by the standards of diplomacy the European ministers were forthright. Nicolas Sarkozy of France said he and his colleagues were unanimous in their worry that the decline of the dollar would hit Europe's economies by eating into their exports. ""We are concerned about these developments, which are destabilising, and which are linked to the accumulation of deficits by our American friends,"" he said. The comments come a day after US Treasury Secretary John Snow said a strong dollar was ""in America's interest""...But that was not enough for Mr Sarkozy...""If the Americans were to change their policy, it's up to them to say so,"" he said. And the European Union's monetary affairs commissioner, made it clear that action was necessary. ""I fully welcome the words of Mr Snow,"" said Joaquin Almunia, ""but we will need to see decisions adopted in that direction. ""If the imbalances in the US economy are not adjusted in the future, the decision in the market will be as in the past weeks."" Economists point out that whatever Europe says, in the short term a weaker dollar is a boon to President George W Bush's administration. Not only does it boost US exports, but it also makes the budget deficit easier to fund. On the other hand, slower European exports would mean slower EU growth - potentially reducing the demand for US goods.",business
"French wine gets 70m euro top-up..The French government is to hand its struggling wine industry 70m euros ($91m) in aid to help it battle falling sales and damaging overproduction...The financial package is aimed at assisting vintners in financial trouble and improving how its wine is marketed. The French wine industry, the world's second largest, has been hit by declining consumption at home and the growing popularity of New World wines. Wine makers, however, claimed the support did not go far enough. The package was announced by agriculture minister Dominique Bussereau after talks with vintners' representatives...The bulk of the money - about 40m euros - will be offered in the form of preferential loans to heavily indebted producers to enable them to reschedule their payments. A further 15m euros will be made available to wine cooperatives, which make up the majority of French producers, in low interest loans. Efforts to promote French wine abroad are to be boosted by an extra 3.5m euros in funding. France fell behind the 'New World' producers of Australia, Chile and the United States for the first time in 2003 in terms of exports...Domestic consumption, accounting for 70% of sales, has suffered from strict restrictions on advertising and tough drink-driving laws...The aid package would ""create a positive climate around French viticulture,"" Mr Bussereau said. However, wine makers and farmers said the support was much less than they had been hoping for. ""I am afraid the resources are not up to the ambitions,"" Jean-Michel Lemetayer, from the FNSEA agricultural union, told the Associated Press news agency. In an effort to tackle overcapacity, the government will agree that vines can be destroyed in areas where growers give their unanimous consent, while 500 vintners will be helped to take early retirement. The government will also seek European Union approval to distil about 250 million litres of excess wine into alcohol, with vintners receiving compensation. Production is currently outstripping demand by about 30%. The support is designed to make French producers more competitive in the face of increasing global consolidation across the wine industry. Wine makers in France's best-known regions, such as Burgundy, have found it hard to invest in new technology and to create recognisable brands to appeal to overseas buyers.",business
"Russia gets investment blessing..Soaring oil sales and a budget surplus mean Russian debt is no longer a risky investment, one of the world's leading credit rating agencies says...Standard & Poor's has classed Russian bonds as ""investment grade"", up from their former ""speculative"" rating. Russia's reputation among investors has been hurt in recent months by the heavy tax bills and asset seizures imposed on companies such as oil giant Yukos. S&P said the solidity of government finances outweighed the risk. Russia is now a net creditor rather than a debtor. Gold and foreign currency reserves of $119bn beat its foreign public debt of some $113bn...The other two major ratings agencies - Fitch and Moody's have long since upped their rating of Russia's sovereign debt. S&P had held back through fear that the government was dragging its feet on economic and legal reforms. Now, though, it has finally followed suit. But the agency made it clear that the improved rating did not mean that the risks were a thing of the past. Instead, with Russian government coffers brimming with tax revenues from energy sales, S&P said the government's own debt is looking a good bet. ""These improvements are so significant that they now outweight the serious and growing political risk that continues to be a key ratings constraint on Russia,"" wrote S&P credit analyst Helena Hessel...The Yukos saga is the most high-profile of the political risks to which Ms Hessel alludes. The company's founder and ex-chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is in jail on trial for tax evasion and fraud. Many believe the real motive for his prosecution is that he threatened to use his wealth to set up a political alternative to President Vladimir Putin. His company, meanwhile, is widely believed to have fallen victim to the Kremlin's wish to get Russian energy resources as far as possible back under state control.",business
"Iranian MPs threaten mobile deal..Turkey's biggest private mobile firm could bail out of a $3bn ($1.6bn) deal to build a network in Iran after MPs there slashed its stake in the project...Conservatives in parliament say Turkcell's stake in Irancell, the new network, should be cut from 70% to 49%. They have already given themselves a veto over all foreign investment deals, following allegations about Turkish firms' involvement in Israel. Turkcell now says it may give up on the deal altogether...Iran currently has only one heavily congested mobile network, with long waiting lists for new subscribers. Turkcell signed a contract for the new network in September. The new operator planned to offer subscriptions for about $180, well below the existing firm's $500 price tag. But a parliamentary commission has now ruled that Turkcell's 70% controlling stake is too high. They say that Turkcell is a security risk because of alleged business ties with Israel. Parliament as a whole - dominated by religious conservatives - will vote on the ruling on Tuesday...Turkcell said the ruling would ""make more difficult... Turkcell's financial consolidation of Irancell"" because its stake would be reduced to less than 50%. ""If management control and financial consolidation of Irancell cannot be achieved... the realisation of the project will become risky,"" it warned in a statement. The firm has refused to comment on whether it has business dealings in Israel, although like almost all GSM operators worldwide it has an interconnection deal with Israeli networks so that its customers can use their phones there. The two countries strengthened ties in both defence and economic issues in 2004. Israeli industry minister Ehud Olmert was reported in June to have attended a meeting between Ruhi Dogusoy, Turkcell's chief operating officer, and executives from Israeli telecoms firms. Telecoms is one of two areas specifically targeted by the new veto law on foreign investments, passed earlier in September. The other is airports, a source of controversy after the army closed Tehran's new Imam Khomeini International Airport on its opening day in May 2004. Again, the allegation was that the part-Turkish TAV consortium which built and ran it had links with Israel.",business
"Argentina closes $102.6bn debt swap..Argentina is set to close its $102.6bn (£53.51bn) debt restructuring offer for bondholders later on Friday, with the government hopeful that most creditors will accept the deal...The estimated loss to bondholders is up to 70% of the original value of the bonds, yet the majority are expected to accept the government's offer. Argentina defaulted on its debt three years ago, the biggest sovereign default in modern history. Yesterday Argentina's economy minister, Roberto Lavagna, said that he estimated that the results of the restructuring would be ready around next Thursday (3 March). Argentina's President, Nestor Kirchner, said on Friday: ""A year ago when we started the swap (negotiations), they told us we were crazy, that we were irrational."" But he added that his government was close to achieving: ""The best debt renegotiation in history."" The country has been in default on the $102.6bn - based on an original debt of $81.8bn plus interest - for the past three years. If the offer does not go ahead, international lawsuits on behalf of aggrieved investors could follow but analysts are optimistic that it will go through, despite the tough terms for bondholders. About 70% to 80% of bondholders are expected to accept the terms of the offer. By 18 February, creditors holding $41bn - or 40% of the total debt - had accepted the offer. Sorting out its debt would enhance the country's credibility on international markets and enable it to attract more foreign investment. Of Argentina's bondholders, 38.4% reside in Argentina, 15.6% in Italy, 10.3% in Switzerland, 9.1% in the United States, 5.1% in Germany and 3.1% in Japan. Investors in the UK, Holland and Luxembourg have about 1% each and the remainder were not broken down by country. The deal is likely to be taken up most enthusiastically by domestic investors, who will benefit if Argentina's economy becomes more stable.",business
"US economy shows solid GDP growth..The US economy has grown more than expected, expanding at an annual rate of 3.8% in the last quarter of 2004...The gross domestic product figure was ahead of the 3.1% the government estimated a month ago. The rise reflects stronger spending by businesses on capital equipment and a smaller-than-expected trade deficit. GDP is a measure of a country's economic health, reflecting the value of the goods and services it produces...The new GDP figure, announced by the Commerce Department on Friday, also topped the 3.5% growth rate that economists had forecast ahead of Friday's announcement. Growth was at an annual rate of 4% in the third quarter of 2004 and for the year it came in at 4.4%, the best figure in five years. However, the positive economic climate may lead to a rise in interest rates, with many expecting US rates to rise on 22 March. In the January-to-March quarter, the economy is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 4%, economists forecast. In the final quarter of 2004, businesses increased spending on capital equipment and software by 18%, up from 17.5% in the third quarter. Consumer spending grew 4.2% in the final quarter, down from the third quarter's 5.1%.",business
"Profits slide at India's Dr Reddy..Profits at Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's fell 93% as research costs rose and sales flagged...The firm said its profits were 40m rupees ($915,000; £486,000) for the three months to December on sales which fell 8% to 4.7bn rupees. Dr Reddy's has built its reputation on producing generic versions of big-name pharmaceutical products. But competition has intensified and the firm and the company is short on new product launches. The most recent was the annoucement in December 2000 that it had won exclusive marketing rights for a generic version of the famous anti-depressant Prozac from its maker, Eli Lilly. It also lost a key court case in March 2004, banning it from selling a version of Pfizer's popular hypertension drug Norvasc in the US. Research and development of new drugs is continuing apace, with R&D spending rising 37% to 705m rupees - a key cause of the decrease in profits alongside the fall in sales. Patents on a number of well-known products are due to run out in the near future, representing an opportunity for Dr Reddy, whose shares are listed in New York, and other Indian generics manufacturers...Sales in Dr Reddy's generics business fell 8.6% to 966m rupees. Another staple of the the firm's business, the sale of ingredients for drugs, also performed poorly. Sales were down more than 25% from the previous year to 1.4bn rupees in the face of strong competition both at home, and in the US and Europe. Dr Reddy's Indian competitors are gathering strength although they too face heavy competitive pressures.",business
"Burren awarded Egyptian contracts..British energy firm Burren Energy has been awarded two potentially lucrative oil exploration contracts in Egypt...The company successfully bid for the two contracts, granted by government owned oil firms, covering onshore and offshore areas in the Gulf of Suez. Burren Energy already has a presence in Egypt, having been awarded an exploration contract last year. The firm, which floated in 2003, recently announced a deal to buy 26% of Indian firm Hindustan Oil Exploration. The £13.8m deal gives Burren Energy access to the Indian oil and gas industry. This latest contract expands Burren Energy's global exploration and production portfolio - it also holds contracts in Turkmenistan and the Republic of Congo. ""These assets significantly increase our exploration portfolio in Egypt and we continue to investigate further opportunities in this region,"" said chief executive Finian O'Sullivan.",business
"'Strong dollar' call halts slide..The US dollar's slide against the euro and yen has halted after US Treasury Secretary John Snow said a strong dollar was ""in America's interest""...But analysts said any gains are likely to be short-lived as problems with the US economy were still significant. They also pointed out that positive comments apart, President George W Bush's administration had done little to stop the dollar's slide. A weak dollar helps boost exports and narrow the current account deficit. The dollar was trading at $1.2944 against the euro at 2100GMT, still close to the $1.3006 record level set on 10 November. Against the Japanese yen, it was trading at 105.28 yen, after hitting a seven-month low of 105.17 earlier in the day...Policy makers in Europe have called the dollar's slide ""brutal"" and have blamed the strength of the euro for dampening economic growth. However, it is unclear whether ministers would issue a declaration aimed at curbing the euro's rise at a monthly meeting of Eurozone ministers late on Monday. Higher growth in Europe is regarded by US officials as a way the huge US current account deficit - that has been weighing on the dollar - could be reduced. Mr Snow who is currently in Dublin at the start of a four-nation EU visit, has applauded Ireland's introduction of lower taxes and deregulation which have helped boost growth. ""The eurozone is growing below its potential. When a major part of the global economy is below potential there are negative consequences... for the citizens of those economies... and for their trading partners,"" he said. Mr Snow's comments may have helped shore up the dollar on Monday, but he was careful to qualify his statement...""Our basic policy, of course, is to let open, competitive markets set the values,"" he explained. ""Markets are driven by fundamentals and towards fundamentals."" US officials have also said that other economies need to grow, so the US is not the main global growth engine. Economists say that the fundamentals, or key indicators, of the US economy are looking far from rosy. Domestic consumer demand is cooling, and heavy spending by President Bush has pushed the budget deficit to a record $427bn (£230bn). The current account deficit, meanwhile, hit a record $166bn in the second quarter of 2004. For many analysts, a weaker dollar is here to stay. ""No end is in sight,"" said Carsten Fritsch, a strategist at Commerzbank . ""It is only a matter of time until the euro reaches $1.30."" Some analysts maintain the US is secretly happy with a lower dollar which helps makes its exports cheaper in Europe, thus boosting its economy.",business
"IMF 'cuts' German growth estimate..The International Monetary Fund is to cut its 2005 growth forecast for the German economy from 1.8% to 0.8%, the Financial Times Deutschland reported...The IMF will also reduce its growth estimate for the 12-member eurozone economy from 2.2% to 1.6%, the newspaper reported. The German economy has been faltering, with unemployment levels rising to a seventy-year high of 5.2 million. Its sluggish performance continues to hamper the entire eurozone...The IMF's draft World Economic Outlook - due to be published in April - would point to a marked deterioration in Germany's economy, the FT report said...In September, the IMF had said that German growth for the current year would be 1.8%. The IMF has also revised eurozone forecasts, the paper said, taking into account high oil prices, the strength of the euro and weak demand in many of the world's leading economies. Europe's economic difficulties have been highlighted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which argued in a report published on Tuesday that the continent could only achieve US living standards by freeing up its labour markets. ""The eurozone does not look like it has a self-sustaining recovery,"" James Carrick, an economist with ABN Amro, told the newspaper. ""It is too dependant on the rest of the world.""",business
"GM, Ford cut output as sales fall..US car firms General Motors (GM) and Ford have been forced to cut production in the face of falling car sales...US sales at GM sank 12.7% in February compared to a year ago while Ford sales dropped 3% as foreign rivals took a bigger share of the market. Meanwhile, Asian carmakers fared well - Toyota sales jumped 11% while rival Nissan notched up a 10% increase. Overall. sales across the industry also fell to 1.25 million vehicles from 1.27 million a year earlier...GM and Ford blamed high fuel prices for low sales of big trucks and gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles (SUVs) - the vehicles that provide the biggest profits...GM added that US truck sales fell 9% in February while car business tumbled 17%, however it did acknowledge that some new products - such as the Pontiac G6 and Chevrolet Cobalt - had put in solid performances. ""The calendar year is starting off slower than expected, both for GM and the industry,"" said Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president for North American sales, service and marketing. The slump in sales prompted the group to cut production in North America by 3% - it has already reduced output by around 9% in the face of growing stockpiles. Meanwhile, Ford which posted its ninth consecutive drop in monthly US sales, said it was cutting first-quarter North American production by another 10,000 vehicles, or 1.2%. Chrysler, the US unit of Germany's DaimlerChrysler, was the only Detroit based automaker to boast an increase in market share during the month - with sales rising 8%...But America's loss was its foreign rivals' gain as they continued to nibble away at the US market. While Japan's top car maker Toyota and Nissan saw sales accelerate, even the smaller Suzuki Motor Corp snapped up a more business with sales improving 17.6% on a year ago. In 2003, the firm launched an ambitious plan to triple US sales by 2007 as it seeks to become a bigger player in the Asian assault on the US market. Korea's Hyundai was another big gainer, turning in a 19% surge in February sales. Toyota put its rise in sales down to strong results for its redesigned Avalon sedan and a 120% surge in sales of its gas-electric Prius hybrid mid-size sedan as petrol-price conscious consumers looked to vehicles that were cheaper to run. ""As gas prices continue their upward march, fuel efficiency catches the public eye,"" Jim Press, vice president and chief operating officer of Toyota's US sales arm, said in a statement.",business
"Ebbers denies WorldCom fraud..Former WorldCom chief Bernie Ebbers has denied claims that he knew accountants were doctoring the books at the firm...Speaking in court, Mr Ebbers rejected allegations he pressured ex-chief financial officer Scott Sullivan to falsify company financial statements. Mr Sullivan ""made accounting decisions,"" he told the federal court, saying his finance chief had ""a keen command of the numbers"". Mr Ebbers has denied charges of fraud and conspiracy. During his second day of questioning in the New York trial Mr Ebbers played down his working relationship with Mr Sullivan and denied he frequently met him to discuss company business when questioned by the prosecution...""In a lot of weeks, we would speak ... three or four times,"" Mr Ebbers said, adding that conversations about finances were rarely one-on-one and were usually discussed by a ""group of people"" instead...Mr Ebbers relationship to Mr Sullivan is key to the case surrounding financial corruption that led to the collapse of the firm in 2002 following the discovery of an $11bn accounting fraud. The prosecution's star witness is Mr Sullivan, one of six WorldCom executives indicted in the case, He has pleaded guilty to fraud and appeared as a prosecution witness as part of an agreement with prosecutors. During his time on the witness stand Mr Sullivan repeatedly told jurors he met frequently with Mr Ebbers, told him about changes made to WorldCom's accounts to hide costs and had warned him such practises were improper. However during the case on Tuesday Mr Ebbers denied the allegations. ""I wasn't advised by Scott Sullivan of anything ever being wrong,"" he told the court. ""He's never told me he made an entry that wasn't right. If he had, we wouldn't be here today."" Mr Ebbers could face a jail sentence of up to 85 years if convicted of all the charges he is facing. Shareholders lost about $180bn in WorldCom's collapse, 20,000 workers lost their jobs and the company went bankrupt. The company emerged from bankruptcy last year and is now known as MCI.",business
"Australia rates at four year high..Australia is raising its benchmark interest rate to its highest level in four years despite signs of a slowdown in the country's economy...The Reserve Bank of Australia lifted interest rates 0.25% to 5.5%, their first upwards move in more than a year. However, shortly after the Bank made its decision, new figures showed a fall in economic growth in the last quarter. The Bank said it had acted to curb inflation but the move was criticised by some analysts...The rate hike was the first since December 2003 and had been well-flagged in advance. However, opposition parties and some analysts said the move was ill-timed given data showing the Australian economy grew just 0.1% between October and December and 1.5% on an annual basis...The figures, representing a decline from the 0.2% growth in GDP seen between July and September, were below market expectations. Consumer spending remains strong, however, and the Bank is concerned about growing inflationary pressures. ""Over recent months it has become increasingly clear that remaining spare capacity in the labour and goods markets is becoming rather limited,"" said Ian Macfarlane, Governor of the Reserve Bank...At 2.6%, inflation remains within the Bank's 2-3% target range. However, exports declined in the second half of 2004, fuelling a rise in the country's current account deficit - the difference in the value of imports compared to exports - to a record Australian dollar 29.4bn. The Australian government said the economy remained strong with unemployment at a near 30 year low. ""The economy has been strong and it is properly moderating but it doesn't look to me like it's slowing in any unreasonable way,"" said Treasurer Peter Costello. Stock markets had factored in the likelihood of a rate rise but analysts still expressed concern about the strength of the economy. ""That 1.5% annual growth rate is the lowest we have seen since the post-election slump we saw back in 2000-1,"" said Michael Blythe, chief economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. ""This suggests the economy really did slow very sharply in the second half of 2004.""",business
"US company admits Benin bribery..A US defence and telecommunications company has agreed to pay $28.5m after admitting bribery in the West African state of Benin...The Titan corporation was accused of funnelling more than $2m into the 2001 re-election campaign of President Mathieu Kerekou. At the time, Titan was trying to get a higher price for a telecommunications project in Benin. There is no suggestion that Mr Kerekou was himself aware of any wrongdoing. Titan, a California-based company, pleaded guilty to falsifying its accounts and violating US anti-bribery laws. It agreed to pay $13m in criminal penalties, as well as $15.5m to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the US financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)...The SEC had accused Titan of illegally paying $2.1m to an unnamed agent in Benin claiming ties with President Kerekou. Some of the money was used to pay for T-shirts with campaign slogans on them ahead of the 2001 election. Shortly after the poll, which Mr Kerekou won, Benin officials agreed to quadruple Titan's management fee. Prosecuting attorney Carol Lam said: ""All US companies should take note that attempting to bribe foreign officials is criminal conduct and will be appropriately prosecuted."" The company says it no longer tolerates such practices. Under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it is a crime for American firms to bribe foreign officials.",business
"US insurer Marsh cuts 2,500 jobs..Up to 2,500 jobs are to go at US insurance broker Marsh & McLennan in a shake up following bigger-than-expected losses...The insurer said the cuts were part of a cost-cutting drive, aimed at saving millions of dollars. Marsh posted a $676m (£352m) loss for the last three months of 2004, against a $375m (£195.3m) profit a year before. It blamed an $850m payout to settle a price-rigging lawsuit, brought by New York attorney general Elliot Spitzer. Under the settlement announced in January, Marsh took a pre-tax charge of $618m in the October-to-December quarter, on top of the $232m charge from the previous quarter. ""Clearly 2004 was the most difficult year in MMC's financial history,"" Marsh chief executive Michael Cherkasky said...An ongoing restructuring drive at the group also led to a $337m hit in the fourth quarter, the world's biggest insurer said...Analysts expect its latest round of cuts to focus on its brokerage unit, which employs 40,000 staff. The latest layoffs will take the total number of jobs to go at the firm to 5,500 and are expected to lead to annual savings of more than $375m. As part of its efforts to cut costs, the company said it was halving its dividend payment to 17 cents a shares from 34 cents, a move which should enable it to save $360m. Looking ahead, Mr Cherkasky forecast profitable growth for the year ahead ""with an operating margin in the upper-teens, and with the opportunity for further margin expansion"". Meanwhile, the company also announced it would spin-off its MMC Capital private equity unit, which manages the $3bn Trident Funds operation, to a group of employees. Marsh did not say when the move would take place, but said it had signed a letter of intent...The insurer hit the headlines in October last year when it faced accusations of price rigging. New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer sued the company, accusing it of receiving illegal payments to steer clients to selected firms as well as rigging bids and fixing prices. In January, Marsh agreed to pay $850m to settle the suit - a figure in line with the placement fees it collected in 2003 - and agreed to change its business practices. In February, a former senior executive pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a wide-ranging probe of fraud and bid-rigging in the insurance industry. In January, a former senior vice president also pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the investigation. In an effort to reform its business practises, Marsh said it has already introduced new leadership, new compliance procedures and new ways of dealing with customers. ""As a result, we are ready to put these matters behind us and move ahead in 2005 to restore the trust our clients have placed in us and to rebuild shareholder value,"" Mr Cherkasky said.",business
"US seeks new $280bn smoker ruling..The US Justice Department is to try to overturn a court ruling that threw out its claim for $280bn (£149bn) in damages from tobacco firms...Earlier this month, a three-judge appeal court panel rejected the claim - filed in 1999 by the administration of Bill Clinton - in a 2-1 decision. Government lawyers said they would ask the full US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to hear the case. The court room battle is seen as key in government attempts to fight smoking. ""It's pretty clear that they've suffered a severe setback,"" said Anthony Sebok, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, adding that the appeal was what the government ""would be expected to ask for""...Prosecutors had argued that tobacco firms lied about the dangers of smoking, ignored research that highlighted problems, looked to increase addiction by manipulating nicotine levels and targeted the young with their adverts. Among the firms accused were Altria Group, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco, Liggett Group and Brown and Williamson. Prosecutors went after the companies using legislation put in place to fight organised crime, and accused the firms of conspiring and running ""Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations"". The tobacco companies denied the charges, saying that they never illegally conspired to promote smoking and fool the public. They also said that they have met many of the government's demands laid out in a landmark $206bn settlement hammered out in 1998 with 46 states. A three-judge panel agreed with the companies, finding that the case could not be brought under federal anti-racketeering laws...Central to the government's case was a meeting in the Plaza Hotel, New York, on 15 December, 1953. Prosecutors contend that executives from the major tobacco firms met and agreed to present a unified strategy denying the harmful effects of smoking. Despite denying for decades that smoking could be linked to illness, the companies have modified their stances in recent years. Altria's Philip Morris now accepts that nicotine is harmful, and the company's main lawyer William Ohlemeyer told the BBC last year that earlier statements may have been wrong but they were not dishonest. Government lawyers have until 21 March to file their appeal.",business
"Budget Aston takes on Porsche..British car maker Aston Martin has gone head-to-head with Porsche's 911 sports cars with the launch of its cheapest model yet...With a price tag under £80,000, the V8 Vantage is tens of thousands of pounds cheaper than existing Aston models. The Vantage is ""the most important car in the history of our company"", said Aston's chief executive Ulrich Bez. Aston - whose cars were famously used by James Bond - will unveil the Vantage at the Geneva Motor Show on Thursday. Mr Bez - himself a former executive at rival Porsche - said the new car was the company's ""most affordable car ever and makes the brand accessible"". This in turn would make Aston Martin ""globally visible, but still very, very exclusive"", he added...First shown as a concept car at the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the V8 Vantage will be available in the UK in late summer. Development costs for the Vantage have been kept low by sharing a platform with Aston's DB9, which Mr Bez described as ""the previous most important car for our company"". There is currently an 18 months waiting list for the DB9, Mr Bez said. The Vantage will be built at the new Aston factory in Gaydon, near Warwick, and should more than double Aston's total output from about 2,000 presently.",business
"Golden rule 'intact' says ex-aide..Chancellor Gordon Brown will meet his golden economic rule ""with a margin to spare"", according to his former chief economic adviser...Formerly one of Mr Brown's closest Treasury aides, Ed Balls hinted at a Budget giveaway on 16 March. He said he hoped more would be done to build on current tax credit rules. Any rate rise ahead of an expected May election would not affect the Labour Party's chances of winning, he added. Last July, Mr Balls won the right to step down from his Treasury position and run for parliament, defending the Labour stronghold of Normanton in West Yorkshire...Mr Balls rejected the allegation that Mr Brown had been sidelined in the election campaign, saying he was playing a ""different"" role to the one he played in the last two elections. He rejected speculation that Mr Brown was considering becoming Foreign Secretary, saying his recent travels had been linked to efforts to boost international development. Gordon Brown's decision to announce the date of the Budget while on a trip to China was a ""sensible thing to do"", since he was talking about skills and investment at the time, Mr Balls told the BBC. Commenting on speculation of an interest rate rise, he said it was not within the remit of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to factor a potential election into its rate decisions. Expectations of a rate rise have gathered pace after figures showed that house prices are still rising. Consumer borrowing rose at a near-record pace in January. ""I don't believe it would be a big election issue in Britain or a problem for Labour,"" Mr Balls said. Prime Minister Tony Blair has yet to name the date of the election, but most pundits are betting on 5 May as the likely day.",business
"Liberian economy starts to grow..The Liberian economy started to grow in 2004, but ""sustained and deep reform efforts"" are needed to ensure long term growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said...An IMF mission made the comments in a report published following 10 days of talks with the transition government. The IMF said that, according to data provided by the Liberians, the country's GDP rose by 2% in 2004, after a 31% decline in 2003. Liberia is recovering from a 14-year civil war that came to an end in 2003. The power-sharing National Transition Government of Liberia will remain in place until elections on 11 October, the first presidential and parliamentary ballots since the conflict ended...The IMF said Liberia's economy started to grow last year thanks to a ""continued strong recovery in rubber production, domestic manufacturing and local services including post-conflict reconstruction"". The IMF however remains cautious about what it sees as a lack of transparency in government actions. In particular, it pointed to mystery surrounding the sale of iron ore stockpiles and the alleged disappearance of some import and export permits. These matters are now being investigated by the Liberian authorities and the IMF has called for their findings to be made public. The IMF also said it was crucial that the Central Bank of Liberia be strengthened, the national budget be effectively managed and a sound economic basis built to allow the country's large external debt to be addressed. ""The IMF team stands ready to assist the (Liberian) authorities in strengthening the areas mentioned,"" said the report. ""The team agreed with the (Liberian) authorities that the period until elections and the inauguration of a new government will pose exceptional challenges to fiscal management, and expresses its willingness to provide...continued support.""",business
"Slowdown hits US factory growth..US industrial production increased for the 21st month in a row in February, but at a slower pace than in January, official figures show...The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) index fell to 55.3 in February, from an adjusted 56.4 in January. Although the index was lower than in January, the fact that it held above 50 shows continued growth in the sector. ""February was another good month in the manufacturing sector,"" said ISM survey chairman Norbert Ore...""While the overall rate of growth is slowing, the overall picture is improving as price increases and shortages are becoming less of a problem. Exports and imports remain strong,"" he said. Analysts had expected February's figure to be stronger than January's and come in at 57. Of the 20 manufacturing sectors surveyed by ISM, 13 reported growth. They included the textiles, apparel, tobacco, chemicals and transportation sectors. The ISM's index of national manufacturing activity is compiled from the responses of purchasing executives at more than 400 industrial companies.",business
"Lufthansa flies back to profit..German airline Lufthansa has returned to profit in 2004 after posting huge losses in 2003...In a preliminary report, the airline announced net profits of 400m euros ($527.61m; £274.73m), compared with a loss of 984m euros in 2003. Operating profits were at 380m euros, ten times more than in 2003. Lufthansa was hit in 2003 by tough competition and a dip in demand following the Iraq war and the killer SARS virus. It was also hit by troubles at its US catering business. Last year, Lufthansa showed signs of recovery even as some European and US airlines were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The board of Lufthansa has recommended paying a 2004 dividend of 0.30 euros per share. In 2003, shareholders did not get a dividend. The company said that it will give all the details of its 2004 results on 23 March.",business
"Japanese growth grinds to a halt..Growth in Japan evaporated in the three months to September, sparking renewed concern about an economy not long out of a decade-long trough...Output in the period grew just 0.1%, an annual rate of 0.3%. Exports - the usual engine of recovery - faltered, while domestic demand stayed subdued and corporate investment also fell short. The growth falls well short of expectations, but does mark a sixth straight quarter of expansion...The economy had stagnated throughout the 1990s, experiencing only brief spurts of expansion amid long periods in the doldrums. One result was deflation - prices falling rather than rising - which made Japanese shoppers cautious and kept them from spending...The effect was to leave the economy more dependent than ever on exports for its recent recovery. But high oil prices have knocked 0.2% off the growth rate, while the falling dollar means products shipped to the US are becoming relatively more expensive...The performance for the third quarter marks a sharp downturn from earlier in the year. The first quarter showed annual growth of 6.3%, with the second showing 1.1%, and economists had been predicting as much as 2% this time around. ""Exports slowed while capital spending became weaker,"" said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at UBS Securities in Tokyo. ""Personal consumption looks good, but it was mainly due to temporary factors such as the Olympics. ""The amber light is flashing."" The government may now find it more difficult to raise taxes, a policy it will have to implement when the economy picks up to help deal with Japan's massive public debt.",business
"Unilever shake up as profit slips..Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever is to merge its two management boards after reporting ""unsatisfactory"" earnings for 2004...It blamed the poor results on sluggish decision making, a rise in discounted retailers and a wet European summer. The company also cited difficult trading conditions and a lack of demand for goods such as its Slimfast range. Unilever, which owns brands including Dove soap, said annual pre-tax profit fell 36% to 2.9bn euros (£1.99bn). Shares fell 1% to 510.75 pence in London, and dropped by 1.2% to 50.50 euros in Amsterdam...Under the restructuring plans, Patrick Cescau, the UK-based co-chairman, will become group chief executive. Dutch co-chairman Antony Burgmans will take on the role of non-executive chairman...""We have recognised the need for greater clarity of leadership and we are moving to a simpler leadership structure that will provide a sharper operational focus,"" Mr Burgmans said. ""We are leaving behind one of the key features of Unilever's governance but this is a natural development following the changes introduced last year."" The company, which has had dual headquarters in Rotterdam and London since 1930, will announce the location of its head office at a later date. Unilever is not alone in trying to simplify its business. Oil giant Shell last year dismantled its dual-ownership structure, after a series of problems relating to the size of its oil reserves that hammered its share price and led to the resignation of key board members. ""The best part of the news this morning was that the company announced a structure simplification,"" said Arjan Sweere, an analyst at Petercam...The company said the organizational changes would speed decision making, and it also may make further changes...The company said its main focus will be on improving profits, and it is planning to accelerate and increase investment in its 400 main brands. ""While it is certainly the case that markets have been tougher in the past eighteen months than we had expected, we have also lost some market share,"" said Mr Cescau. ""We let a range of targets limit our ability flexibility and did not adjust our plans quickly enough to a more difficult business environment."" ""Our objective is to reverse the share loss that we experienced in some markets in 2004 and return to growth.""..Unilever said European sales fell 2.8% last year, dragged down by below part sales at its beverage division, where revenues dipped by almost 4%...Sales of ice cream and frozen food dipped by 3.4% In the US last year, revenue grew by 1.5% ""despite disappointing sales in Slimfast"", the company said. In Asia, leading products came under ""attack"" from rivals such as Procter & Gamble. Unilever took a 1.5bn euro one-time charge in the fourth quarter, including a 650m euro write-down on Slimfast diet foods. Sales of Slimfast products have been hit in recent years by the popularity of the Atkins diet. But looking ahead, Unilever said it was optimistic about prospects for its slimming products saying that demand is on the wane for rival low-carbohydrate diets. The company also said it planned to spend 500m euros this year buying back shares.",business
"France Telecom gets Orange boost..Strong growth in subscriptions to mobile phone network Orange has helped boost profits at owner France Telecom...Orange added more than five million new customers in 2004, leading to a 10% increase in its revenues. Increased take-up of broadband telecoms services also boosted France Telecom's profits, which showed a 5.5% rise to 18.3bn euros ($23.4bn; £12.5bn). France Telecom is to spend 578m euros on buying out minority shareholders in data services provider Equant...France Telecom, one of the world's largest telecoms and internet service providers, saw its full-year sales rise 2.2% to 47.2bn euros in 2004...Orange enjoyed strong growth outside France and the United Kingdom - its core markets - swelling its subscriber base to 5.4 million. France Telecom's broadband customers also increased, rising to 5.1 million across Europe by the end of the year. The firm said it had met its main strategic objectives of growing its individual businesses and further reducing its large debt. An ill-fated expansion drive in the late 1990s saw France Telecom's debt soar to 72bn euros by 2002. However, this has now been reduced to 43.9bn euros. ""Our results for 2004 allow us to improve our financial structure while focusing on the innovation that drives our strategy,"" said chief executive Thierry Breton...Looking ahead, the company forecast like-for-like sales growth of between 3% and 5% over the next three years. France Telecom is consolidating its interest in Equant, which provides telecoms and data services to businesses. Subject to approval by shareholders of the two firms, it will buy the shares in Equant it does not already own. France Telecom said it would fund the deal by selling an 8% stake in telephone directory company PagesJaunes.",business
"Brussels raps mobile call charges..The European Commission has written to the mobile phone operators Vodafone and T-Mobile to challenge ""the high rates"" they charge for international roaming...In letters sent to the two companies, the Commission alleged the firms were abusing their dominant market position in the German mobile phone market. It is the second time Vodafone has come under the Commission's scrutiny. The UK operator is already appealing against allegations that its UK roaming rates are ""unfair and excessive"". Vodafone's response to the Commission's letter was defiant. ""We believe the roaming market is competitive and we expect to resist the charges,"" said a Vodafone spokesman. ""However we will need time to examine the statement of objections in detail before we formally respond.""..The Commission's investigation into Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile centres on the tariffs the two companies charge foreign mobile operators to access their networks when subscribers of those foreign operators use their mobile phones in Germany...The Commission believes these wholesale prices are too high and that the excess is passed on to consumers. ""The Commission aims to ensure that European consumers are not overcharged when they use their mobile phones on their travels around the European Union,"" the Commission said in a statement. Vodafone and O2, Britain's other big mobile phone operator, were sent similar statements of objections by the Commission in July last year. Vodafone sent the Commission a response to those allegations in December last year and is now waiting for a reply. The Vodafone spokesman said a similar process would be set in motion with these latest statement of objections about its operations in Germany...The companies will have three months to respond to the Commission's allegations and the process ""may go on for some time yet"", the spokesman said. The Commission could charge the companies up to 10% of their annual turnover, though in practice that sort of figure is rarely demanded. The Commission's latest move comes just a few months after national telecoms regulators across Europe launched a joint investigation which could lead to people being charged less for using their mobile phone when travelling abroad. The investigation involves regulators assessing whether there is effective competition in the roaming market.",business
"WorldCom director admits lying..The former chief financial officer at US telecoms firm WorldCom has admitted before a New York court that he used to lie to fellow board members...Speaking at the trial of his former boss Bernard Ebbers, Scott Sullivan said he lied to the board to cover up the hole in WorldCom's finances. Mr Ebbers is on trial for fraud and conspiracy in relation to WorldCom's collapse in 2002. He pleads not guilty. The firm had been overstating its accounts by $11bn (£8.5bn). Mr Sullivan, 42, has already pleaded guilty to fraud and will be sentenced following Mr Ebbers' trial, where he is appearing as a prosecution witness. Mr Ebbers, 63, has always insisted that he was unaware of any hidden shortfalls in WorldCom's finances...In the New York court on Wednesday, Mr Ebbers' lawyer Reid Weingarten asked Mr Sullivan: ""If you believe something is in your interest, you are willing and able to lie to accomplish it, isn't that right?""..""On that date, yes. I was lying,"" replied Mr Sullivan. Mr Weingarten has suggested that Mr Sullivan is implicating Mr Ebbers only to win a lighter sentence, something Mr Sullivan denies. Mr Sullivan also rejects a suggestion that he had once told fellow WorldCom board member Bert Roberts that Mr Ebbers was unaware of the accounting fraud at WorldCom. The trial of Mr Ebbers is now into its third week...Under 23 hours of questioning from a federal prosecutor, Mr Sullivan has previously told the court that he repeatedly warned Mr Ebbers that falsifying the books would be the only way to meet Wall Street revenue and earnings expectations. Mr Sullivan claims that Mr Ebbers refused to stop the fraud. Mr Ebbers could face a sentence of 85 years if convicted of all the charges he is facing. WorldCom's problems appear to have begun with the collapse of the dotcom boom which cut its business from internet companies. Prosecutors allege that the company's top executives responded by orchestrating massive fraud over a two-year period. WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004, and is now known as MCI.",business
"Glaxo aims high after profit fall..GlaxoSmithKline saw its profits fall 9% last year to £6.2bn ($11.5bn), but Europe's biggest drugmaker says a recovery during 2005 is on the way...Cheap copies of its drugs, particularly anti-depressants Paxil and Wellbutrin, and a weak dollar had hit profits, but global sales were up 1% in 2004. The firm is confident its new drug pipeline will deliver profits despite the failure of an obesity drug. Chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier said it had been a ""difficult year""...In early afternoon trade in London the company share price was down 1% at 1218 pence. Mr Garnier said the company had absorbed over £1.5bn of lost sales to generics but still managing to grow the business. ""The continuing success of our key products means we can now look forward to a good performance in 2005,"" he said. ""2005 will also be an important year in terms of research and development pipeline progress."" However, the firm discontinued development of an experimental treatment for obesity, known as '771, after disappointing clinical trial results. Glaxo is relying on new treatments for conditions such as cancer, diabetes, depression, HIV/AIDS and allergies to lift the pace of sales growth after several disappointing years.",business
"Japan bank shares up on link talk..Shares of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial (SMFG), and Daiwa Securities jumped amid speculation that two of Japan's biggest financial companies will merge...Financial newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun claimed that the firms will join up next year and already have held discussions with Japanese regulators. The firms denied that they are about to link up, but said they are examining ways of working more closely together. SMFG shares climbed by 2.7% to 717,000, and Daiwa added 5.3% to 740 yen...Combining SMFG, Japan's third-biggest lender, and Daiwa, the country's second-largest brokerage firm, would create a company with assets of more than $1,000bn (£537bn). SMFG President Yoshifumi Nishikawa said that the companies needed to bolster their businesses. ""Both companies need to strengthen retail and other operations,"" he said, adding that ""it's an issue we have in common"". Daiwa said that ""although it is true that the two groups have been engaging in various discussions to enhance cooperation, there are no plans to enter into negotiations to consolidate the two businesses"". Analysts said that consolidation in Japan's financial sector was likely to continue and that it was likely to have a positive impact on earnings. ""Cross-selling opportunities between banks and brokers are increasing thanks to deregulation, so we can expect the relationship to get even stronger,"" said Heronry Nozaki, an analyst at NikkoCitigroup. The merger ""would be a good move,"" he added.",business
"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.",business
"Ericsson sees earnings improve..Telecoms equipment supplier Ericsson has posted a rise in fourth quarter profits thanks to clients like Deutsche Telekom upgrade their networks...Operating profit in the three months to 31 December was 9.5bn kronor (£722m; $1.3bn) against 6.3bn kronor last year. Shares tumbled, however, as the company reported a profit margin of 45.6%, less than the 47.3% forecast by analysts and down from 47.1% in the third quarter. Ericsson shares dropped 5.9% to 20.7 kronor in early trading on Thursday. However, the company remained optimistic about its earnings outlook after sales in the fourth quarter rose 9% to 39.4bn kronor. ""Long-term growth drivers of the industry remain solid,"" Ericsson said in a statement...Chief executive Carl-Henric Svanberg explained that about ""27% of the world's population now has access to mobile communications"". ""This is exciting for a company with a vision of an all-communicating world,"" he added. Mr Svanberg, however, warned that the extra demand that had driven 2004 sales had already dissipated and it was ""business as usual"". He added that sales in the first three months of 2005 would be subject to ""normal seasonality"". For the whole of 2004, Ericsson returned a net profit of 19bn kronor, compared with a loss of 10.8bn kronor in 2003. Sales climbed to 131.9 billion kronor from 117.7bn kronor in 2003.",business
"Bank opts to leave rates on hold..The Bank of England has left interest rates on hold at 4.75% for a sixth month in a row...The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to take no action amid mixed signals from the economy. But some economists predict a further rise in the cost of borrowing will come later this year. Interest rates rose five times between November 2003 and August 2004 as soaring house prices and buoyant consumer data sparked inflation fears. Bank of England governor Mervyn King has recently warned against placing too much weight on one month's economic data, suggesting the MPC is waiting for a clearer picture to emerge. Economists see next week's inflation report from the MPC as key in assessing whether a further interest rate rise is necessary to keep the economy in check...Slower consumer spending and a quieter housing market are likely to have convinced the MPC that rates should be left unchanged in recent months. Inflation, however, has been rising faster than expected, hitting an annual rate of 1.6% in December - its highest level in six months. Data on Wednesday also showed manufacturing output rose at its fastest rate since May last month, reinforcing a view that economic growth was stronger than forecasts...And recent house surveys from the Halifax and Nationwide have indicated prices are still rising, albeit at a slower pace than in recent years. Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec Securities, said he believed rates would remain at 4.75% for the rest of the year although strong economic data could lead to a further hike. ""The economic landscape has changed quite considerably over the last couple of months, "" he said. ""Growth appears stronger and the MPC may become more concerned about inflation trends."" Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight said the MPC ""may well consider that the balance of risks to the growth and inflation outlook have moved from the downside to the upside""...Business groups welcomed the MPC's widely-expected move to leave rates on hold and cautioned against further rises. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said it was ""concerned by the clamour in some quarters"" for early interest rate increases. ""We believe that these demands should be firmly resisted,"" said David Frost, BCC director general. ""Manufacturing still faces extremely serious problems and is performing poorly, in spite of the recent revised figures."" Ian McCafferty, chief economist at the CBI, said the MPC faced an ""interesting"" challenge. ""Consumers appear to have pulled in their horns over the holiday period, and exporters are struggling with the strength of sterling,"" he said. ""However, the broader economy continues to show healthy growth, and the tight labour market and buoyant commodity prices are nudging inflation higher.""",business
"Nigeria to boost cocoa production..The government of Nigeria is hoping to triple cocoa production over the next three years with the launch of an ambitious development programme...Agriculture Minister Adamu Bello said the scheme aimed to boost production from an expected 180,000 tonnes this year to 600,000 tonnes by 2008. The government will pump 154m naira ($1.1m; £591,000) into subsidies for farming chemicals and seedlings. Nigeria is currently the world's fourth-largest cocoa producer...Cocoa was the main export product in Nigeria during the 1960s. But with the coming of oil, the government began to pay less attention to the cocoa sector and production began to fall from a peak of about 400,000 tonnes a year in 1970. At the launch of the programme in the south-western city of Ibadan, Mr Bello explained that an additional aim of the project is to encourage the processing of cocoa in the country and lift local consumption. He also announced that 91m naira of the funding available had been earmarked for establishing cocoa plant nurseries. The country could be looking to emulate rival Ghana, which produced a bumper crop last year. However, some farmers are sceptical about the proposals. ""People who are not farming will hijack the subsidy,"" said Joshua Osagie, a cocoa farmer from Edo state told Reuters. ""The farmers in the village never see any assistance,"" he added...At the same time as Nigeria announced its new initiative, Ghana - the world's second largest cocoa exporter - announced revenues from the industry had broken new records. The country saw more than $1.2bn-worth of the beans exported during 2003-04. Analysts said high tech-production techniques and crop spraying introduced by the government led to the huge crop, pushing production closer to levels seen in the 1960s when the country was the world's leading cocoa grower.",business
"US interest rates increased to 2%..US interest rates are to rise for the fourth time in five months, in a widely anticipated move...The Federal Reserve has raised its key federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 2% in light of mounting evidence that the US economy is regaining steam. US companies created twice as many jobs as expected in October while exports hit record levels in September. Analysts said a clear-cut victory for President Bush in last week's election paved the way for a rise. Another rise could be in store for December, some economists warned...The Fed's Open Market Committee - which sets interest rate policy in the US - voted unanimously in favour of a quarter point rise. The Fed has been gradually easing rates up since the summer, with quarter percentage point rises in June, August and September...The Central Bank has been acting to restrain inflationary pressures while being careful not to obstruct economic growth. The Fed did not rule out raising rates once again in December but noted that any future increases would take place at a ""measured"" pace. In a statement, the Fed said that long-term inflation pressures remained ""well contained"" while the US economy appeared to be ""growing at a moderate pace despite the rise in energy prices"". Financial analysts broadly welcomed the Fed's move and shares traded largely flat. The Dow Jones Industrial average closed down 0.89 points, or 0.01%, at 10,385.48...Recent evidence has pointed to an upturn in the US economy. US firms created 337,000 jobs last month, twice the amount expected, while exports reached record levels in September. The economy grew 3.7% in the third quarter, slower than forecast, but an improvement on the 3.3% growth seen in the second quarter. Analysts claimed the Fed's assessment of future economic growth was a positive one but stressed that the jury was still out on the prospect of a further rise in December...""Let's wait until we see how growth and employment bear up under the fourth quarter's energy price drag before concluding that the Fed has more work to do in 2005,"" said Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets...""I think the Federal Reserve does not want to rock the boat and is using a gradual approach in raising the interest rate,"" said Sung Won Sohn, chief US economist for Wells Fargo Bank. ""The economy is doing a bit better right now but there are still some concerns about geopolitics, employment and the price of oil,"" he added. The further rise in US rates is unlikely to have a direct bearing on UK monetary policy. The Bank of England (BoE) has kept interest rates on hold at 4.75% for the past three months, leading some commentators to argue that rates may have peaked. In a report published on Wednesday, the Bank said that with rates at their current level, inflation would rise to its 2% target within two years. However, BoE governor Mervyn King warned only last month that the era of consistently low inflation and low unemployment may be coming to an end.",business
"US bank in $515m SEC settlement..Five Bank of America subsidiaries have agreed to pay a total of $515m (£277m) to settle an investigation into fraudulent trading share practices...The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlements, the latest in an industry-wide clean-up of US mutual funds. The SEC also said it had brought fraud charges against two ex-senior executives of Columbia Distributor. Columbia Distributor was part of FleetBoston, bought by BOA last year. Three other ex-Columbia executives agreed settlements with the SEC...The SEC has set itself the task of stamping out the mutual funds' use of market-timing, a form of quick-fire, short-term share trading that harms the interests of small investors, with whom mutual funds are particularly popular. In the last two years, it has imposed penalties totalling nearly $2bn on 15 funds. The SEC unveiled two separate settlements, one covering BOA's direct subsidiaries, and another for businesses that were part of FleetBoston at the time. In both cases, it said there had been secret deals to engage in market timing in mutual fund shares. The SEC agreed a deal totalling $375m with Banc of America Capital Management, BACAP Distributors and Banc of America Securities. It was made up of $250m to pay back gains from market timing, and $125m in penalties. It is to be paid to the damaged funds and their shareholders. Separately, the SEC said it had reached a $140m deal - equally split between penalties and compensation - in its probe into Columbia Management Advisors (CAM) and Columbia Funds Distributor (CFD) and three ex-Columbia executives. These businesses became part of BOA when it snapped up rival bank FleetBoston in a $47bn merger last March...The SEC filed civil fraud charges in a Boston Federal court against James Tambone, who it says headed CFD's sales operations, and his alleged second in command Robert Hussey. The SEC is pressing for the highest tier of financial penalties against the pair for ""multiple violations"", repayment of any personal gains, and an injunction to prevent future breaches, a spokeswoman for the SEC's Boston office told the BBC. There was no immediate comment from the men's' lawyers. The SEC's settlement with CAM and CFD included agreements with three other ex-managers, Peter Martin, Erik Gustafson and Joseph Palombo, who paid personal financial penalties of between $50-100,000.",business
"Train strike grips Buenos Aires..A strike on the Buenos Aires underground has caused traffic chaos and large queues at bus stops in the Argentine capital...Tube workers walked out last week demanding a 53% pay rise and in protest against the installation of automatic ticket machines. Metrovias, the private firm which runs the five tube lines in the city, has offered an 8% increase in wages. The firm promised no jobs would be lost as a result of new ticket machines. It said it would put this commitment on paper...Underground staff have warned they will continue with the protests until the management put an acceptable offer on the table. The Argentine Work Ministry has been mediating in the conflict and it could call an ""obligatory conciliation"", which would force both sides to find a solution and put an end to the conflict. Some tube commuters have not hidden their frustration at the ongoing strike and have broken the windows of the underground trains, according to the local press. ""We are taken as hostages. I don't know who is right, but the harm ones are us,"" said accountant Jose Lopez.",business
"Bargain calls widen Softbank loss..Japanese communications firm Softbank has widened losses after heavy spending on a new cut-rate phone service...The service, launched in December and dubbed ""Otoku"" or ""bargain"", has had almost 900,000 orders, Softbank said. The firm, a market leader in high-speed internet, had an operating loss for the three months to December of 7.5bn yen ($71.5m; £38.4m). But without the Otoku marketing spend it would have made a profit - and expects to move into the black in 2006. The firm did not give a figure for the extent of profits it expected to make next year. It was born in the 1990s tech boom, investing widely and becoming a fast-rising star, till the end of the tech bubble hit it hard. Its recent return to a high profile came with the purchase of Japan Telecom, the country's third-biggest fixed-line telecoms firm. The acquisition spurred its broadband internet division to pole position in the Japanese market, with more than 5.1 million subscribers at the end of December.",business
"WMC profits up amid bid criticism..Australian mining firm WMC Resources has seen a fivefold rise in profits while continuing to be the target of a hostile takeover bid...WMC said it made net profits of 1.33bn Australian dollars ($1bn; £550m) in 2004, up from A$246bn the year before. It is currently arguing against an offer from Swiss Xstrata, which the firm raised to A$8.4bn last week after WMC said it was an undervaluation. Now reports say that the Australian government is against the deal...Trade Minister Mark Vaile has said that the bid may be ""against the national interest"". Mr Vaile, who was quoted in the Australian Financial Review, compared Xstrata's attempt to take over WMC to a similar bid by oil giant Shell for Australia's Woodside Petroleum in 2001. The bid was thrown out by Treasurer Peter Costello on national interest grounds. WMC's interests in uranium deposits were a contributing factor, Mr Vaile said. WMC itself, however, has no objection in principle to being bought out, having spun off its aluminium operations in 2002 to make itself a more tempting target - as long as the price is right. Its stellar performance in 2004 has been built on sky-high prices for metals. Copper and nickel in particular have been in high demand thanks to China's booming economy, which expanded more than 9% in each of the past two years. Nickel prices rose 43% during the year, with copper up 36%.",business
"Barclays profits hit record level..Barclays, the UK's third-biggest bank, has seen annual pre-tax profits climb to record levels boosted by a sharp rise in business at its investment arm...Profits for the year to 31 December rose 20% to £4.6bn ($8.6bn). Barclays' chief John Varley said the bank had ""caught the winds"" of a very strong world economy. Earnings at Barclays Capital investment bank rose 25% to £1.04bn, but investment in branch operations held back growth in its UK retail business...The group is the first of Britain's five big banks to report 2004 results. According to analysts' forecasts, HSBC, the biggest UK bank by stock market valuation, will report profits of £9.4bn later this month...Barclays results were in line with market expectations. Its Global Investors wing made £347m, an 82% jump on 2003 figures. Profits at Barclaycard rose by 5% to £801m but were said to have been affected by a series of interest rate rises and investment to grow its customer base. The bank also blamed margins pressure on its mortgage business and spending on its branches over the past year for a 1% fall in profits in its UK retail division to £1.13bn...""The outlook for 2005 is good as a result of balance sheet growth and investments made in 2004,"" Mr Varley said. Barclays cautioned that growth this year may be slower than in 2004 on the back of softer US and Chinese economies and the impact of interest rate rises on household spending in the UK. It added its bid to acquire a controlling stake in South Africa's leading retail bank Absa, was being considered by regulatory authorities. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Mr Varley declined to be drawn on reports that Barclays had held merger talks with US bank Wells Fargo. A tie-up between Barclays and California-based Wells Fargo would create the world's fourth biggest bank, valued at $180bn. At 1405 GMT, shares in Barclays were trading down 0.67% at 590 pence. ""The headline numbers are in line, but the story is costs,"" said analyst Alex Potter at Lehman Brothers. ""They are a bit more aggressive than we had expected. The cost overshoot is not in Barclays Capital but in the UK bank.""",business
"Yukos owner sues Russia for $28bn..The majority owner of embattled Russian oil firm Yukos has sued the Russian government for $28.3bn (£15.2bn)...The Kremlin last year seized and sold Yukos' main production arm, Yugansk, to state-run oil group Rosneft for $9.3bn to offset a massive back tax bill. Group Menatep, the Gibraltar-based holding company which controls 51% of Yukos, says this was illegal. Menatep has already asked Rosneft to repay a $900m loan that Yugansk had secured on its assets...The Russian government's argument for selling Yuganskneftegaz - the unit's full name - was that Yukos owed more than $27bn in back taxes for the years from 2000 onwards. It accused the firm of using a web of offshore firms to avoid its tax liabilities, and the courts sent in bailiffs to freeze Yukos accounts and seize Yugansk...But critics say the sell-off, and the assault on Yukos' finances, are part of an attempt to bring the energy industry back under state control. According to Menatep, the government's actions were contrary to the 1994 Energy Charter Treaty, which was designed to regulate disagreements over energy investments. ""We have warned the Russian government about their continuing attacks against Yukos, its personnel and its shareholders and we have warned any buyer of Yuganskneftegaz that they would face a lifetime of litigation,"" said Tim Osborne, a director of Group Menatep. ""The time for warning is over and actions to recover the value of our losses begin in earnest today.""..Menatep said the value of its Yukos shareholding had gone from $17.8bn to ""virtually nothing"" since 2003 as a result of the Russian government's action, as its shares have fallen 97%. According to its Paris lawyer, Emmanuel Gaillard of Shearman and Sterling, the overall claim is based on that figure, with a 60% addition for the share gains that could have accrued since then. Arbitration of the lawsuit could take place in Stockholm or The Hague, Mr Gaillard said. While Russia has signed the Charter, it has never ratified it - which some experts say could make it difficult for Menatep to press its case. But Mr Gaillard told BBC News that the Charter came into effect on signature, not ratification. ""Russia has said in the past that it is bound by it, so as to attract foreign investors,"" he said...Yukos is still waiting to see what will happen to its filing in a US court for bankruptcy protection. It took the action to try to prevent the forced sale of Yugansk - first to a little-known shell company, which in turn was bought by Rosneft. Yukos claims its downfall was punishment for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr Khodorkovsky, currently facing fraud and tax evasion charges of his own, was one of the founders of Menatep. He has since signed over his shareholding to one of his fellow investors.",business
"Qantas sees profits fly to record..Australian airline Qantas has posted a record fiscal first-half profit thanks to cost-cutting measures...Net profit in the six months ending 31 December rose 28% to A$458.4m ($357.6m; £191m) from a year earlier. Analysts expected a figure closer to A$431m. Qantas shares fell almost 3%, however, after it warned that earnings growth would slow in the second half. Sales will dip by at least A$30m after the Indian ocean tsunami devastated many holiday destinations, Qantas said...""The tsunami affected travel patterns in ways that we were a bit surprised about,"" chief executive Geoff Dixon explained. ""It certainly affected Japanese travel into Australia. As soon as the tsunami hit we saw ... a lessening with bookings for Australia."" Higher fuel costs also are expected to eat into earnings in coming months. ""We don't have as much hedging benefit in the second half as we had in the first,"" said chief financial officer Peter Gregg. Qantas is facing increased pressure from rivals such as low-cost carrier Virgin Blue and the Australian government is in talks about whether to allow Singapore Airlines to fly between the Australia and the US - one of Qantas' key routes...Even so, the firm is predicting that full-year earnings will increase from the previous 12 months. Analysts have forecast full-year profit will rise about 11% to around A$720 million ($563 million). Qantas boss Mr Dixon also said he would be reviewing the group's cost-cutting measures. During the first six months of the fiscal year, Qantas made savings of A$245m, and is on track to top its target of A$500m for the full year. Last month, the company warned it may transfer as many as 7,000 jobs out Australia, with Mr Dixon quoted as saying that the carrier could no longer afford to remain ""all-Australian"".",business
"Iraq to invite phone licence bids..Iraq is to invite bids for two telephone licences, saying it wants to significantly boost nationwide coverage over the next decade...Bids have been invited from local, Arab and foreign companies, Iraq's Ministry of Communications said. The winner will work in partnership with the Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company (ITPC). The firms will install and operate a fixed phone network, providing voice, fax and internet services...The ministry said that it wanted to increase Iraq's ""very low telephone service penetration rate from about 4.5% today to about 25% within 10 years."" It also hopes to develop a ""highly visible and changeable telecommunication sector"". Details of the bidding and tender process will be published on the ministry's website on 9 February. It also is planning a road-show for investors in Amman, Jordan. The ministry said it would base its selection on criteria including the speed of implementation, tariff rates, coverage, and the firm's experience and financial strength.",business
"Aviation firms eye booming India..India's defence minister has opened the country's Aero India 2005 air show with an invitation for global aerospace firms to outsource jobs to the nation...Pranab Mukherjee said such companies could take advantage of India's highly skilled workers and low wages. More than 240 civil and military aerospace firms from 31 countries are attending the show. Analysts said India could spend up to $35bn (£18.8bn) in the aviation market over the next 20 years. Giants such Boeing and Airbus - on the civil aviation front - as well as Lockheed Martin and France's Snecma - on the military side - are some of the firms attending the show. ""There is tremendous scope for outsourcing from India in areas where the companies are competitive,"" said Mr Mukerjee. ""We are keen to welcome international collaborations that are in conformity with our national goals.""..Lockheed said it had signed an agreement with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) to share information on the P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft...In fact, the Indian Armed Force is considering the buying of used P-3 Orion as well as F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed. The US military industry has show a strong interest to open a link with India, now that relations between the two countries have improved a lot. In fact, it is the first time the US Air Force will attend the air show since sanctions imposed in 1998 after India's nuclear tests were lifted. But the Indian Air Force is also considering proposals from other foreign firms such as France's Dassault Aviation, Sweden's Saab and Russia's Mikoyan-Gurevich. Meanwhile, France's Snecma has also said it plans a joint venture with HAL to make engine parts, with an initial investment of $6.5m...On the civilian front, Boeing announced a deal with India's HCL Technologies to develop a platform for the flight test system of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The US company also said it had agreed with a new Indian budget airline the sale of 10 737-800 planes for $630m. The airline, SpiceJet, will also have the option to acquire 10 more aircraft. Airbus has also recently signed fresh deals with two Indian airlines - Air Deccan and Kingfisher. In addition, the European company has plans to open a training centre in India. Meanwhile, flag carrier Air India is considering to buy 50 new aircraft from either Boeing or Airbus. ""No other market is going to see the growth that will be seen here in the coming years,"" said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president Boeing.",business
"Russian oil merger excludes Yukos..The merger of Russian gas giant Gazprom and oil firm Rosneft is to go ahead, but will not include Yugansk, which was controversially bought last year...The merger, backed by Russian authorities, will allow foreigners to trade in Gazprom shares. Gazprom chief Alexei Miller confirmed Rosneft-owned Yugansk was not part of the deal and will instead be spun off. Under the agreement, the state will get a controlling share of Gazprom in exchange for Rosneft. The state wanted to control Gazprom before allowing foreigners to trade. Speaking on NTV television, which is controlled by Gazprom, Mr Miller added that Yugansk, which was swallowed up by Rosneft late last year, will operate as a separate, state-owned oil firm headed by current Rosneft chief Sergei Bogdanchikov. According to reports from Russian News Agency Interfax, the deal should go through in the next two to three months...""Obtaining majority control over Gazprom is the beginning of the liberalisation of the market in Gazprom shares,"" Mr Miller added. By opening up trading in Gazprom to foreigners, the firm will become a top emerging market play for traders. Currently, foreigners can only trade in Gazprom via a small issue of London-listed proxy shares. ""This is positive news for the international investment community,"" Global Asset Management investment chief David Smith said. ""The majority of investors are going to be happy,"" he added...However, analysts were disappointed that Yugansk would not be included in the deal. ""Yugansk is a heavy cashflow generator and would have been a much better asset for Gazprom,"" Renaissance Capital energy analyst Adam Landes told Reuters news agency. But he said the latest development was simply an interim step to allow foreigners to trade in Gazprom. ""Ultimately and industrially, Gazprom needs Yugansk,"" he added. Analysts said the deal would give Gazprom control of 8% of Russia's total oil production, an improvement on its current 2.5%, but still far less than the 20% share it would have gained had it also taken over Yugansk. However, the merged group will still remain outside Russia's top five oil producers - led by Lukoil with 11% of the market , followed by TNK-BP which is half owned by BP, and Surgutneftegaz. Instead, the merged Gazprom-Rosneft group will rank alongside Sibneft with 7% of the market. Yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company in a disputed auction in December, following what many thought was a politically-motivated attack on Yukos. The shell company was then snapped up by Rosneft. Yukos unsuccessfully sought to halt the auction by applying for bankruptcy through the US courts. The unit was auctioned by Russian authorities to help pay off a $27.5bn back-tax bill.",business
"Brazil buy boosts Belgium's Inbev..Belgian brewing giant Inbev has seen its profits soar thanks to its acquisition of Brazil's biggest beer firm Ambev last year...Inbev, which makes Stella Artois, said pre-tax profits for 2004 rose 56% to 1.16bn euros ($1.5bn; £800m), and said it expected solid growth in 2005. The performance comes on sales up 21% at 8.6bn euros. The firm, formerly Interbrew, became the world's biggest brewer by volume when it bought Ambev in August 2004. The acquisition meant its sales by volume grew 57% in 2004, with four months of Ambev sales accounting for almost all of the increase. US beermaker Anheuser-Busch sells less beer by volume than Inbev but is bigger in terms of the value of its sales. Continuing demand for Inbev's products in the South American markets where its Brazilian arm is most popular means it expects to keep boosting its turnover. ""It's the Brazil business that's doing it,"" said ING analyst Gerard Rijk of Inbev's strong performance. Ambev boosted its share of Brazil's beer market from 62% at the end of 2003 to more than 68% by December 2004, Inbev reported. In contrast, Inbev's European business saw volume sales fall 2.5%, although Central and Eastern European sales rose 12%. Overall, net profits were up 42% to 719m euros.",business
"Salary scandal in Cameroon..Cameroon says widespread corruption in its finance ministry has cost it 1bn CFA francs ($2m; £1m) a month...About 500 officials are accused of either awarding themselves extra money or claiming salaries for ""non-existent"" workers. Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni, who vowed to tackle corruption when he came to office last year, said those found guilty would face tough punishments. The scam is believed to have begun in 1994...The prime minister's office said the alleged fraud was uncovered during an investigation into the payroll at the ministry. In certain cases, staff are said to have lied about their rank and delayed their retirement in order to boost their earnings. The prime minister's office said auditors had found ""irregularities in the career structure of certain civil servants"". It added that the staff in question ""appear to have received unearned salaries, boosting the payroll""...Fidelis Nanga, a journalist based in the Cameroon capital Yaounde, said the government was considering taking criminal action against those found guilty and forcing them to repay any money owed. ""The prime minister has given instructions for exemplary penalties to be meted out against the accused and their accomplices if found guilty,"" he told the BBC's Network Africa programme...Mr Inoni launched an anti-corruption drive in December after foreign investors criticised a lack of transparency in the country's public finances. In one initiative designed to improve efficiency, civil servants who arrived late for work were locked out of their offices. The government now intends to carry out an audit of payrolls at all other government ministries. In a report compiled by anti-corruption body Transparency International in 2003, graft was said to be ""pervasive"" in Cameroon.",business
"US adds more jobs than expected..The US economy added 337,000 jobs in October - a seven-month high and far more than Wall Street expectations...In a welcome economic boost for newly re-elected President George W Bush, the Labor Department figures come after a slow summer of weak jobs gains. Jobs were created in every sector of the US economy except manufacturing. While the separate unemployment rate went up to 5.5% from 5.4% in September, this was because more people were now actively seeking work...The 337,000 new jobs added to US payrolls in October was twice the 169,000 figure that Wall Street economists had forecast. In addition, the Labor Department revised up the number of jobs created in the two previous months - to 139,000 in September instead of 96,000, and to 198,000 in August instead of 128,000. The better than expected jobs data had an immediate upward effect on stocks in New York, with the main Dow Jones index gaining 45.4 points to 10,360 by late morning trading. ""It looks like the job situation is improving and that this will support consumer spending going into the holidays, and offset some of the drag caused by high oil prices this year,"" said economist Gary Thayer of AG Edwards & Sons...Other analysts said the upbeat jobs data made it more likely that the US Federal Reserve would increase interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 2% when it meets next week. ""It should empower the Fed to clearly do something,"" said Robert MacIntosh, chief economist with Eaton Vance Management in Boston. Kathleen Utgoff, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor, said many of the 71,000 new construction jobs added in October were involved in rebuilding and clean-up work in Florida, and neighbouring Deep South states, following four hurricanes in August and September. The dollar rose temporarily on the job creation news before falling back to a new record low against the euro, as investors returned their attention to other economic factors, such as the US's record trade deficit. There is also speculation that President Bush will deliberately try to keep the dollar low in order to assist a growth in exports.",business
"Feta cheese battle reaches court..A row over whether only Greece should be allowed to label its cheese feta has reached the European Court of Justice...The Danish and German governments are challenging a European Commission ruling which said Greece should have sole rights to use the name. The Commission's decision gave the same legal protection to feta as to Italian Parma ham and French Champagne. But critics of the judgement say feta is a generic term, with the cheese produced widely outside Greece...The Commission's controversial 2002 ruling gave ""protected designation of origin"" status to feta cheese made in Greece, effectively restricting the use of the feta name to producers there...From 2007 onwards, Greek firms will have the exclusive use of the feta label and producers elsewhere in Europe must find another name to describe their products. The German and Danish governments argue that feta does not relate to a specific geographical area and that their firms have been producing and exporting the cheese for years. ""In our opinion it is a generic designation and we do not have any other name or term for this type of cheese,"" Hans Arne Kristiansen, a spokesman for the Danish Dairy Board, told the BBC. Denmark is Europe's second largest producer of feta after Greece - producing about 30,000 tonnes a year - and exports its products to Greece. It is concerned that the ruling could threaten the production of other cheeses in Denmark such as brie. ""It would cost millions if we wanted to introduce a new designation,"" Mr Kristiansen said. ""That is just one of the costs.""..The case will also have a major impact on Britain's sole feta producer, Yorkshire company Shepherds Purse Cheeses...Judy Bell, the company's founder, said it would cost a huge amount to rebrand its product. ""If we lose we will have to go through a massive re-merchandising process and reorganisation,"" she said. ""We have never tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes - it's very clear from the label that it's Yorkshire feta."" The original decision was a victory for Greece, where feta cheese is believed to have been produced for about 6,000 years. Feta is a soft white cheese made from sheep or goat's milk, and is an essential ingredient in Greek cuisine. Greece makes 115,000 tonnes, mainly for domestic consumption. The Court is expected to reach a verdict in the case in the autumn.",business
"Ukraine revisits state sell-offs..Ukraine is preparing what could be a wholesale review of the privatisation of thousands of businesses by the previous administration...The new President, Viktor Yushchenko, has said a ""limited"" list of companies is being drawn up. But on Wednesday Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the government was planning to renationalise 3,000 firms. The government says many privatised firms were sold to allies of the last administration at rock-bottom prices. More than 90,000 businesses in all, from massive corporations to tiny shopfronts, have been sold off since 1992, as the command economy built up when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union was dismantled...Ms Tymoshenko said prosecutors had drawn up a list of more than 3,000 businesses which were to be reviewed. ""We will return to the state that which was illegally put into private hands.""..A day earlier, Mr Yushchenko - keen to reassure potential investors - had said only 30 to 40 top firms would be targeted. The list ""will be limited and final, and will not be extended after its completion"", he said. An open-ended list could further damage outside investors' fragile faith in Ukraine, said Stuart Hensel of the Economist Intelligence Unit. But the government seemed keen not to make the review look like the kind of wholesale renationalisation which many fear in Russia, Mr Hensel said. As a result, it was planning to resell rather than keep firms in state hands. ""They're aware of the need not to scare investors, and to be careful of internal divides within Ukraine,"" he said. ""They don't want to be seen to be transferring assets from one set of oligarchs to a new set."" Foreign investment in Ukraine, at about $40 a head in 2004, is one of the lowest among ex-Soviet states...Mr Yushchenko became president after two elections in December, the first of which was annulled amid allegations of voting irregularities and massive street protests...His opponent, Viktor Yanukovich, still has huge support in the country's eastern industrial heartland. Mr Yushchenko's administration has accused its predecessor, led by ex-President Leonid Kuchma, of corruption. The privatisation review's number one target is a steel mill sold to a consortium which included Viktor Pinchuk, Mr Kuchma's son-in-law, for $800m (£424m) despite higher bids from several foreign groups. The mill, Krivorizhstal, is one of the world's most profitable. ""We say Krivorizhstal was stolen, and at any cost we will return it to the state,"" Mr Yushchenko told an investors' conference in Kiev...One of the jilted bidders, Netherlands-based group LNM, said it welcomed the possibility that the mill might be back on the market...""If the original privatisation is annulled and a new tender issued, then we would look at it with great interest,"" a spokesman told BBC News. A resale of Krivorizhstal could potentially triple the price, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Mr Hensel. But he warned that the government could decide to take the easy route of revaluing the company and charging the existing owners the revised price rather than undertaking a fresh sale. ""That way, Mr Yushchenko can go to the public and say he has forced the oligarchs to play by the rules,"" he told BBC News.",business
"Bank set to leave rates on hold..UK interest rates are set to remain on hold at 4.75% following the latest meeting of the Bank of England...The Bank's rate-setting committee has put up rates five times in the past year but rates have been on hold since September amid signs of a slowdown. Economic growth slowed in the previous quarter, as manufacturing output fell, while consumer confidence has slipped. There is also growing evidence that the previously booming UK housing market is now cooling...House prices fell 0.4% in October, according to the Nationwide, their biggest monthly fall since February 2001. Last month, Bank of England governor Mervyn King said that the economy had hit a ""softer patch"" after rapid economic growth in the first half of 2004. Richard Jeffrey, chief economist at Bridgewell Securities, said it was very unlikely that the Bank of England would put rates up again this time around. ""There have been sufficient signs in the economy of a slowdown to stay the Bank of England's hand,"" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. However, Mr Jeffrey said he believed the slowdown in economic activity was temporary and it was dangerous to assume that rates had peaked. ""I still think interest rates are going up,"" he said. ""We are not out of the woods.""",business
"Winter freeze keeps oil above $50..Oil prices carried on rising on Wednesday after cold weather on both sides of the North Atlantic pushed US crude prices to four-month highs...Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls took crude oil prices past $50 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time since November. Declines in the dollar have also contributed to the rising oil price. US crude was trading at $51.39 at 0710 GMT in Asian electronic trade on Wednesday. A barrel of US crude oil closed up $2.80 at $51.15 in New York on Tuesday. Opec members said on Tuesday that, given such high prices, the cartel saw no reason to cut its output...Although below last year's peak of $55.67 a barrel, which was reached in October, prices are now well above 2004's average of $41.48. Brent crude also rose in London trading, adding $1.89 to $48.62 at the close...Much of western Europe and the north east of America has been shivering under unseasonably low temperatures in recent days. The decline in the US dollar to a five-week low against the euro has also served to inflate prices. ""The primary factor is the weak dollar,"" said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with Purvin and Gertz. Expectations that a rebound in the dollar would halt the oil price rise were not immediately borne out on Wednesday morning, as oil prices carried on upwards as the dollar strengthened against the euro, the pound and the yen...Several Opec members said on Tuesday that a cut in production was unlikely, citing rising prices and strong demand for oil from Asia. ""I agree that we do not need to cut supply if the prices are as much as this,"" Fathi Bin Shatwan, Libya's oil minister, told Reuters. ""I do not think we need to cut unless the prices are falling below $35 a barrel,"" he added.",business
"German jobless rate at new record..More than 5.2 million Germans were out of work in February, new figures show...The figure of 5.216 million people, or 12.6% of the working-age population, is the highest jobless rate in Europe's biggest economy since the 1930s. The news comes as the head of Germany's panel of government economic advisers predicted growth would again stagnate. Speaking on German TV, Bert Ruerup said the panel's earlier forecast of 1.4% was too optimistic and warned growth would be just 1% in 2005...The German government is trying to tackle the stubbornly-high levels of joblessness with a range of labour market reforms. At their centre is the ""Hartz-IV"" programme introduced in January to shake up welfare benefits and push people back into work - even if some of the jobs are heavily subsidised. The latest unemployment figures look set to increase the pressure on the government. Widely leaked to the German newspapers a day in advance, they produced screaming headlines criticising Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrat-Green Party administration. Mr Schroeder had originally come into office promising to halve unemployment...Still, some measures suggest the picture is not quite so bleak. The soaring official unemployment figure follows a change in the methodology which pushed up the jobless rate by more than 500,000 in January. Adjusted for seasonal changes, the overall unemployment rate is 4.875 million people or 11.7%, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. Using the most internationally-accepted methodology of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Germany had 3.97 million people out of work in January. And ILO-based figures also suggest that 14,000 new net jobs were created that month, taking the number of people employed to 38.9 million. The ILO defines an unemployed person as someone who in the previous four weeks had actively looked for work they could take up immediately.",business
"Ore costs hit global steel firms..Shares in steel firms have dropped worldwide amid concerns that higher iron ore costs will hit profit growth...Shares in Germany's ThyssenKrupp, the UK's Corus and France's Arcleor fell while Japan's Nippon Steel slid after it agreed to pay 72% more for iron ore. China's Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. said it was delaying a share sale because of weak market conditions, adding it would raise steel prices to offset ore costs. The threat of higher raw material costs also hit industries such as carmakers. France's Peugeot warned that its profits may decline this year as a result of the higher steel, plastic and commodity prices...Steelmakers have been enjoying record profits as demand for steel has risen, driven by the booming economies of countries such as China and India. Steel prices rose by 8% globally in January alone and by 24% in China...The boom times are far from over, but analysts say that earnings growth may slow. The share price fall was initially triggered by news that two of the world's biggest iron ore suppliers had negotiated contracts at much-higher prices. Miners Rio Tinto and Cia. Vale Do Rio Dolce (CVRD) this week managed to boost by 72% the price of their iron ore, a key component of steel. Analysts had expected Japan's Nippon to agree to a price rise of between 40% and 50%. Steel analyst Peter Fish, director of Sheffield-based consulting group MEPS, said the extent of CVRD's price rise was ""uncharted territory"", adding that the steel industry ""hasn't seen an increase of this magnitude probably in 50 years"". Analysts now expect other iron ore producers, such as Australia's BHP Billiton, to seek annual price rises of up to 70%...The news triggered the share price weakness. ""It sparked worries that steel makers might not be able to increase product prices further [ to cover rising ore costs]"" explained Kazuhiro Takahashi of Daiwa Securities SMBC. In Europe, Arcelor shed 2.1% to 17.58 euros in Paris, with ThyssenKrupp dropping 1.7% to 16.87 euros. In London, Corus fell 2.2% to 55.57 pence. Japan's biggest steel company Nippon Steel lost 2.5% to 270 yen, with closest rival JFE Holdings down 3.4%. China's Baoshan, the country's largest steel producer, said that the uncertainty surrounding the industry has prompted it to pull its planned share sale. The firm had been expected to offer 22.5bn yuan ($2.7bn) worth of shares to investors. No date has been given for when the 5 billion shares will come to the market. Baoshan stock climbed on news of the delay and its decision to increase the price of its steel by 10%.",business
"BMW reveals new models pipeline..BMW is preparing to enter the market for car-style people carriers, the firm's chief has told BBC News...Speaking at a BMW event ahead of the Geneva motor show, Helmut Panke predicted demand for such crossover vehicles would soar in Europe. In contrast, he said, the popularity of van-style seven-seat vehicles and traditional saloon cars would fade. ""Customers are moving out of the mini-van (and) traditional concepts are not as attractive anymore,"" he said. ""We have decided that BMW will enter the [crossover] segment,"" he said in the clearest indication yet about the car maker's intentions...Mr Panke praised the Honda Accura as the ""best execution"" yet of a crossover vehicle. ""We have decided that the BMW brand will enter the segment,"" he said...A decision on just how BMW will manage its entry into the new market is due in the first half of 2005. Typically it takes about three years from when a decision is taken before a new model hits the streets, Mr Panke said, implying that a BMW crossover could be on the market by 2008. The coming switch is driven in part by the need for successful carmakers to stay aware of trans-Atlantic differences in the car market, Mr Panke insisted. While in the US drivers tend to prefer sports utility vehicles (SUVs), such as the BMW X5 and its sibling X3, in Europe demand for crossover vehicles is likely to be considerable, Mr Panke said. ""There's a growing market here,"" he said. ""We are going to go that way.""",business
"Asian banks halt dollar's slide..The dollar regained some lost ground against most major currencies on Wednesday after South Korea and Japan denied they were planning a sell-off...The dollar suffered its biggest one-day fall in four months on Tuesday on fears that Asian central banks were about to lower their reserves of dollars. Japan is the biggest holder of dollar reserves in the world, with South Korea the fourth largest. The dollar was buying 104.76 yen at 0950 GMT, 0.5% stronger on the day. It also edged higher against both the euro and the pound, with one euro worth $1.3218, and one pound buying $1.9094. Concerns over rising oil prices and the outlook for the dollar pushed down US stock markets on Tuesday; the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 1.6%, while the Nasdaq lost 1.3%...The dollar's latest slide began after a South Korean parliamentary report suggested the country, which has about $200bn in foreign reserves, had plans to boost holdings of currencies such as the Australian and Canadian dollar. On Wednesday, however, South Korea moved to steady the financial markets. It issued a statement that ""The Bank of Korea will not change the portfolio of currencies in its reserves due to short term market factors"". Japan, too, steadied nerves. A senior Japanese Finance Ministry official told Reuters ""we have no plans to change the composition of currency holdings in the foreign reserves, and we are not thinking about expanding our euro holdings"". Japan has $850bn in foreign exchange reserves. At the start of the year, the US currency, which had lost 7% against the euro in the final three months of 2004 and had fallen to record lows, staged something of a recovery. Analysts, however, pointed to the dollar's inability recently to extend that rally despite positive economic and corporate data, and highlighted the fact that many of the US's economic problems had not disappeared. The focus has been on the country's massive trade and budget deficits, and analysts have predicted more dollar weakness to come.",business
"Weak dollar trims Cadbury profits..The world's biggest confectionery firm, Cadbury Schweppes, has reported a modest rise in profits after the weak dollar took a bite out of its results...Underlying pre-tax profits rose 1% to £933m ($1.78bn) in 2004, but would have been 8% higher if currency movements were stripped out. The owner of brands such as Dairy Milk, Dr Pepper and Snapple generates more than 80% of its sales outside the UK. Cadbury said it was confident it would hit its targets for 2005. ""While the external commercial environment remains competitive, we are confident that we have the strategy, brands and people to deliver within our goal ranges in 2005,"" said chief executive Todd Stitzer...The modest profit rise had been expected by analysts after the company said in December that the poor summer weather had hit soft drink sales in Europe...Cadbury said its underlying sales were up by 4% in 2004. Growth was helped by its confectionery brands - including Cadbury, Trident and Halls - which enjoyed a ""successful"" year, with like-for-like sales up 6%. Drinks sales were up 2% with strong growth in US carbonated soft drinks, led by Dr Pepper and diet drinks, offset by the weaker sales in Europe. Cadbury added that its Fuel for Growth cost-cutting programme had saved £75m in 2004, bringing total cost savings to £100m since the scheme began in mid-2003. The programme is set to close 20% of the group's factories and shed 10% of the workforce. Cadbury Schweppes employs more than 50,000 people worldwide, with about 7,000 in the UK.",business
"Oil prices fall back from highs..Oil prices retreated from four-month highs in early trading on Tuesday after producers' cartel Opec said it was now unlikely to cut production...Following the comments by acting Opec secretary general Adnan Shihab-Eldin, US light crude fell 32 cents to $51.43 a barrel. He said that high oil prices meant Opec was unlikely to stick to its plan to cut output in the second quarter. In London, Brent crude fell 32 cents to $49.74 a barrel...Opec members are next meeting to discuss production levels on 16 March. On Monday, oil prices rose for a sixth straight session, reaching a four-month high as cold weather in the US threatened stocks of heating oil. US demand for heating oil was predicted to be about 14% above normal this week, while stocks were currently about 7.5% below the levels of a year ago. Cold weather across Europe has also put upward pressure on crude prices.",business
"Winn-Dixie files for bankruptcy..US supermarket group Winn-Dixie has filed for bankruptcy protection after succumbing to stiff competition in a market dominated by Wal-Mart...Winn-Dixie, once among the most profitable of US grocers, said Chapter 11 protection would enable it to successfully restructure. It said its 920 stores would remain open, but analysts said it would most likely off-load a number of sites. The Jacksonville, Florida-based firm has total debts of $1.87bn (£980m). In its bankruptcy petition it listed its biggest creditor as US foods giant Kraft Foods, which it owes $15.1m...Analysts say Winn-Dixie had not kept up with consumers' demands and had also been burdened by a number of stores in need of upgrading. A 10-month restructuring plan was deemed a failure, and following a larger-than-expected quarterly loss earlier this month, Winn-Dixie's slide into bankruptcy was widely expected. The company's new chief executive Peter Lynch said Winn-Dixie would use the Chapter 11 breathing space to take the necessary action to turn itself around. ""This includes achieving significant cost reductions, improving the merchandising and customer service in all locations and generating a sense of excitement in the stores,"" he said. Yet Evan Mann, a senior bond analyst at Gimme Credit, said Mr Lynch's job would not be easy, as the bankruptcy would inevitably put off some customers. ""The real big issue is what's going to happen over the next one or two quarters now that they are in bankruptcy and all their customers see this in their local newspapers,"" he said.",business
"Why few targets are better than many..The economic targets set out at the Lisbon summit of European Union leaders in 2000 were meant to help Europe leapfrog its way past the United States to become the world's leading economy by 2010...But the Lisbon targets are about much more than just economic prestige. For many economists and analysts they are about ensuring Europe doesn't become a global economic laggard. They are also about ensuring Europe can continue to compete as an equal with the growing economic giants of Asia, India and China, as well as with the economic might of the United States. That's why there was a tone of urgency in the report, out on Wednesday, by the former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok. Mr Kok was commissioned by the European Commission in March this year to assess how far the EU has come towards meeting the Lisbon targets, five years on from their inception. His conclusion was simple: too many of the targets will be seriously missed...Lisbon risks becoming a ""synonym for missed objectives and failed promises"", his report said. ""The status quo is not an option.""..At risk in the medium to long run is nothing less than the sustainability of the society Europe has built, it said. The report comes at a time when Europe's competitive position is waning. The EU's economic growth rate is projected to be 2% this year and 2.4% next. While there has been growth in overall employment rates in Europe, productivity lags behind that of the US. But meeting the Lisbon targets requires a political commitment that no EU member state has volunteered so far. That has in part been due to the state of the global economy in the past few years...As Mr Kok's report noted: ""The ink had scarcely dried on the [Lisbon] agreement before the worldwide stock market bubble imploded."" ""The US suffered two years of economic slowdown and recession and the European economy followed suit.""..The circumstances weren't conducive to creating the 20 million new jobs promised by EU leaders in Lisbon in 2000. Neither were they conducive to getting governments to spend more on research and development, money needed if the EU was to meet its target of becoming a so-called ""knowledge-based economy"". ""The [Lisbon] vision is a compelling one, but in order to do it society has to change,"" said Paul Hofheinz of the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based citizen action group. ""What you find is that a lot of people have been fighting change. You find trade unions fighting change. But also the employers' associations. ""Even though they tell you they're in favour of change, many are actually pushing for less competition, more subsidy and less free market activity.""..But part of the problem was also linked to the original targets set out in Lisbon five years ago. Targets have a habit of coming back to haunt you and in the Lisbon case, they covered too much, according to the Wim report. Economic growth and job creation were linked to issues ranging from environmental protection to social inclusion, and even safety at sea. The agenda was just too broad and as a result nothing was prioritised...""Lisbon is about everything and thus about nothing,"" the Kok report said. ""Everybody is responsible and thus no one."" That's why the Kok report recommends that the Lisbon targets be narrowed down to 14 key indicators, with an emphasis on creating jobs and economic growth. It also recommends that the European Commission draw up a league table which ranks countries according to the steps they're taking towards meeting the targets, effectively ""naming, shaming and faming"". ""Rhetoric and delivery don't necessarily go hand in hand,"" Mr Kok said in a press conference alongside the publication of his report. ""We don't have the luxury anymore just to exchange politeness with one another.""..On one point Mr Kok was very clear: The European Union should not try to emulate the US economy. The European economic and social model needs to change, but not so much so that social and environmental issues take a backseat to economic growth. In that sense, the Lisbon agenda is sailing into unchartered waters. The Kok report tries to do away with a belief that jobs need to be sacrificed at the altar of economic growth. ""It's very ambitious,"" said John Palmer, political director at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think-tank. ""This is something that no advanced economy in the world has tried to do. It's going to require quite new and innovative policies."" But some analysts believe that the Kok report doesn't come up with the sort of innovative policies and thinking needed to make the Lisbon targets a reality. For example, it recommends putting in place policies which encourage women and older people to remain in the workforce. But it doesn't say how companies should be convinced to do this. It will be up to the incoming president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, to adopt Mr Kok's recommendations and press them on EU governments. Mr Barroso has said that the EU's competitiveness will be his top priority. He expects his five-year term in office to be judged on Europe's success in meeting the Lisbon agenda.",business
"Malaysia lifts Islamic bank limit..Malaysia's central bank is to relax restrictions on foreign ownership to encourage Islamic banking...Banks in Malaysia will now be able to sell up to 49% of their Islamic banking units, while the limit on other kinds of bank remains at 30%. RHB, Malaysia's third-biggest lender, is already scouting for a foreign partner for its new Islamic banking unit, the firm told Reuters. The moves put Malaysia ahead of a 2007 deadline to open up the sector. The country's deal to join the World Trade Organisation set that year as a deadline for liberalisation of Islamic banking. Also on Tuesday, the central bank released growth figures showing Malaysia's economy expanded 7.1% in 2004. But growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter to 5.6%, and the central bank said it expected 6% expansion in 2005...Malaysia changed the law to allow Islamic banking in 1983. It has granted licences to three Middle Eastern groups, which - along with local players - mean there are eight fully-operational Islamic banking groups in the country. Islamic banks offer services which permit modern banking principles while sticking to Islamic law's ban on the payment of interest. Most of the Malays which make up half the country's population are Muslims.",business
"Alfa Romeos 'to get GM engines'..Fiat is to stop making six-cylinder petrol engines for its sporty Alfa Romeo subsidiary, unions at the Italian carmaker have said...The unions claim Fiat is to close the Fiat Powertrain plant at Arese near Milan and instead source six-cylinder engines from General Motors. Fiat has yet to comment on the matter, but the unions say the new engines will be made by GM in Australia. The news comes a week after GM pulled out of an agreement to buy Fiat. GM had to pay former partner Fiat 1.55bn euros ($2bn; £1.1bn) to get out of a deal which could have forced it to buy the Italian carmaker outright. Fiat and GM also ended their five-year alliance and two joint ventures in engines and purchasing, but did agree to continue buying each other's engines...""Powertrain told us today that Alfa Romeo engines will no longer be made in Arese,"" said union leader Vincenzo Lilliu, as reported by the Reuters news agency. ""The assembly line will be dismantled and the six-cylinder Alfa Romeo motor will be replaced with an engine GM produces in Australia."" Reuters also said that Mr Lilliu and other union bosses shouted insults at Fiat chairman Luca di Montezemolo, following a meeting on Tuesday regarding the future of the Arese plant. The unions said the end of engine production at the facility would mean the loss of 800 jobs. All Alfa Romeo models can be bought with a six-cylinder engine - the 147, 156, 156 Sportwagon, 166, GTV, GT and Spider.",business
"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.",business
"Shares hit by MS drug suspension..Shares in Elan and Biogen Idec plunged on Monday as the firms suspended sales of new multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri after a patient's death in the US...On the New York Stock Exchange, shares in Ireland-based Elan lost 70% while US partner Biogen Idec shed 43%. The firms took action after the death from a central nervous system disease and a suspected case of the condition. The cases cited involved the use of both Tysabri and Avonex, Biogen Idec's existing multiple sclerosis drug. The companies said they have no reports of the rare condition - progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) - in patients taking either Tysabri or Avonex alone. Tysabri was approved for use in the US last November and was widely tipped to become the world's leading multiple sclerosis treatment...""The companies will work with clinical investigators to evaluate Tysabri-treated patients and will consult with leading experts to better understand the possible risk of PML,"" the two firms said in a statement. ""The outcome of these evaluations will be used to determine possible re-initiation of dosing in clinical trials and future commercial availability.""..Analysts had believed the product would provide a new growth opportunity for Biogen Idec, which had faced increased competition from rivals to Avonex. Elan, once the biggest firm on the Irish stock exchange, was also expected to receive a boost, from the new product. An inquiry into Elan's accounts in 2002 brought the group close to bankruptcy but the firm has been rebuilding itself since, with its share price increasing by almost four-fold last year. ""Most of the value in the company was in Tysabri,"" said Ian Hunter at Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin. ""Now there's a question mark over it."" Elan finished down $18.90 at $8, while Biogen fell $28.63 to $38.65...- Shares in UK pharmaceutical firm Phytopharm closed down 19.84% at 151.5 pence on the London Stock Exchange on Monday, after it said a partner was set to pull out of a deal on an experimental Alzheimer's disease treatment. Phytopharm said Japan's Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical was likely to end a licensing agreement, prompting analysts to raise questions over the level of its future cash reserves.",business
"Bank voted 8-1 for no rate change..The decision to keep interest rates on hold at 4.75% earlier this month was passed 8-1 by the Bank of England's rate-setting body, minutes have shown...One member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) - Paul Tucker - voted to raise rates to 5%. The news surprised some analysts who had expected the latest minutes to show another unanimous decision. Worries over growth rates and consumer spending were behind the decision to freeze rates, the minutes showed. The Bank's latest inflation report, released last week, had noted that the main reason inflation might fall was weaker consumer spending...However, MPC member Paul Tucker voted for a quarter point rise in interest rates to 5%. He argued that economic growth was picking up, and that the equity, credit and housing markets had been stronger than expected...The Bank's minutes said that risks to the inflation forecast were ""sufficiently to the downside"" to keep rates on hold at its latest meeting. However, the minutes added: ""Some members noted that an increase might be warranted in due course if the economy evolved in line with the central projection"". Ross Walker, UK economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, said he was surprised that a dissenting vote had been made so soon. He said the minutes appeared to be ""trying to get the market to focus on the possibility of a rise in rates"". ""If the economy pans out as they expect then they are probably going to have to hike rates."" However, he added, any rate increase is not likely to happen until later this year, with MPC members likely to look for a more sustainable pick up in consumer spending before acting.",business
"Crude oil prices back above $50..Cold weather across parts of the United States and much of Europe has pushed US crude oil prices above $50 a barrel for the first time in almost three months...Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall have increased demand for heating fuel in the US, where stocks are low. Fresh falls in the value of the dollar helped carry prices above the $50 mark for the first time since November. A barrel of US crude oil closed up $2.80 to $51.15 in New York on Tuesday. Opec members said on Tuesday that it saw no reason to cut its output...Although below last year's peak of $55.67 a barrel, which was reached in October, prices are now well above 2004's average of $41.48...Brent crude also rose in London trading, adding $1.89 to $48.62 at the close. Much of western Europe and the north east of America has been shivering under unseasonably low temperatures in recent days. The decline in the US dollar to a five-week low against the euro has also served to inflate prices. ""The dollar moved sharply overnight and oil is following it,"" said Chris Furness, senior market strategist at 4Cast. ""If the dollar continues to weaken, oil will be obviously higher.""..Several Opec members said a cut in production was unlikely, citing rising prices and strong demand for oil from Asia. ""I agree that we do not need to cut supply if the prices are as much as this,"" Fathi Bin Shatwan, Libya's oil minister, told Reuters. ""I do not think we need to cut unless the prices are falling below $35 a barrel,"" he added. Opec closely watches global stocks to ensure that there is not an excessive supply in the market. The arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere will focus attention on stockpiles of US crude and gasoline, which are up to 9% higher than at this time last year. Heavy stockpiles could help force prices lower when demand eases.",business
"House prices show slight increase..Prices of homes in the UK rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in February, says the Nationwide building society...The figure means the annual rate of increase in the UK is down to 10.2%, the lowest rate since June 2001. The annual rate has halved since August last year, as interest rises have cooled the housing market. At the same time, the number of mortgage approvals fell in January to a near 10-year low, official Bank of England figures have shown...Nationwide said that in January house prices went up by 0.4% on the month and by 12.6% on a year earlier. ""We are not seeing the market collapsing in the way some had feared,"" said Nationwide economist Alex Bannister. There have been a number of warnings that the UK housing market may be heading for a downturn after four years of strong growth to 2004. In November, Barclays, which owns former building society the Woolwich, forecast an 8% fall in property prices in 2005, followed by further declines in 2006 and 2007. And last summer, economists at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) warned house prices were overvalued and could fall by between 10% and 15% by 2009...The price of an average UK property now stands at £152,879. Homeowners now expect house prices to rise by 1% over the next six months, Mr Bannister said. He said if the growth continued at this level then the Bank of England may increase interest rates from their current 4.75%...""I think the key is what the Bank expects to happen to the housing market. We always thought we would see a small rise, they thought they would see a small decline."" House prices have risen 0.9% this year, Nationwide said, and if this pace of increase persists, prices would rise by just under 6% in the year to December. This is slightly above the 0-5% range Nationwide predicts...Further evidence of a slowdown in the housing market emerged from Bank of England lending figures released on Tuesday. New mortgage loans in January fell to 79,000 from 82,000 in December, the bank said. The past few months have seen approvals fall to levels last seen in 1995. The Bank revealed that 48,000 fewer mortgages were approved in January than for the same month in 2004. Overall, mortgage lending rose by £7.2bn in January, marginally up on the £7.1bn rise in December.",business
"Golden rule boost for Chancellor..Chancellor Gordon Brown has been given a £2.1bn boost in his attempts to meet his golden economic rule, which allows him to borrow only for investment...The extra leeway came after the Office for National Statistics said it had been measuring road expenditure data wrongly over the past five years. It comes just weeks ahead of the Budget and an expected general election. Shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin said: ""At best the timing of these changes is very convenient for the government.""..A review by the ONS found it had made a mistake by ""double counting"" some spending on roads since 1998/9. Correcting the error would mean reducing current expenditure and increasing net investment, thus helping Mr Brown to meet his ""golden rule"" of borrowing only to invest over the economic cycle. Economists speculated that it might also allow for some vote-catching measures in the Budget...The changes by the ONS increase the current budget measure for the past five years by £2.1bn in total. Mr Letwin said: ""This is a very murky area... There will inevitably be suspicions that the figures are being fiddled."" The Conservatives also said Mr Brown would still be forced to raise taxes after the general election to fill an annual £10.5bn ""black hole"" in the nation's coffers. But the Treasury said there would be no relaxation of economic discipline and the golden rule would be met even without the data revisions...In January the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said Mr Brown would need to raise taxes to get public finances onto the track predicted in last year's Budget. It also said the government might narrowly miss its ""golden rule"" if the current economic cycle ended in 2005/06. After the ONS announcement, economists said there could also be a proportionate boost to the current budget in 2004/05 of about £400m. ""None of this changes the big picture of a dramatic deterioration in the overall fiscal position over the last four or five years,"" said Jonathan Loynes, chief UK economist at Capital Economics. ""Accordingly, it seems very likely that some form of fiscal consolidation will be required in due course.""",business
"Macy's owner buys rival for $11bn..US retail giant Federated Department Stores is to buy rival May Department Stores for $11bn (£5.7bn)...The deal will bring together famous stores like Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Marshall Field's, creating the largest department store chain in the US. The combined firm will operate about 1,000 stores across the US, with combined annual sales of $30bn. The two companies, facing competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, tried to merge two years ago but talks failed. Sources familiar with the deal said that negotiations between the two companies sped up after May's chairman and chief executive Gene Kahn resigned in January. As part of the deal, Federated - owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's - will assume $6bn of May's debt, bringing the deal's total value to $17bn. Directors at both companies have approved the deal and it is expected to conclude by the third quarter of this year...May has struggled to compete against larger department store groups such as Federated and other retailers such as Wal-Mart. Federated expects the merger to boost earnings from 2007 but the deal will cost it $1bn in one-off charges...""We have taken the first step toward combining two of the best department store companies in America, creating a new retail company with truly national scope and presence,"" said Terry Lundgren, Federated's chairman. Some analysts see the merger as a rescue deal for May. ""Without this deal May would have been, to put it bluntly, washed up,"" said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Consulting Group. Federated has annual sales of $15.6bn, while May's yearly sales are $14.4bn.",business
"Industrial revival hope for Japan..Japanese industry is growing faster than expected, boosting hopes that the country's retreat back into recession is over...Industrial output rose 2.1% - adjusted for the time of year - in January from a month earlier. At the same time, retail sales picked up faster than at any time since 1997. The news sent Tokyo shares to an eight-month high, as investors hoped for a recovery from the three quarters of contraction seen from April 2004 on. The Nikkei 225 index ended the day up 0.7% at 11,740.60 points, with the yen strengthening 0.7% against the dollar to 104.53 yen. Weaker exports, normally the engine for Japan's economy in the face of weak domestic demand, had helped trigger a 0.1% contraction in the final three months of last year after two previous quarters of shrinking GDP. Only an exceptionally strong performance in the early months of 2004 kept the year as a whole from showing a decline. The output figures brought a cautiously optimistic response from economic officials. ""Overall I see a low risk of the economy falling into serious recession,"" said Bank of Japan chief Toshihiko Fukui, despite warning that other indicators - such as the growth numbers - had been worrying...Within the overall industrial output figure, there were signs of a pullback from the export slowdown. Among the best-performing sectors were key overseas sales areas such as cars, chemicals and electronic goods. With US growth doing better than expected the picture for exports in early 2005 could also be one of sustained demand. Electronics were also one of the keys to the improved domestic market, with products such as flat-screen TVs in high demand during January.",business
"Khodorkovsky ally denies charges..A close associate of former Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky has told a court that fraud charges levelled against him are ""false""...Platon Lebedev has been on trial alongside Mr Khodorkovsky since June in a case centring around the privatisation of a fertiliser firm. The pair claim they are being punished by the authorities for the political ambitions of Mr Khodorkovsky. Mr Lebedev said there were ""absurd contradictions"" in the case. Opening his defence, he said he could not see the legal basis of the charges he faced, which also include allegations of tax evasion. ""To my embarrassment, I could not understand the file of complaints against me,"" he told a Moscow court. Mr Lebedev headed the Menatep group, the parent company of Yukos...Mr Lebedev and Mr Khodorkovsky, who each face a possible 10 year jail sentence if convicted, will be questioned by a judge over the next few days. Mr Khodorkovsky began his testimony last week, telling the court that he objected to the way that the ""running of a normal business has been presented as a work of criminal fiction"". The charges are seen by supporters as politically motivated and part of a drive by Russian President Vladimir Putin to rein in the country's super-rich business leaders, the so-called oligarchs. Yukos has been presented with a $27.5bn (£13bn) tax demand by the Russian authorities and its key Yugansk division was auctioned off to part settle the bill. The company's effort to gain bankruptcy protection in the US - in a bid to win damages for the sale - were dismissed by a court in Texas.",business
"Qatar and Shell in $6bn gas deal..Shell has signed a $6bn (£3.12bn) deal with the Middle Eastern sheikhdom of Qatar to supply liquid natural gas (LNG) to North America and Europe...The UK-Dutch group will own 30% of the project, with Qatar's state oil firm owning the rest. The agreement is the latest in a string of deals reached by Qatar, which is trying to make itself a regional leader in natural gas. US oil giant ExxonMobil signed up for a $12.8bn deal earlier on Sunday. France's Total is expected to join the ExxonMobil scheme, dubbed Qatargas-2, on Monday, taking 5 million tonnes of LNG a year. ExxonMobil will be taking some 15 million tonnes each year for 25 years from the end of 2007 under the deal. Shell's agreement, under the name Qatargas-4, foresees the building of new facilities to handle 1.4 billion cubic feet of gas, and 7.8 million tonnes of LNG each year from 2011 onwards.",business
"India unveils anti-poverty budget..India is to boost spending on primary schools and health in a budget flagged as a boost for the ordinary citizen...India's defence budget has also been raised 7.8% to 830bn rupees ($19bn). The priority for Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is to fight poverty and keep the government's Communist allies onside. But his options are limited by a new law which makes him cut the budget deficit, which he said would be 4.5% of GDP in the year to March 2005. The country's overall deficit is thought to be more than 10%, if the spending of India's 35 states and territories is included. Under the fiscal responsibility law, Mr Chidambaram has to trim the deficit by 0.3 percentage points each year, a target he says he has now met for the current year...But the heavy spending on poverty reduction means the 2005-6 target for the deficit will be 4.3%, Mr Chidambaram said - falling short of the new law's requirement. ""I was left with no option but to press the pause button vis a vis the act,"" he said. The following year, though, would have to be back on track, he warned...""I may add that we are perilously close to the limits of fiscal prudence and there is no more room for spending beyond our means,"" he said. The coming year's reduction has meant bringing more of the businesses in India's burgeoning services sector into the tax system and restructuring the personal tax system, although there are numerous corporate tax and duty reductions built into the budget...Presenting his budget in the lower house of parliament, Mr Chidambaram said the Indian economy was performing strongly and that inflation has been reined in. He said India's economy grew 6.9% in 2004. In his budget Mr Chidambaram has:..- Increased spending on primary education to 71.56bn rupees ($1.6bn). - Increased spending on health to 102.8bn rupees ($2.35bn). - Announced that 80bn rupees ($1.8bn) will be spent on building rural infrastructure. - Pledged 102.16bn rupees ($2.3bn) for tsunami victims. - Increased flow of funds to agriculture by 30%. - Announced a package for the sugar industry..In addition, up to 100bn rupees ($2.3bn) to be spent on infrastructure will be sourced by borrowing against the country's foreign exchange reserves, keeping budgeted spending under control. ""Given the resilience of the Indian economy... it is possible to launch a direct assault on poverty,"" Mr Chidambaram said. ""The whole purpose of democratic government is to eliminate poverty."" The new Indian government, led by the Congress Party, was voted into power last May after it pledged to introduce economic reforms with a ""human face""...The finance minister says he is committed to continue reforming India's tax system while expanding the tax base. As part of his reforms he has announced:..- Duty cuts on capital goods and raw materials. - Expanded service tax net. - Raised the income-tax threshold to 100,000 rupees ($2,300). - Reduced income tax for those earning less than 250,000 rupees ($5,700) to 20%. - Reduced corporate tax rates to 30%..An annual economic survey released on Friday said India needed to ease limit restriction on foreign investment, reform labour laws and cut duties apart from widening the tax base for long-term economic growth. But Mr Chidambaram is under pressure from the Communist parties to focus on increasing social spending. The Communists are also hostile to measures seeking to increase foreign investment and allow companies to hire and fire employees at will. In recent months, they have expressed their displeasure at the government's economic reform plans including increasing foreign direct investment in telecommunication and aviation. In his last budget, Mr Chidambaram had pledged billions of dollars for improving education and health services for the poor as well as special assistance for farmers.",business
"GM pays $2bn to evade Fiat buyout..General Motors of the US is to pay Fiat 1.55bn euros ($2bn; £1.1bn) to get out of a deal which could have forced it to buy the Italian car maker outright...Fiat had sold GM a stake in 2000, as part of a partnership agreement. But Fiat's heavy losses have convinced GM - whose own European operations are in the red - to back away. The pay-off means the two firms will unwind joint ventures, but Fiat will keep supplying diesel engines and the money will allow it to reduce its debt. Fiat's shares on the Milan stock exchange rose 4.5% by 0900 GMT to 6.2 euros, having shot up more than 7% in early trading. ""We now have absolute freedom to design our own future,"" said Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne...Analysts said Fiat seemed to have done well out of the deal, although some predictions had expected a 2bn euro pay-off. Fiat is to get 1bn euros immediately, with another 550m to follow within 90 days. The firm is Italy's largest private employer, and a failure to reach an agreement could have had severe consequences for thousands of workers and for the Italian economy. For its part, GM was keen to ward off any criticism that the deal had been a mistake...""We needed scale in Europe to get costs down, and we were able to do that in working with Fiat,"" said GM chief executive Rick Wagoner...The Fiat-GM alliance came about in 2000 as an alternative to selling Fiat outright. German-US car firm DaimlerChrysler had been willing to buy the firm, but Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli did not want to give up control. Instead, GM swapped a 6% stake in itself for 20% of Fiat - and gave Fiat a ""put option"" to sell GM the rest of the car maker between January 2004 and July 2009. But despite the alliance Fiat failed to put itself back on track, continuing to lose money and market share. As a result, the sell-off looked better and better for the Italians - and much worse for GM, which is struggling with its own loss-making European marques Opel and Saab. The relationship soured further after Fiat sold half its finance arm and recapitalised in 2003, halving GM's stake to 10%.",business
"Ex-Boeing director gets jail term..An ex-chief financial officer at Boeing has received a four-month jail sentence and a fine of $250,000 (£131,961) for illegally hiring a top Air Force aide...Michael Sears admitted his guilt in breaking conflict of interest laws by recruiting Darleen Druyun while she still handled military contracts. Ms Druyun is currently serving a nine month sentence for favouring Boeing when awarding lucrative contracts. Boeing lost a $23bn government contract after a Pentagon inquiry into the case. The contract, to provide refuelling tankers for the US Air Force, was cancelled last year...The Pentagon revealed earlier this week that it would examine eight other contracts worth $3bn which it believes may have been tainted by Ms Druyun's role in the procurement process. Boeing sacked Mr Sears and Ms Druyun in November 2003 after allegations that they had violated company recruitment policy. Ms Druyun had talks with Mr Sears in October 2002 about working for Boeing, while she was still a top procurement official within the Pentagon. She subsequently joined the company in January 2003. Ms Druyun admitted that she had steered multi-billion dollar contracts to Boeing and other favoured companies...In documents filed in a Virginia court ahead of Mr Sears' sentencing, prosecutors blamed Boeing's senior management for failing to ask key questions about the ""legal and ethical issues"" surrounding Ms Druyun's appointment. Mr Sears told prosecutors that no other Boeing officials were aware that Ms Druyun was still responsible for major procurement decisions at the time she was discussing a job with Boeing. However, analysts believe Boeing may yet face civil charges arising from the scandal. The Pentagon has investigated 400 contracts, dating back to 1993, since the allegations against Ms Druyun came to light...Boeing's corporate ethics have come under scrutiny on several occasions in recent years. Boeing was sued by Lockheed Martin after its rival accused it of industrial espionage during a 1998 contract competition. Boeing apologised publicly for the affair - although it claimed it did not gain any unfair advantage - and pledged to improve its procedures. The Pentagon subsequently revoked $1bn worth of contracts assigned to Boeing and prohibited the Seattle-based company from future rocket work.",business
"Verizon 'seals takeover of MCI'..Verizon has won a takeover battle for US phone firm MCI with a bid worth $6.8bn (£3.6bn), reports say...The two firms are expected to seal the deal on Monday morning, according to news agency reports, despite what was thought to be a higher bid from Qwest. The US telecoms market is consolidating fast, with former long-distance giant AT&T being bought by former subsidiary SBC earlier this year for $16bn. MCI exited bankruptcy in April, having gone bust under previous name WorldCom. The bankruptcy followed its admission in 2002 that it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits...Shareholders lost about $180bn when the company collapsed, while 20,000 workers lost their jobs. Former Worldcom boss Bernie Ebbers is currently on trial, accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud. Qwest has itself come under suspicion of sub-standard behaviour, paying the Securities and Exchange Commission $250m in October to settle charges that it manipulated its results to keep Wall Street happy...MCI is the US's second-biggest long distance firm after AT&T. Consolidation in the US telecommunications industry has picked up in the past few months as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. A merger between MCI and Verizon would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October. Last week, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer AT&T for about $16bn. Buying MCI would give either Qwest or Verizon access to MCI's global network and business-based subscribers. The rationale is similar to the one underpinning SBC's AT&T deal. Verizon is by far the bigger company and has its own successful mobile arm - factors which may have swung the board in its favour since both suitors are offering a mixture of cash and shares.",business
"US data sparks inflation worries..Wholesale prices in the US rose at the fastest rate in more than six years in January, according to government data...New figures show the Labor Department producer price index (PPI) rose by 0.3% - in line with forecasts. But core producer prices, which exclude food and energy costs, surged by 0.8%, the biggest rise since December 1998, increasing inflationary concerns. In contrast, the University of Michigan barometer of US retail consumer confidence showed a slight dip. The university's index of consumer spending fell to 94.2 in early February from 95.5 in January, which could indicate a fall in retail spending by the US public. The mixed set of data on Friday led to volatile early Wall Street trade, as the Dow Jones, Standard and Poor's 500, and Nasdaq swung between positive and negative territory...The economic figures come on the back of increased fears that the Federal Reserve chairman may be about to raise interest rates in order to stifle any inflationary pressures. The Fed has been raising interest rates at a gradual pace since June 2004, in an attempt to make sure inflation does not get out of control...Mr Greenspan told Congress this week that the central bank was on guard against the possibility that a rebounding economy could trigger stronger inflation pressures. ""The PPI would argue for Greenspan to continue to raise rates at a measured pace,"" said Joe Quinlan, chief market stategist at Bank of America Capital Management. ""But this Michigan survey tells you that the consumer might be downshifting a little bit in terms of their confidence and their spending; this could be an indication of that.""..Consumer spending accounts for 66% of US economic activity and is viewed as a gauge of the health of the economy, which is why the Michigan data is closely observed. However on Friday, it was overshadowed by the core PPI core figure, which surged 2.7% during the past 12 months, the biggest year-on-year gain in nine years. ""The concern is that traders might interpret this big jump in the core PPI as an impetus for the Fed to be more aggressive than a measured move in moving rates,"" said Paul Cherney, chief market analyst at Standard & Poor's. But Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said the PPI report was ""much less alarming"" than at first glance. One-time increases in alcohol and tobacco prices, which ""are no indication of broad PPI pressure"", were responsible for the increase, he said. Prices for autos and trucks also jumped in January, but Shepherdson said ""it is a good bet these increases won't stick"".",business
"Yukos sues four firms for $20bn..Russian oil firm Yukos has sued four companies for their role in last year's forced state auction of its key oil production unit Yuganskneftegas...Yukos is claiming more than $20bn (£11bn) in damages after Yugansk was sold in December to settle back taxes. The four companies named in the law suit are gas giant Gazprom, its unit Gazpromneft, investment company Baikal, and state oil firm Rosneft. Yukos submitted the suit in Houston, where it filed for bankruptcy. As well as suing for damages, Yukos has asked the US court to send its tax dispute with the Russian government to an international arbitrator. It also has submitted a reorganisation plan as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing...The clash between Yukos and the Kremlin came to a head last year when Yukos was hit with a bill of more than $27bn in back taxes and unpaid fines. To settle the bill, Russia forced Yukos to sell off Yuganskneftegas...Yukos called the sale illegal and has turned to courts in the US in an effort to regain control of the oil production business. It also has vowed to use all legal means at its disposal to go after any firm that tries to buy or take control of its assets. Earlier this month it sued the Russian government for $28.3bn. Analysts have questioned whether a US court has any jurisdiction over Russian companies, while Moscow officials have dismissed Yukos' legal wrangling as meaningless. In Houston, bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark will start a two-day hearing on 16 February to hear arguments on whether a US court is the proper forum for the case...The threat of legal action from Yukos and its bankruptcy filing in Houston did have an effect on last year's auction, however. Concerned that it would be caught up in a court battle, Gazprom and Gazpromneft withdrew from the auction, and Yuganskneftegas was sold to little-known investment firm Baikal Finance Group. A few days later, Baikal gave control of the company to state-run oil group Rosneft for $9.3bn. Rosneft, meanwhile, has agreed to merge with Gazprom, bringing a large chunk of Russia's very profitable oil business back under state control. Yukos claims that the rights of its shareholders have been ignored and that is has been punished for the political ambitions of its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Mr Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is in prison, having been charged with fraud and tax evasion and repeatedly denied bail.",business
"Consumer spending lifts US growth..US economic growth accelerated in the third quarter, helped by strong consumer spending, official figures have shown...The economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.7% in the July to September period, the Commerce Department said. The figure marked an increase on the 3.3% growth recorded in the second quarter, but fell short of the 4.2% rate pencilled in by forecasters. The increase reflected the biggest jump in consumer spending in a year. ""It was a little softer than the consensus, but not a real surprise,"" said Gary Thayer, an economist at AG Edwards & Sons. Friday's growth estimate is one of the last significant pieces of economic data before the 2 November presidential election...Democrat challenger John Kerry has criticised President George W Bush's handling of the economy, pointing to a net loss of over 800,000 jobs since Mr Bush took office. Analysts said the economy was still not growing fast enough to stimulate large-scale job creation. ""It's a pretty good growth rate, but it may not be good enough to create enough jobs,"" said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics in New York. However, President Bush is expected to point to Commerce Department figures showing that consumer spending grew at 4.6% in the third quarter, up from just 1.6% in the second, as evidence that his policies are generating solid growth. Consumer spending accounts for about two thirds of all economic activity in the US...The weaker than expected growth figure makes it less likely that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month, economists said. ""The economy regained some traction in the third quarter, but the growth is not robust,"" AG Edwards' Thayer. ""I think that means the Fed can take its time raising rates. We'll probably see one more rate hike before the end of the year."" In an effort to pre-empt rising inflation, the Federal Reserve has pushed through three quarter-point rate rises since June this year, taking borrowing costs to 1.75%. On the financial markets, the dollar fell slightly against the euro and the yen, while the Dow Jones index of leading US shares was little changed.",business
"Crossrail link 'to get go-ahead'..The £10bn Crossrail transport plan, backed by business groups, is to get the go-ahead this month, according to The Mail on Sunday...It says the UK Treasury has allocated £7.5bn ($13.99bn) for the project and that talks with business groups on raising the rest will begin shortly. The much delayed Crossrail Link Bill would provide for a fast cross-London rail link. The paper says it will go before the House of Commons on 23 February...A second reading could follow on 16 or 17 March. ""We've always said we are going to introduce a hybrid Bill for Crossrail in the Spring and this remains the case,"" the Department for Transport said on Sunday. Jeremy de Souza, a spokesman for Crossrail, said on Sunday he could not confirm whether the Treasury was planning to invest £7.5bn or when the bill would go before Parliament...However, he said some impetus may have been provided by the proximity of an election...The new line would go out as far as Maidenhead, Berkshire, to the west of London, and link Heathrow to Canary Wharf via the City. Heathrow to the City would take 40 minutes, dramatically cutting journey times for business travellers, and reducing overcrowding on the tube. The line has the support of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, business groups and the government, but there have been three years of arguments over how it should be funded. The Mail on Sunday's Financial Mail said the £7.5bn of Treasury money was earmarked for spending in £2.5bn instalments in 2010, 2011 and 2012.",business
"Hariri killing hits Beirut shares..Shares in Solidere, the Lebanese company founded by assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, fell 15% in renewed trading in Beirut...The real estate firm, which dominates Lebanon's stock exchange, ended the day down at $8.08. Traders said there was some panic selling during Friday's session, the first since a three-day market closure to mourn the death of Mr Hariri. Beirut's benchmark BLOM stock index closed down 7.9% at 642.80...Solidere, in which Mr Hariri was a major shareholder, was the major drag on the index. The company owns much of the property in central Beirut, which it restored and redeveloped following the end of Lebanon's bitter 15-year civil war. ""Solidere should be above $10 but because of this disaster it is falling,"" said one trader. ""If Solidere drops much lower I would consider it a buying opportunity. This is a very big company held by many Lebanese."" Critics had accused Mr Hariri of using Lebanon's post-war reconstruction drive for his personal financial gain. But his assassination on Monday sent shudders through Lebanon's business community, which saw the billionaire tycoon as the country's best hope for economic revival. Solidere posted profits of $12.5m in the first half of 2004, and its shares had been gaining in recent months.",business
"Small firms 'hit by rising costs'..Rising fuel and materials costs are hitting confidence among the UK's small manufacturers despite a rise in output, business lobby group the CBI says...A CBI quarterly survey found output had risen by the fastest rate in seven years but many firms were seeing the benefits offset by increasing expenses. The CBI also found spending on innovation, training and retraining is forecast to go up over the next year. However, firms continue to scale back investment in buildings and machinery...The CBI said companies are looking to the government to lessen the regulatory load and are hoping interest rates will be kept on hold. ""Smaller manufacturers are facing an uphill struggle,"" said Hugh Morgan Williams, chair of the CBI's SME Council. ""The manufacturing sector needs a period of long-term stability in the economy."" The CBI found some firms managed to increase prices for the first time in nine years - but many said increases failed to keep up the rise in costs. Of the companies surveyed, 30% saw orders rise and 27% saw them fall. The positive balance of plus 3 compared with minus 10 in the previous survey. When firms were questioned on output volume, the survey returned a balance of plus 8 - the highest rate of increase for seven years - and rose to plus 11 when looking ahead to the next three months.",business
"Buyers snap up Jet Airways' shares..Investors have snapped up shares in Jet Airways, India's biggest airline, following the launch of its much anticipated initial public offer (IPO)...The IPO for 17.3 million shares was fully sold within 10 minutes of opening, on Friday. Analysts expect Jet to raise at least 16.4bn rupees ($375m; £198m) from the offering. Interest in Jet's IPO has been fuelled by hopes for robust growth in India's air travel market...The share offer, representing about 20% of Jet's equity, was oversubscribed, news agency Reuters reported. Jet, which was founded by London-based travel agent Naresh Goyal, plans to use the cash to buy new planes and cut its debt. The company has grown rapidly since it launched operations in 1993, overtaking state-owned flag carrier Indian Airlines. However, it faces stiff competition from rivals and low-cost carriers. Jet's IPO is the first in a series of expected share offers from Indian companies this year, as they move to raise funds to help them do business in a rapidly-growing economy.",business
"House prices suffer festive fall..UK house prices fell 0.7% in December, according to figures from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister...Nationally, house prices rose at an annual rate of 10.7% in December, less than the 13.7% rise the previous month. The average UK house price fell from £180,126 in November to £178,906, reflecting recent Land Registry figures confirming a slowdown in late 2004. All major UK regions, apart from Northern Ireland, experienced a fall in annual growth during December...December is traditionally a quiet month for the housing market because of Christmas celebrations. However, recent figures from the Land Registry - showing a big drop in sales between the last quarter of 2004 and the previous year - suggested the slowdown could be more than a seasonal blip. The volume of sales between October and December dropped by nearly a quarter from the same period in 2003, the Land Registry said. Although both the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the Land Registry figures point to a slowdown in the market, the most recent surveys from Nationwide and Halifax have indicated the market may be undergoing a revival. After registering falls at the back-end of 2004, Halifax said house prices rose by 0.8% in January and Nationwide reported a rise of 0.4% in the first month of the year.",business
"Deutsche Boerse boosts dividend..Deutsche Boerse, the German stock exchange that is trying to buy its London rival, has said it will boost its 2004 dividend payment by 27%...Analysts said that the move is aimed at winning over investors opposed to its bid for the London Stock Exchange. Critics of the takeover have complained that the money could be better used by returning cash to shareholders. Deutsche Boerse also said profit in the three months to 31 December was 120.7m euros ($158.8m; £83.3m). Sales climbed to 364.4m euros, lifting revenue for the year to a record 1.45bn euros...Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse has offered £1.3bn ($2.48bn; 1.88bn euros) for the London Stock Exchange. Rival pan-European bourse Euronext is working also on a bid. Late on Monday, Deutsche Boerse said it would lift its 2004 dividend payment to 70 euro cents (£0.48; $0.98) from 55 euro cents a year earlier. ""There is a whiff of a sweetener in there,"" Anais Faraj, an analyst at Nomura told the BBC's World Business Report. ""Most of the disgruntled shareholders of Deutsche Boerse are complaining that the money that is being used for the bid could be better placed in their hands, paid out in dividends,"" Mr Faraj continued. Deutsche Boerse is ""trying to buy them off in a sense"", he said.",business
"Newest EU members underpin growth..The European Union's newest members will bolster Europe's economic growth in 2005, according to a new report...The eight central European states which joined the EU last year will see 4.6% growth, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said. In contrast, the 12 Euro zone countries will put in a ""lacklustre"" performance, generating growth of only 1.8%. The global economy will slow in 2005, the UNECE forecasts, due to widespread weakness in consumer demand...It warned that growth could also be threatened by attempts to reduce the United States' huge current account deficit which, in turn, might lead to significant volatility in exchange rates...UNECE is forecasting average economic growth of 2.2% across the European Union in 2005. However, total output across the Euro zone is forecast to fall in 2004 from 1.9% to 1.8%. This is due largely to the faltering German economy, which shrank 0.2% in the last quarter of 2004. On Monday, Germany's BdB private banks association said the German economy would struggle to meet its 1.4% growth target in 2005...Separately, the Bundesbank warned that Germany's efforts to reduce its budget deficit below 3% of GDP presented ""huge risks"" given that headline economic growth was set to fall below 1% this year. Publishing its 2005 economic survey, the UNECE said central European countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovenia would provide the backbone of the continent's growth. Smaller nations such as Cyprus, Ireland and Malta would also be among the continent's best performing economies this year, it said. The UK economy, on the other hand, is expected to slow in 2005, with growth falling from 3.2% last year to 2.5%...Consumer demand will remain fragile in many of Europe's largest countries and economies will be mostly driven by growth in exports. ""In view of the fragility of factors of domestic growth and the dampening effects of the stronger euro on domestic economic activity and inflation, monetary policy in the euro area is likely to continue to 'wait and see', the organisation said in its report. Global economic growth is expected to fall from 5% in 2004 to 4.25% despite the continued strength of the Chinese and US economies. The UNECE warned that attempts to bring about a controlled reduction in the US current account deficit could cause difficulties. ""The orderly reversal of the deficit is a major challenge for policy makers in both the United States and other economies,"" it noted.",business
"Brewers' profits lose their fizz..Heineken and Carlsberg, two of the world's largest brewers, have reported falling profits after beer sales in western Europe fell flat...Dutch firm Heineken saw its annual profits drop 33% and warned that earnings in 2005 may also slide. Danish brewer Carlsberg suffered a 3% fall in profits due to waning demand and increased marketing costs. Both are looking to Russia and China to provide future growth as western European markets are largely mature...Heineken's net income fell to 537m euros ($701m; £371m) during 2004, from 798m euro a year ago. It blamed weak demand in western Europe and currency losses. It had warned in September that the weakening US dollar, which has cut the value of foreign sales, would knock 125m euros off its operating profits. Despite the dip in profits, Heineken's sales have been improving and total revenue for the year was 10bn euros, up 8.1% from 9.26bn euros in 2003. Heineken said it now plans to invest 100m euros in ""aggressive"" and ""high-impact"" marketing in Europe and the US in 2005. Heineken, which also owns the Amstel and Murphy's stout brands, said it would also seek to cut costs. This may involve closing down breweries...Heineken increased its dividend payment by 25% to 40 euro cents, but warned that the continued impact of a weaker dollar and an increased marketing spend may lead to a drop in 2005 net profit...Carlsberg, the world's fifth-largest brewer, saw annual pre-tax profits fall to 3.4bn Danish kroner (456m euros). Its beer sales have been affected by the sluggish European economy and by the banning of smoking in pubs in several European countries. Nevertheless, total sales increased 4% to 36bn kroner, thanks to strong sales of Carlsberg lager in Russia and Poland. Carlsberg is more optimistic than Heineken about 2005, projecting a 15% rise in net profits for the year. However, it also plans to cut 200 jobs in Sweden, where sales have been hit by demand for cheap, imported brands. ""We remain cautious about the medium-to-long term outlook for revenue growth across western Europe for a host of economic, social and structural reasons,"" investment bank Merrill Lynch said of Carlsberg.",business
"Yangtze Electric's profits double..Yangtze Electric Power, the operator of China's Three Gorges Dam, has said its profits more than doubled in 2004...The firm has benefited from increased demand for electricity at a time when power shortages have hit cities and provinces across the country. As a hydroelectric-power generator it has not been hurt by higher coal costs. Net income jumped to 3bn yuan in 2004 ($365m; £190m), compared with 1.4bn yuan in 2003. Sales surged to 6.2bn yuan, from 3bn yuan a year earlier. The figures topped analysts expectations, even though the rate of growth has slowed from 2003. Analysts forecast that it is likely to decline further this year to a rate of expansion of closer to 20%...Yangtze Electric has been expanding its output to meet demand driven by China's booming economy. The government has delayed the building of a number of power plants in an effort to rein in growth amid concerns that the economy may overheat. That has led to an energy crunch, with demand outstripping supply. Earlier this month, work was halted on an underground power station, and a supply unit on the Three Gorges Dam, as well as a power station on its sister Xiluodu dam because of environmental worries. A total of 30 large-scale projects have been halted across the country for similar reasons. The Three Gorges Dam project has led to more than half a million people being relocated and drawn criticism from environmental groups and overseas human rights activists. Its sister project, the Xiluodu Dam, is being built on the Jinshajiang - or ""river of golden sand"" as the upper reaches of the Yangtze are known.",business
"French consumer spending rising..French consumers increased their spending by 1.5% in January, a figure which bodes well for the country's economic growth, figures revealed...The National Statistic Institute (INSEE) added that consumer spending in January rose 3.8% on a year-on-year basis. Rising sales of household equipment were behind the increase. The INSEE also said that French consumer prices fell 0.6% in January, but were up 1.6% on an annual basis...Despite the general increase in spending in January, French households bought fewer cars in January. According to the INSEE, car sales fell 2.8% in January, following a fall of 0.6% in December. But on a year-on-year basis, the sector still saw a sales increase of 6.5%. Consumer spending fuelled France's economic growth in the last quarter of 2004 and analysts expect that it will continue to support the economy. ""It's a growth that will remain fragile and vulnerable to risks like a strong rise in long-term interest rates, tension in the oil price,"" Emmanuel Ferry, from Exane BNP Paribas told Reuters news agency...Meanwhile in Italy, consumer confidence rose to its highest level since October 2004. Economic research group ISAE has said that Italian consumer confidence rose to 104.4 from 103.3, despite a slight deterioration in short-term sentiment.",business
"GSK aims to stop Aids profiteers..One of the world's largest manufacturers of HIV/Aids drugs has launched an initiative to combat the smuggling of cheaper pills - supplied to poorer African countries - back into Europe for resale at far higher price...The company, GlaxoSmithKline, is to alter the packaging and change the colour of the pills, currently provided to developing nations under a humanitarian agreement. It is estimated that drugs companies are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year as a result of the diversion of their products in this way. This is a very sensitive area for the big drugs companies. They want to maintain their profits, but have been put under tremendous pressure to provide cheap anti-Aids drugs to the world's poorest nations...The result is that drugs supplied to Africa are now more than thirty times cheaper than those sold in Europe; bringing these medicines within the reach of millions of HIV-positive Africans through their government's health care systems...But the wide difference in price also means that there are big gains to be made from illegally diverting these cheaper drugs back into wealthier countries and re-selling them at a higher price. GlaxoSmithKline believes that by coating the pills destined for Africa in a red dye and adding new identification codes both onto the pills and on the packaging, then this trade can be substantially reduced. The company says that it will then be possible to identify specific distributors in Africa who have re-sold humanitarian drugs for profit, as well as those suppliers in Europe that have also been involved in the trade. Glaxo says distribution of the new-look drugs has already begun and that their chemical content is identical to those currently being sold in Europe.",business
"Optimism remains over UK housing..The UK property market remains robust despite the recent slowdown, according to mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley and housebuilder George Wimpey...B&B said the buy-to-let market - in which the bank is a major player - would continue to grow much faster than the wider mortgage market. The comments came as it reported a 6% rise in profits to £280.2m ($532m). Wimpey reported a 19% rise in profits to £450.7m and said recent new home reservations were better than expected...Recent housing market surveys have indicated that the UK property market has cooled in recent months after several years of rapid growth. Last week, figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) indicated that the popularity of buy-to-let mortgages - a key phenomenon of the housing boom - could be waning...But B&B - which has a 22% share of the UK buy-to-let mortgage market - said that while rates of growth were moderating, the sector ""continues to grow at a rate considerably above that of the whole mortgage market"". Overall, B&B said that ""housing market fundamentals remain strong"". ""Interest rates and unemployment are both likely to remain at historically low levels, real household incomes should continue to grow and housing demand is likely to outstrip supply into the medium-term."" Despite the upbeat tone, shares in B&B were down more than 4% at 325.5p in morning trade as analysts worried over future earnings growth...Wimpey's profit figures came in at the top of expectations, with the numbers helped by buoyant sales in the US offsetting a slight slowdown in the UK. Wimpey said the UK housing market had proved ""challenging"" last year. ""By late summer, the market in general had slowed sharply across the country and showed no real improvement during the autumn,"" it added. However, the first seven weeks of this year had produced promising signs, Wimpey said. ""Visitor levels and interest in this period have been encouraging and reservations have been at the stronger end of our expectations."" Shares in Wimpey were up 6% at 458.5p in morning trade.",business
"Russia WTO talks 'make progress'..Talks on Russia's proposed membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been ""making good progress"" say those behind the negotiations...But the chairman of the working party, Ambassador Stefan Johannesson of Iceland, warned that there was ""still a lot of work has to be done"". His comments came as President George W Bush said the US backed Russian entry. But he said for Russia to make progress the government must ""renew a commitment to democracy and the rule of law"". His comments come three days before he is due to meet President Vladimir Putin...Russia has been waiting for a decade to join the WTO and hopes to finally become a member by early 2006. A decision could be reached in December, when the WTO's 148 current members gather for a summit in Hong Kong. That would allow an earliest date for membership of January 2006, if the Hong Kong summit gave its approval. While pinpointing several areas in which there are difficulties in the bilateral and multilateral work with Russia, the US said the meeting was ""much more efficient than we've seen for some time"". And Australia said it was ""one of the best (meetings) we can recall in terms of substance"". Mr Johannesson also said progress ""on the bilateral market access side is accelerating"". Sticking points to membership have included limits on foreign ownership in the telecommunications and life insurance businesses, as well as issues surrounding counterfeiting, piracy, and data protection. Some WTO members also dislike Russia's energy price subsidies, which competitors say give Russian businesses an unfair advantage.",business
"Irish duo could block Man Utd bid..Irishmen JP McManus and John Magnier, who own a 29% stake in Manchester United, will reportedly reject any formal £800m offer for the club...The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph say they will oppose any formal £800m takeover bid from US tycoon Malcom Glazer. Mr Glazer got permission to look at the club's accounts last week. Irish billionaires Mr McManus and Mr Magnier are said to believe that an £800m bid undervalues club prospects...Mr Magnier and Mr McManus, who hold their stake through their Cubic Expression investment vehicle have the power to block a bid. Mr Glazer's financial backers, including JP Morgan, the US investment bank have said they won't back a bid unless it receives backing from the owners of at least 75% of the club's shares. However, there has been much speculation that the Irish duo simply do not think the price offered - 300p a share - is high enough. Mr Glazer has been stalking the premier league football club since 2003...Mr Magnier and Mr McManus issued a statement late on Friday saying that they remained ""long-term investors"" in Man Utd. The Sunday Telegraph says the board of Manchester United also considered a management buyout at just over 300p but did not go ahead with it.",business
"Dollar drops on reserves concerns..The US dollar has dropped against major currencies on concerns that central banks may cut the amount of dollars they hold in their foreign reserves...Comments by South Korea's central bank at the end of last week have sparked the recent round of dollar declines. South Korea, which has about $200bn in foreign reserves, said it plans instead to boost holdings of currencies such as the Australian and Canadian dollar. Analysts reckon that other nations may follow suit and now ditch the dollar. At 1300 GMT, the euro was up 0.9% on the day at 1.3187 euros per US dollar. The British pound had added 0.5% to break through the $1.90 level, while the dollar had fallen by 1.3% against the Japanese yen to trade at 104.16 yen...At the start of the year, the US currency, which had lost 7% against the euro in the final three months of 2004 and had fallen to record lows, staged something of a recovery...Analysts, however, pointed to the dollar's inability recently to extend that rally despite positive economic and corporate data, and highlighted the fact that many of the US's economic problems had not disappeared. The focus once again has been on the country's massive trade and budget deficits, with predictions of more dollar weakness to come. ""The comments from Korea came at a time when sentiment towards the dollar was already softening,"" said Ian Gunner, a trader at Mellon Financial. On Tuesday, traders in Asia said that both South Korea and Taiwan had withdrawn their bids to buy dollars at the start of the session. Mansoor Mohi-Uddin, chief currency strategist at UBS, said that there was a sentiment in the market that ""central banks from Asia and the Middle East are buying euros"". A report last month already showed that the dollar was losing its allure as a currency that offered rock-steady returns and stability. Compiled by Central Banking Publications and sponsored by the UK's Royal Bank of Scotland, the survey found 39 nations out of 65 questioned were increasing their euro holdings, with 29 cutting back on the US dollar.",business
"India and Russia in energy talks..India and Russia are to work together in a series of energy deals, part of a pact which could see India invest up to $20bn in oil and gas projects...On the agenda are oil and gas extraction as well as transportation deals, to be led by Russian energy giant Gazprom and India's ONGC. The Indian firm is also expected to hold talks on Tuesday about buying a stake in assets once owned by Yukos. It is reported to be keen on buying a 15% stake in oil unit Yuganskneftegas. The former Yukos subsidiary was controversially sold off last year and eventually acquired by state-owned energy giant Rosneft...Russian media reported that India and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding on energy co-operation on Tuesday during a meeting between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation chairman Subir Raha, Gazprom chairman Aleksey Miller and India's petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar...The agreement is likely to see the two companies develop refining facilities in Russia, India and elsewhere and organise delivery of oil, gas and petrochemicals from Russia to India and other countries across Asia. ONGC could invest in gas and oil fields in Sakhalin, in the far east of Russia, and may also take part in joint tender bids for projects in eastern Siberia and the Caspian Sea...India is urgently searching for fresh energy supplies - particularly liquefied natural gas - as domestic demand is growing at more than 5% a year...ONGC's Mr Raha said the two could work together on joint bids from next year. ""At current oil and gas prices, our cash flow situation is good,"" he told Reuters. ""What we are saying is - Gazprom has a huge amount of gas and we have the money. ""The investment may go up to $20bn or more for a period of five years or so.""..Russian news agencies reported that India's petroleum minister Mr Aiyar and Russian energy minister Viktor Khristenko would discuss the future of Yugansk at a meeting on Tuesday. ONGC's Mr Raha declined to be drawn on his firm's reported interest in the company. However, he stressed that ONGC was not interested in a 'loan-for-oil deal' in connection to Yugansk, similar to that concluded recently between Rosneft and China's National Petroleum Corporation. ""China's problem is it has immediate demand and they needed the oil for their coastal refineries. We do not. We would like long-term security through equity participation."" It is thought that any decision over Yugansk will be delayed until a US court has decided whether to grant Yukos bankruptcy protection. Yukos is suing a host of companies involved in the sale of Yugansk, auctioned off to pay a huge back-tax bill. It has also threatened legal action against any business which has future commercial dealings with its former subsidiary.",business
"Weak data buffets French economy..A batch of downbeat government data has cast doubt over the French economy's future prospects...Official figures showed on Friday that unemployment was unchanged at 9.9% last month, while consumer confidence fell unexpectedly in October. At the same time, finance minister Nicolas Sarkozy warned that high oil prices posed a threat to French growth. ""[Oil prices] will weigh on consumer spending in the short term, and potentially on confidence,"" he said. World oil prices have risen by more than 60% since the start of the year as production struggles to keep pace with soaring demand...Analysts said French companies, keen to protect their profit margins at a time of rising energy costs, were reluctant to take on extra staff. ""[The unemployment figures] show the main problem of the French economy: we have growth but without an improvement in employment,"" said Marc Touati, an economist at Natexis Banques Populaires. ""Politicians must have the will and guts to solve structural unemployment with thorough reforms, otherwise in five or ten years, it will be too late."" Obligatory employer contributions to worker welfare programmes mean that it costs more to hire staff in France than in many other European economies. Many economists have urged the government to stimulate employment by reducing non-wage payroll costs, and by scrapping restrictions on working hours. The French statistics agency, INSEE, expects the economy to grow by about 2.4% this year, buoyed by strong consumer spending and business investment. That is above the projected eurozone average of just above 2%.",business
"Business fears over sluggish EU economy..As European leaders gather in Rome on Friday to sign the new EU constitution, many companies will be focusing on matters much closer to home - namely how to stay in business...Lille is a popular tourist destination for Britons who want a taste of France at the weekend. But how many tourists look at the impressively grand Victorian Chambre de Commerce, which stands beside the Opera House, and consider that it was built - like the town halls in many northern English towns - on the wealth created by coal, steel and textiles? Like northern England and industrial Scotland, those industries have been in long term decline - the last coal pit closed in 1990. Beck-Crespel is a specialist steel firm in Armentieres, about 20 miles from Lille. The company has not laid off a worker since 1945. It specialises in making bolts and fixings for power stations and the oil industry, but not many of those are being built in Europe these days...Director Hugues Charbonnier says he is under pressure because factories in the Far East are able to make some of his output more cheaply, while his key markets are now in China and India. ""In our business the market is absolutely global, you can not imagine living with our size (of business) even within an enlarged European Union, (if we did that) we would need not 350 people but perhaps just 150 or 200,"" he says. It isn't just globalisation that is hurting; the law in France means workers are paid for a 39 hour week even though they work just 35 hours. But at least there is still a steel industry. Coal has now totally vanished and textiles are struggling. New business has been attracted, but not enough to make up the difference...That is one reason why people here are not great fans of the EU, says Frederic Sawicki, a politics lecturer at the University of Lille...""In the region today the unemployment rate is 12%, in some areas it is 15%. They don't see what Europe is doing for them, so there is a kind of euro scepticism, especially in the working classes,"" he says. Which is strange because Lille is at the crossroads of Europe - if anywhere should be benefiting from the euro it is here. The euro was designed to increase trade within the eurozone, but the biggest increase in trade has been with the rest of the world. Much of that trade passes through the world's largest port, Rotterdam, in Holland, home to specialist crane maker Huisman Itrec. Its cranes help build oil rigs and lifted the sunken Russian submarine Kursk from the sea bed, but Huisman Itrec is now setting up a factory in China, where costs are cheaper and its main customers are closer...Boss Henk Addink blames the low growth rate in Europe for the lack of orders closer to home. ""In the US growth is something like 6%, in China they are estimating 15%, and in the EU it is more or less 1%,"" he says. Mr Addink blames the euro for stifling demand. He much preferred the old currencies of Europe, which moved in relation to each country's economic performance. In Germany, industry is exporting more these days, but the economy as a whole is once again mired in slow growth and high unemployment. Growth is likely to peak this year at just under 2%. In Britain that would be a bad year; in Germany it is one of the best in recent years. With Germany making up a third of the eurozone's economy, this is a major problem. If Germany doesn't once again become the powerhouse of Europe, growth across the bloc is never going to be as strong as it could be. However, at one factory near the Dutch border things are changing...The Siemens plant at Boscholt makes cordless phones and employs 2,000 staff. Staff have started working an extra four hours a week for no extra pay, after Siemens threatened to take the factory and their jobs to Hungary. Factory manager Herbert Stueker says that he now hopes to increase productivity ""by nearly 30%"". But Germany needs much more reform if all its industry is to compete with places such Hungary or China. The Government is reforming the labour market and cutting the generous unemployment system, but the real solution is to cut the wages of low skilled workers, says Helmut Schneider, director of the Institute for the Study of Labour at Bonn University. ""Labour is too costly in Germany, especially for the low skilled labour and this is the main problem. If we could solve that problem we could cut unemployment by half,"" he says. The EU set itself the target of being the most efficient economy in the world by 2010. Four years into that process, and the target seems further away than ever.",business
"M&S cuts prices by average of 24%..Marks & Spencer has cut prices in London and the regions by an average of 24%, according to research from a City investment bank...Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein said: ""In spite of the snow in the UK, it still feels very early to be cutting prices of spring merchandise."" Stuart Rose, head of M&S, said last year its prices were too high. ""We are bringing in ranges at new price points to compete against mid-market retailers like Next,"" said M&S...Next is one of M&S's biggest competitors and the move may force it to lower prices. DrKW said the cuts are either to clear stock or could indicate a longer term ""step change in pricing in certain areas"" at M&S. ""Either way, this cannot be good news for M&S' margin,"" it added. ""We have brought in quite a lot of new clothing at new price points as part of Stuart Rose's strategy of quality, style -and price,"" said the M&S spokesman. Many analysts believe February is proving to be a difficult month for retailers and British Retail Consortium figures, due in a few weeks, are expected to reflect the tough trading environment. Separately, investment bank Goldman Sachs produced reseach showing that a basket of 35 M&S goods is now 11% above the high-street average, compared with 43% higher last year...It has been a strange week for M&S, which on Tuesday received a statement from Philip Green, the billionaire Bhs owner, confirming he was not rebidding for the company. This was followed the same day by Mark Paulsmeier, a South African financier, issuing a press release saying his Paulsmeier Group was interested in M&S. A sudden spike in M&S's share price followed. However, an M&S spokesman said on Sunday it had no evidence that Mr Paulsmeier had lined up sufficient finance for a bid. He also said the Takeover Panel and the UK's financial watchdog the Financial Services Authority had been in touch with M&S at the beginning of the week to find out what it knew about the Paulsmeier developments.",business
"US bank 'loses' customer details..The Bank of America has revealed it has lost computer tapes containing account details of more than one million customers who are US federal employees...Several members of the US Senate are among those affected, who could now be vulnerable to identity theft. Senate sources say the missing tapes may have been stolen from a plane by baggage handlers. The bank gave no details of how the records disappeared, but said they had probably not been misused. Customers' accounts were being monitoring and account holders would be notified if any ""unusual activity"" was detected, bank officials said...Bank of America said the tapes went missing in December while being shipped to a back-up data centre. ""We, with federal law authorities, have done a very robust, thorough investigation on this and neither we nor they would make the statement lightly that we believe those tapes to be lost,"" Alexandra Tower, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina-based bank, told Time magazine. But although there was no evidence of criminal activity, the bank said, the Secret Service - a federal agency whose brief includes investigations of serious financial crime - is said to be looking into the loss. New York Senator Charles Schumer said he was told by the Senate Rules Committee that the tapes were probably stolen from a commercial plane. ""Whether it is identity theft, terrorism, or other theft, in this new complicated world baggage handlers should have background checks and more care should be taken for who is hired for these increasingly sensitive positions,"" the Democrat senator said. Details of his Vermont colleague Pat Leahy's credit card account are among those missing, Senator Leahy's spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said. About 900,000 military and civilian staff at the defence department are among the 1.2 million affected, according to a Pentagon spokesman.",business
"Huge rush for Jet Airways shares..Indian airline Jet Airways' initial public offering was oversubscribed 16.2 times, bankers said on Friday...Over 85% of the bids were at the higher end of the price range of 1,050-1,125 rupees ($24-$26). Jet Airways, a low-fare airline, was founded by London-based ex-travel agent Naresh Goya, and controls 45% of the Indian domestic airline market. It sold 20% of its equity or 17.2 million shares in a bid to raise up to $443m (£230.8m). The price at which its shares will begin trading will be agreed over the weekend, bankers said. ""The demand for the IPO was impressive. We believe that over the next two years, the domestic aviation sector promises strong growth, even though fuel prices could be high,"" said Hiten Mehta, manager of merchant banking firm, Fortune Financial Services. India began to open up its domestic airline market - previously dominated by state-run carrier Indian Airlines - in the 1990s. Jet began flying in 1993 and now has competitors including Air Deccan and Air Sahara. Budget carriers Kingfisher Airlines and SpiceJet are planning to launch operations in May this year. Jet has 42 aircraft and runs 271 scheduled flights daily within India. It recently won government permission to fly to London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.",business
"Bank payout to Pinochet victims..A US bank has said it will donate more than $8m to victims of former Chilean military ruler Augusto Pinochet's regime under a Madrid court settlement...Riggs Bank will put money in a special fund to be managed by a Madrid-based charity, the Salvador Allende Foundation, which helps abused victims. The bank had been accused of illegally concealing Gen Pinochet's assets. More than 3,000 people were killed for political reasons under Gen Pinochet's regime, an official report says. Last month in a US court, Riggs Bank pleaded guilty to failing to report suspicious activity relating to accounts held by Gen Pinochet and the government of Equatorial Guinea. On that occasion, it was ordered to pay a fine of $16m. Gen Pinochet himself has never been put on trial for human rights violations under his 1973-90 rule, despite several high-profile cases against him. He is now facing charges relating to the murder of one Chilean and the disappearance of nine others. He is also being investigated for tax evasion, tax fraud and embezzlement of state funds...The general's opponents rejoiced at the settlement, which was agreed in a court in the Spanish capital, Madrid. A lawyer for the victims, Eduardo Contreras, told Reuters news agency: ""This demonstrates that the horrors of the Pinochet dictatorship are not a mystery to anyone and that the whole world knows his victims deserve reparations."" Riggs spokesman Mark Hendrix said the settlement, details of which will be announced next week, was an opportunity to move on. ""This enables the institution to put the matter behind us,"" he told Reuters. The settlement follows a legal complaint filed against the bank by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon alleging that it had illegally concealed assets. The bank agreed to create a fund for the victims, but the charges were dropped.",business
"Qwest may spark MCI bidding war..US phone company Qwest has said it will table a new offer for MCI after losing out to larger rival Verizon, setting the scene for a possible bidding war...MCI accepted a $6.75bn (£3.6bn) buyout from telecoms giant Verizon on Monday, rejecting a higher offer from Qwest. Qwest chairman Richard Notebaert sent a letter to MCI's board on Thursday saying that it plans to submit a new offer after examining Verizon's bid. Formerly known as Worldcom, MCI is a long-distance and corporate phone firm. Snapping up MCI would give the buyer access to a global telecommunications network and a large number of business-based subscribers. Shares of MCI were up more than 4% in electronic trading after the close of New York markets...Qwest said on Wednesday that MCI had rejected a deal worth $8bn. ""We would like to advise you that once we have completed our review of the Verizon merger agreement, we do intend to submit a modified offer to acquire MCI,"" the letter from Qwest said. Verizon's offer is made up of cash, shares and dividends, and a number of investors have said that it undervalues MCI. Verizon plans to swap 0.41 of its shares and $1.50 in cash for each MCI share, as well as offering special dividends of $4.50 a share. Both company boards have backed the deal, but regulators will still need to give their approval. As well as trying to lure investors with the promise of better returns, Qwest also reckons that its offer will face less regulatory scrutiny than Verizon's...The takeover would be the fifth billion-dollar telecoms deal since October as companies look to cut costs and boost client bases. Earlier this month, SBC Communications agreed to buy its former parent and phone trailblazer AT&T for about $16bn. There may be concerns other than cash, however, especially as MCI only emerged from bankruptcy protection last April. Verizon is far bigger than Qwest, has fewer debts and has built a successful mobile division. Also, MCI, while trading under the name Worldcom, became the biggest corporate bankruptcy in US history after admitting that it illegally booked expenses and inflated profits. Former Worldcom boss Bernie Ebbers is currently standing trial, accused of overseeing an $11bn fraud. Qwest, meanwhile, had to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $250m in October to settle charges that it massaged earnings to keep Wall Street happy.",business
"Fiat chief takes steering wheel..The chief executive of the Fiat conglomerate has taken day-to-day control of its struggling car business in an effort to turn it around...Sergio Marchionne has replaced Herbert Demel as chief executive of Fiat Auto, with Mr Demel leaving the company. Mr Marchionne becomes the fourth head of the business - which is expected to make a 800m euro ($1bn) loss in 2004 - in as many years. Fiat underperformed the market in Europe last year, seeing flat sales...The car business has made an operating loss in five of the last six years and was forced to push back its break-even target from 2005 to 2006. The management changes are part of a wider shake-up of the business following Fiat's resolution of its dispute with General Motors. As part of a major restructuring, Fiat is to integrate the Maserati car company - currently owned by Ferrari - within its own operations. Ferrari, in which Fiat owns a majority stake, could be separately floated on the stock market in either 2006 or 2007...Mr Marchionne, who only joined the company last year, said Fiat Auto was now the ""principal focus"" of his attention. ""I have made the decision to take on the post of chief executive of the auto unit to speed up the company's recovery,"" he said. ""A profound cultural transformation is underway following a management reorganisation that has delivered a more agile and efficient structure,"" he added...Although Mr Marchionne does not have a background in the car industry, he has been playing an increasing role in the group's activities. Last year, he said that a series of new models, launched as part of the group's recovery plan, had not boosted revenues as much as hoped. The car business, best known for its Alfa Romeo marque, is expected to make a loss of about 800m euros in 2004. Sales are expected to fall in 2005, Fiat said this week, as it exits unprofitable areas such as the rental car market. Mr Demel, a car industry veteran, took the helm in November 2003 after being recruited by former Fiat chief executive Giuseppe Morchio. Mr Morchio made a bid last year to become chairman after the death of president Umberto Agnelli. However, this was rejected by the founding Agnelli family and Mr Morchio subsequently resigned. Earlier this week, Fiat reached an agreement with GM to dissolve an alliance which could have obliged GM to buy the Italian firm outright. GM will pay Fiat $2bn as part of the settlement.",business
"Consumers drive French economy..France's economic growth accelerated in the last three months of 2004, driven by consumer spending, a report shows...Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.8% in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three month period, the statistical office INSEE said. That expansion pushed annual growth to 2.3%, the fastest rate in two years. Consumer spending was up by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, and there also was a rebound in business investment that gave the recovery an extra shove...Analysts warned that France still was facing challenges and was unlikely to keep expanding at its current pace...""France still has a strong economic growth,"" said Marc Toutai, an economist at Natexis Banques Populaires. ""But, if we check the figures in detail, there's a problem."" ""Consumer spending is still high. But French households have spent their savings to consume. ""France can't sustain a high growth rate without an improvement in the job market. There's too much of a gap between growth and employment."" Unemployment levels are currently stuck at about 10%, and is proving difficult to bring down despite government efforts. Another worry is that demand in Germany and Italy, two of France's main trading partners, is sluggish...Despite the concerns, analysts pointed out that France was outperforming the majority of its European counterparts and that its economy was looking more robust than in previous years. As well as strong domestic demand, exports climbed by 1.3% in the fourth quarter - the biggest increase in foreign sales for a year. ""It's an economic growth that seems well balanced,"" said Nicolas Claquin, an analyst at CCF. ""In the beginning of 2004, growth was mainly driven by consumer spending. Here it gets contributions from investment and exports, though household consumption is still strong. ""But we expect overall economic growth to fall to 2.0 percent in 2005.""",business
"US regulator to rule on pain drug..US food and drug regulators will decide on Friday whether to recommend the sale of painkillers that have been linked to a high risk of heart attack and stroke...The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel will give its verdict after hearing evidence for three days. The painkillers - called COX-2 inhibitors - are sold under brand names such as Celebrex and Vioxx. Vioxx was withdrawn from shops last year but Merck said it would consider selling it if it gets FDA approval. The FDA has been asked to decide if the benefits to patients justify the increased risks...Putting Vioxx back on the shelves is likely to boost profits at Merck and make easier any legal battles with people who claim to have been injured by the drug, analysts said...Merck voluntarily stopped sales of Vioxx on 30 September, a move which caused the firm's fourth-quarter earnings to slide to $1.1bn (£581m), from $1.4bn a year earlier. Merck's shares tumbled more than 10% on the news and the company has had to set aside millions of dollars to cover the cost of Vioxx-related litigation. Alarm bells were rung by a research note called Approve which showed that the risk of heart attack and stroke doubled in patients who had been taking the drug for at least 18 months. The Cox-2 inhibitors were developed by drug companies, including Merck and Pfizer, because they cause users fewer stomach problems than other painkillers...Pfizer is still selling its Celebrex and Bextra products, though investigations have suggested that they may also be harmful to the heart. Merck's announcement of a possible reintroduction of Vioxx caught analysts by surprise. Merck's head of research Peter Kim said that it withdrew Vioxx ""based on the information that was available to us at the time, knowing there were alternative therapies"". He went on to say that things have since changed in the light of new reports. ""Given this new information, its is not clear that the cardiovascular risk observed in Approve makes Vioxx unique in the class of similar drugs marketed in the US,"" Mr Kim explained...On Thursday, David Graham from the FDA's Office of Drug Safety told the advisory panel that ""there really doesn't appear to be a need for Cox-2"" inhibitors. According to calculations presented to the US Senate by Dr Graham in November, Vioxx may be linked to as many as to 56,000 American deaths. Facing stem criticism for its handling of the Vioxx case, the FDA said on Tuesday that it will create an independent body to oversee the safety of drugs already in the market place. European regulators, meanwhile, ruled on Thursday that patients who have had heart disease or a stroke should not take Cox-2 inhibitors. The European Medicines Agency also said doctors should be ""cautious"" about giving the drugs to patients who have risk factors for heart disease.",business
"Yukos bankruptcy 'not US matter'..Russian authorities do not have to abide by any US court decisions taken with regard to troubled oil giant Yukos, a Houston court has been told...Legal expert William Butler said there was no treaty between the US and Russia to recognise the other's legal rulings. That meant Moscow would not have to adhere to US rulings in the Yukos case. Yukos says a US court was entitled to declare it bankrupt before its Yugansk unit was sold, since it has a US subsidiary and local bank accounts...Yukos made its surprise Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Houston in December in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the auction of Yugansk, its main oil producing unit, by Russian authorities. Yugansk was sold to help pay off a $27.5bn (£14.5bn) back tax bill. It was bought for $9.4bn by a previously unknown group, which was in turn bought by state-controlled oil company Rosneft. The US court's jurisdiction has been challenged by Deutsche Bank and Gazpromneft, a former unit of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom which is due to merge with Rosneft. Deutsche Bank maintains the case has no place in a US court because Yukos has no assets in the US, apart from two bank accounts and a house in Houston owned by its chief finance officer Bruce Misamore. Deutsche Bank is involved in the case because it is itself being sued by Yukos. It had agreed to loan Gazpromneft the money to bid for Yugansk. US bankruptcy judge Letitia Clark, who issued an injunction in December to try and prevent the Yugansk sale, has said she will rule ""pretty promptly, however I do not anticipate ruling on it before next Tuesday""...Yukos has claimed it sought help in the US because other forums - Russian courts and the European Court of Human Rights - were either unfriendly or offered less protection. It has claimed that Russia imposed the huge tax bill and forced the sale of Yugansk as part of a campaign to destroy Yukos and its former owner Mihkail Khodorkovsky, who is facing a 10-year prison term in Russia for fraud and tax evasion. Yukos' parent company, the Gibraltar-based Menatep Group, is suing Russia in Europe for $28.3bn in financial damages. The company is also seeking $20bn in a separate US lawsuit against Rosneft and Gazprom for their role in the sale of Yugansk.",business
"Borussia Dortmund near bust..German football club and former European champion Borussia Dortmund has warned it will go bankrupt if rescue talks with creditors fail...The company's shares tumbled after it said it has ""entered a life-threatening profitability and financial situation"". Borussia Dortmund has posted record losses and missed rent payments on its Westfallen stadium. Chief executive Gerd Niebaum stepped down last week and creditors are now pushing for greater control. Shares in Borussia Dortmund, Germany's only stock-market listed football club, dropped by almost 23% to 2.05 euros during early afternoon trading...Fund manager Florian Hamm - Borussia Dortmund's largest investor - said he would only invest more money in the company if he got a greater say in how it is run. ""I demand better transparency,"" he is quoted as saying by Germany's Manger Magazin. The club has also faced calls to appoint executives from outside the club...Borussia Dortmund posted a record loss of 68m euros ($89m; £47m) in the 12 months through June. It made a loss of 27.2m euros in the first half of the current fiscal year and said that total debts will increase to 134.7m euros by the middle of 2006 unless a restructuring plan is pushed through. ""This is the bill for their mismanagement over the past years,"" said HVB analyst Peter-Thilo Halser. The club appointed an auditor, who has recommended a number of steps, including deferring the rent due on the stadium and suspending debt repayments until at least the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Stephen Schechter, a UK investment banker who has held talks with Borussia Dortmund over a possible bond sale, said the club needs a capital injection of 35m euros. ""They need strong people on the board who do not have a history with the club,"" he said.",business
"'Post-Christmas lull' in lending..UK mortgage lending showed a ""post-Christmas lull"" in January, indicating a slowing housing market, lenders have said...Both the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and Building Society Association (BSA) said lending was down sharply. The CML said gross mortgage lending stood at £17.9bn, compared with £21.8bn in January last year. The BSA said mortgage approvals - loans approved but not yet made - were £2bn, down from £2.6bn in January 2004...At the same time, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) said lending was ""weaker"". Overall, the BBA said mortgage lending rose by £4bn in January, a far smaller increase than the £5.1bn seen in December. This was a return to the ""weaker pattern"" of lending seen in the last months of 2004, the BBA added. However, it is the year-on-year lending comparisons which are the most striking. The CML said lending for house purchases and gross mortgage lending were 29% and 18% lower year-on-year respectively. ""These figures show beyond doubt the recent slowdown in the housing market,"" Peter Williams, CML deputy director, said.",business
"UK 'risks breaking golden rule'..The UK government will have to raise taxes or rein in spending if it wants to avoid breaking its ""golden rule"", a report suggests...The rule states that the government can borrow cash only to invest, and not to finance its spending projects. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) claims that taxes need to rise by about £10bn if state finances are to be put in order. The Treasury said its plans were on track and funded until 2008. According to NIESR, if the government's current economic cycle runs until March 2006 then it is ""unlikely"" the golden rule will be met. Should the cycle end a year earlier, then the chances improve to ""50/50"". Either way, fiscal tightening is needed, NIESR said...The report is the latest to call into question the viability of government spending projections. Earlier this month, accountancy firm Ernst & Young said that Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's forecasts for tax revenues were too optimistic...It claimed revenues were likely to be £6bn below estimates by the end of the tax year despite the economy growing in line with forecasts. A Treasury spokesperson dismissed the latest claims, saying it was ""on track to meeting spending rules and the golden rule in the current cycle and beyond"". ""Spending plans have been set out until 2008 and they are fully affordable."" Other than its warning on possible tax hikes, the NIESR report was optimistic about the state of the UK and global economy...It said the recent record-busting surge in oil prices would have a limited effect on worldwide expansion, saying that if anything the ""world economy will continue to grow strongly"". Global gross domestic product (GDP) is tipped to be 4.1% this year, dipping to 4% in 2005, before picking up again to 4.2% in 2006. The US will continue to drive expansion until 2006, albeit at a slightly slower rate, as will be the case in Japan. Hinting at better times for UK exporters, NIESR said the euro zone ""is expected to pick up speed""...Growth in Britain also is set to accelerate, it forecast. ""Despite weak growth in the third quarter, the forces sustaining the upswing remain intact and the economy will expand robustly in 2005 and 2006,"" NIESR said, adding that ""the economy will become better balanced over the next two years as exports stage a recovery"". GDP is expected at 3.2% in 2004, and 2.8% in both 2005 and 2006. The main cloud on the horizon, NIESR said, was the UK's much analysed and fretted over property market.",business
"Worldcom director ends evidence..The former chief financial officer at US telecoms firm WorldCom has finished giving evidence at the trial of his ex-boss Bernie Ebbers...Scott Sullivan admitted to jurors he was willing to commit fraud to meet Wall Street earnings projections. Mr Ebbers is on trial for fraud and conspiracy in relation to WorldCom's collapse in 2002. He pleads not guilty. Mr Sullivan has spent two days being cross-examined by lawyers for former Worldcom chief executive Mr Ebbers...Attorney Reid Weingarten has attempted to portray Mr Sullivan as a liar and on Thursday quizzed him about his decision to commit fraud to meet analysts' profit estimates. ""At that point in time,"" Mr Sullivan said, referring to the first false entries in late 2000, ""I knew it was wrong and I knew it was against the law, but I thought we would get through it in the short term."" Mr Sullivan, 42, has already pleaded guilty to fraud and will be sentenced following Mr Ebbers' trial, where he is appearing as a prosecution witness. Mr Ebbers, 63, has always insisted that he was unaware of any hidden shortfalls in WorldCom's finances. The former finance officer said Mr Ebbers knew about the improper accounting entries that were made between 2000 and 2002 to conceal soaring expenses and inflate revenue...Mr Ebbers could face a sentence of 85 years if convicted of all the charges he is facing. WorldCom's problems appear to have begun with the collapse of the dotcom boom which cut its business from internet companies. Prosecutors allege that the company's top executives responded by orchestrating massive fraud over a two-year period. WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004, and is now known as MCI. On Monday, MCI agreed to a buyout by Verizon Communications in a deal valued at $6.75bn.",business
"Ukraine steel sell-off 'illegal'..The controversial sell-off of a Ukrainian steel mill to a relative of the former president was illegal, a court has ruled...The mill, Krivorizhstal, was sold in June 2004 for $800m (£424m) - well below other offers. President Viktor Yushchenko, elected in December, is planning to revisit many of Ukraine's recent privatisations. Krivorizhstal is one of dozens of firms which he says were sold cheaply to friends of the previous administration...On Wednesday, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said as many as 3,000 firms could be included on the list of firms whose sale was being reviewed...Mr Yushchenko had previously said the list would be limited to 30-40 enterprises. More than 90,000 businesses in all, from massive corporations to tiny shopfronts, have been sold off since 1992, as the command economy built up when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union was dismantled. Analysts have suggested that the government needs to avoid the impression of an open-ended list, so as to preserve investor confidence...Thursday's ruling by a district court in Perchesk overturned a previous decision in a lower court permitting the sale. The consortium which won the auction for the mill was created by Viktor Pinchuk, son-in-law of former-President Leonid Kuchma, and Rinat Akhmetov, the country's richest man. The next step is for the supreme court to annul the sale altogether, opening the way for Krivorizhstal to be resold. Mr Yushchenko has suggested a fair valuation could be as much as $3bn. One of the foreign bidders who lost out, steel giant LNM, told BBC News that it would be interested in any renewed sale.",business
"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.",business
"Georgia plans hidden asset pardon..Georgia is offering a one-off 'tax amnesty' to people who hid their earnings under the regime of former president Eduard Shevardnadze...The country's new president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has said that anyone now willing to disclose their wealth will only have to pay 1% in income tax. The measure is designed to legitimise previously hidden economic activity and boost Georgia's flagging economy. Georgia's black market is estimated to be twice the size of its legal economy...Mr Saakashvili, elected president in January after Mr Shevardnadze was toppled, has urged the Georgian Parliament to approve the amnesty as soon as possible. It is one of a series of proposals designed to tackle corruption, which was rampant during the Shevardnadze era, and boost Georgia's fragile public finances...The new government is encouraging companies to pay taxes by scrapping existing corruption investigations and destroying all tax records from before 1 January, three days before President Saakashvili was elected. ""There are people who have money but are afraid to show it,"" the president told a government session. ""Documentation about where this money came from doesn't exist because under the former, entirely warped regime, earning capital honestly was not possible.""..By declaring their assets and paying the one-off tax, people would be able to ""legalise their property"", Mr Saakashvili stressed...""No one will have the right to check this money's origin. This money must go back into the economy."" The amnesty will not extend to people who made money through drugs trafficking or international money laundering. Criminal investigations in such cases -thought to involve about 5% of Georgian businesses -are to continue. Mr Saakashvili has accused the Shevardnadze regime, which was toppled by a popular uprising in November, of allowing bribery to flourish. Georgia's economy is in a desperate condition. Half the population are living below the poverty line with many surviving on income of less than $4, or three euros, a day. The unemployment rate is around 20% while the country has a $1.7bn public debt.",business
"Cuba winds back economic clock..Fidel Castro's decision to ban all cash transactions in US dollars in Cuba has once more turned the spotlight on Cuba's ailing economy...All conversions between the US dollar and Cuba's ""convertible"" peso will from 8 November be subject to a 10% tax. Cuban citizens, who receive money from overseas, and foreign visitors, who change dollars in Cuba, will be affected. Critics of the measure argue that it is a step backwards, reflecting the Cuban president's desire to increase his control of the economy and to clamp down on private enterprise. In a live television broadcast announcing the measure, President Castro's chief aide said it was necessary because of the United States' increasing ""economic aggression"". ""The ten percent obligation applies exclusively to the dollar by virtue of the situation created by the new measures of the US government to suffocate our country,"" he said...The Bush administration has taken an increasingly harsh line on Cuba in recent months. President Bush's government, which has been a strong supporter of the 40-year-old trade embargo on Cuba, introduced even tighter restrictions on Cuba in May...Cubans living in the US are now limited to one visit to Cuba every three years and they can only send money to their immediate relatives. A leading expert on the Cuban economy says that Castro's tax plan smacks more of a desperate economic measure than a political gesture. ""I think it is primarily an effort to raise some cash,"" says Jose Barrionuevo, head of strategy for Latin American emerging markets for Barclays Capital. ""It underscores the fact that the economy is in very bad shape and the government is looking for sources of revenue.""..The tax will hit the families of Cuban exiles hardest as they benefit from the money their displaced relatives send home. This money, known as remittances, can amount to as much as $1bn a year. Those remaining in Cuba will have to pay the tax. Their relatives abroad may choose to send money in other currencies which are not subject to the tax, such as euros, or increase their dollar payments to compensate. However, many of Cuban's poorest citizens could be worse off as a result. The tax will also affect the two million tourists who visit Cuba every year, particularly those Americans who continue to defy a ban on travel there...Cuba's tourist industry has been one of its few economic success stories over the last ten years and, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, is now worth $3bn to the country...The tax is designed to provide much-needed revenue for Cuba's cash-strapped economy. Cuba badly needs dollars to pay for essential items such as food, fuel and medicine. Much of Cuba's basic infrastructure is in a state of disrepair. In recent weeks, Cuba has suffered its most serious power cuts in a decade and there have also been water shortages in parts of the island. Cuba's economy had staged a modest recovery during the mid 1990s as the collapse of the Soviet Union forced it to embrace foreign capital, decentralise trade and permit limited private enterprise. However, a decline in foreign tourism since 2002, periodic hurricanes and the increasing costs of importing oil have put a strain on the economy. It has however yet to be seen if the tax will provide a solution to the government's economic problems. The tax could fuel an active black market in currency trading, Mr Barrionuevo said. ""The main impact could be that it will create a black market which you typically see in countries, like Venezuela, which have restrictions on capital,"" he says. Mr Barrioneuvo says the measure could be dropped if it has a damaging effect on economic activity. ""It is intended to be a permanent measure but I am not sure it can last too long.""",business
"Ink helps drive democracy in Asia..The Kyrgyz Republic, a small, mountainous state of the former Soviet republic, is using invisible ink and ultraviolet readers in the country's elections as part of a drive to prevent multiple voting...This new technology is causing both worries and guarded optimism among different sectors of the population. In an effort to live up to its reputation in the 1990s as ""an island of democracy"", the Kyrgyz President, Askar Akaev, pushed through the law requiring the use of ink during the upcoming Parliamentary and Presidential elections. The US government agreed to fund all expenses associated with this decision...The Kyrgyz Republic is seen by many experts as backsliding from the high point it reached in the mid-1990s with a hastily pushed through referendum in 2003, reducing the legislative branch to one chamber with 75 deputies. The use of ink is only one part of a general effort to show commitment towards more open elections - the German Embassy, the Soros Foundation and the Kyrgyz government have all contributed to purchase transparent ballot boxes...The actual technology behind the ink is not that complicated. The ink is sprayed on a person's left thumb. It dries and is not visible under normal light...However, the presence of ultraviolet light (of the kind used to verify money) causes the ink to glow with a neon yellow light. At the entrance to each polling station, one election official will scan voter's fingers with UV lamp before allowing them to enter, and every voter will have his/her left thumb sprayed with ink before receiving the ballot. If the ink shows under the UV light the voter will not be allowed to enter the polling station. Likewise, any voter who refuses to be inked will not receive the ballot. These elections are assuming even greater significance because of two large factors - the upcoming parliamentary elections are a prelude to a potentially regime changing presidential election in the Autumn as well as the echo of recent elections in other former Soviet Republics, notably Ukraine and Georgia. The use of ink has been controversial - especially among groups perceived to be pro-government...Widely circulated articles compared the use of ink to the rural practice of marking sheep - a still common metaphor in this primarily agricultural society...The author of one such article began a petition drive against the use of the ink. The greatest part of the opposition to ink has often been sheer ignorance. Local newspapers have carried stories that the ink is harmful, radioactive or even that the ultraviolet readers may cause health problems. Others, such as the aggressively middle of the road, Coalition of Non-governmental Organizations, have lauded the move as an important step forward. This type of ink has been used in many elections in the world, in countries as varied as Serbia, South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey. The other common type of ink in elections is indelible visible ink - but as the elections in Afghanistan showed, improper use of this type of ink can cause additional problems. The use of ""invisible"" ink is not without its own problems. In most elections, numerous rumors have spread about it...In Serbia, for example, both Christian and Islamic leaders assured their populations that its use was not contrary to religion. Other rumours are associated with how to remove the ink - various soft drinks, solvents and cleaning products are put forward. However, in reality, the ink is very effective at getting under the cuticle of the thumb and difficult to wash off. The ink stays on the finger for at least 72 hours and for up to a week. The use of ink and readers by itself is not a panacea for election ills. The passage of the inking law is, nevertheless, a clear step forward towards free and fair elections."" The country's widely watched parliamentary elections are scheduled for 27 February...David Mikosz works for the IFES, an international, non-profit organisation that supports the building of democratic societies.",tech
"China net cafe culture crackdown..Chinese authorities closed 12,575 net cafes in the closing months of 2004, the country's government said...According to the official news agency most of the net cafes were closed down because they were operating illegally. Chinese net cafes operate under a set of strict guidelines and many of those most recently closed broke rules that limit how close they can be to schools. The move is the latest in a series of steps the Chinese government has taken to crack down on what it considers to be immoral net use...The official Xinhua News Agency said the crackdown was carried out to create a ""safer environment for young people in China"". Rules introduced in 2002 demand that net cafes be at least 200 metres away from middle and elementary schools. The hours that children can use net cafes are also tightly regulated. China has long been worried that net cafes are an unhealthy influence on young people. The 12,575 cafes were shut in the three months from October to December. China also tries to dictate the types of computer games people can play to limit the amount of violence people are exposed to...Net cafes are hugely popular in China because the relatively high cost of computer hardware means that few people have PCs in their homes. This is not the first time that the Chinese government has moved against net cafes that are not operating within its strict guidelines. All the 100,000 or so net cafes in the country are required to use software that controls what websites users can see. Logs of sites people visit are also kept. Laws on net cafe opening hours and who can use them were introduced in 2002 following a fire at one cafe that killed 25 people. During the crackdown following the blaze authorities moved to clean up net cafes and demanded that all of them get permits to operate. In August 2004 Chinese authorities shut down 700 websites and arrested 224 people in a crackdown on net porn. At the same time it introduced new controls to block overseas sex sites. The Reporters Without Borders group said in a report that Chinese government technologies for e-mail interception and net censorship are among the most highly developed in the world.",tech
"Microsoft seeking spyware trojan..Microsoft is investigating a trojan program that attempts to switch off the firm's anti-spyware software...The spyware tool was only released by Microsoft in the last few weeks and has been downloaded by six million people. Stephen Toulouse, a security manager at Microsoft, said the malicious program was called Bankash-A Trojan and was being sent as an e-mail attachment. Microsoft said it did not believe the program was widespread and recommended users to use an anti-virus program. The program attempts to disable or delete Microsoft's anti-spyware tool and suppress warning messages given to users...It may also try to steal online banking passwords or other personal information by tracking users' keystrokes...Microsoft said in a statement it is investigating what it called a criminal attack on its software. Earlier this week, Microsoft said it would buy anti-virus software maker Sybari Software to improve its security in its Windows and e-mail software. Microsoft has said it plans to offer its own paid-for anti-virus software but it has not yet set a date for its release. The anti-spyware program being targeted is currently only in beta form and aims to help users find and remove spyware - programs which monitor internet use, causes advert pop-ups and slow a PC's performance.",tech
"Digital guru floats sub-$100 PC..Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of MIT's Media Labs, says he is developing a laptop PC that will go on sale for less than $100 (£53)...He told the BBC World Service programme Go Digital he hoped it would become an education tool in developing countries. He said one laptop per child could be "" very important to the development of not just that child but now the whole family, village and neighbourhood"". He said the child could use the laptop like a text book. He described the device as a stripped down laptop, which would run a Linux-based operating system, ""We have to get the display down to below $20, to do this we need to rear project the image rather than using an ordinary flat panel...""The second trick is to get rid of the fat , if you can skinny it down you can gain speed and the ability to use smaller processors and slower memory."" The device will probably be exported as a kit of parts to be assembled locally to keep costs down. Mr Negroponte said this was a not for profit venture, though he recognised that the manufacturers of the components would be making money. In 1995 Mr Negroponte published the bestselling Being Digital, now widely seen as predicting the digital age. The concept is based on experiments in the US state of Maine, where children were given laptop computers to take home and do their work on...While the idea was popular amongst the children, it initially received some resistance from the teachers and there were problems with laptops getting broken. However, Mr Negroponte has adapted the idea to his own work in Cambodia where he set up two schools together with his wife and gave the children laptops. ""We put in 25 laptops three years ago , only one has been broken, the kids cherish these things, it's also a TV a telephone and a games machine, not just a textbook."" Mr Negroponte wants the laptops to become more common than mobile phones but conceded this was ambitious. ""Nokia make 200 million cell phones a year, so for us to claim we're going to make 200 million laptops is a big number, but we're not talking about doing it in three or five years, we're talking about months."" He plans to be distributing them by the end of 2006 and is already in discussion with the Chinese education ministry who are expected to make a large order. ""In China they spend $17 per child per year on textbooks. That's for five or six years, so if we can distribute and sell laptops in quantities of one million or more to ministries of education that's cheaper and the marketing overheads go away.""",tech
"Technology gets the creative bug..The hi-tech and the arts worlds have for some time danced around each other and offered creative and technical help when required...Often this help has come in the form of corporate art sponsorship or infrastructure provision. But that dance is growing more intimate as hi-tech firms look to the creative industries for inspiration. And vice versa. UK telco BT is serious about the idea and has launched its Connected World initiative. The idea, says BT, is to shape a ""21st Century model"" which will help cement the art, technology, and business worlds together. ""We are hoping to understand the creative industry that has a natural thirst for broadband technology,"" said Frank Stone, head of the BT's business sector programmes. He looks after several ""centres of excellence"" which the telco has set up with other institutions and organisations, one of which is focused on creative industries...To mark the initiative's launch, a major international art installation is to open on 15 April in Brussels, with a further exhibit in Madrid later in the summer. They have both been created using the telco's technology that it has been incubating at its research and development arm, including a sophisticated graphics rendering program. Using a 3D graphics engine, the type commonly used in gaming, Bafta-winning artists Langlands & Bell have created a virtual, story-based, 3D model of Brussels' Coudenberg Cellars...They have recently been excavated and are thought to be the remnants of Coudenberg Palace, an historical seat of European power. The 3D world can be navigated using a joystick and offers an immersive experience of a landscape that historically had a river running through it until it was bricked up in the 19th Century. ""The river was integral to the city's survival for hundreds of years and it was equally essential to the city that it disappeared,"" said the artists. ""We hope that by uncovering the river, we can greater understand the connections between the past and the present, and appreciate the flow of modernity, once concealing, but now revealing the River Senne."" In their previous works they used the Quake game graphics engine. The game engine is the core component of a video game because it handles graphics rendering, game AI, and how objects behave and relate to each other in a game. They are so time-consuming and expensive to create, the engines can be licensed out to handle other graphics-intensive games. BT's own engine, Tara (Total Abstract Rendering Architecture) has been in development since 2001 and has been used to recreate virtual interactive models of buildings for planners. It was also used in 2003 in Encounter, an urban-based, pervasive game that combined both virtual play in conjunction with physical, on-the-street action. Because the artists wanted video and interactive elements in their worlds, new features were added to Tara in order to handle the complex data sets. But collaboration between art and digital technology is by no means new, and many keen coders, designers, games makers and animators argue that what they create is art itself...As more tools for self-expression are given to the person on the street, enabling people to take photos with a phone and upload them to the web for instance, creativity will become an integral part of technology. The Orange Expressionist exhibition last year, for example, displayed thousands of picture messages from people all over the UK to create an interactive installation...Technology as a way of unleashing creativity has massive potential, not least because it gives people something to do with their technology. Big businesses know it is good for them to get in on the creative vein too. The art world is ""fantastically rich"", said Mr Stone, with creative people and ideas which means traditional companies like BT want to get in with them. Between 1997 and 2002, the creative industry brought £21 billion to London alone. It is an industry that is growing by 6% a year too. The partnership between artists and technologists is part of trying to understand the creative potential of technologies like broadband net, according to Mr Stone. ""This is not just about putting art galleries and museums online,"" he said. ""It is about how can everyone have the best seat in house and asking if technology has a role in solving that problem."" With broadband penetration reaching 100% in the UK, businesses with a stake in the technology want to give people reasons to want and use it. The creative drive is not purely altruistic obviously. It is about both industries borrowing strategies and creative ideas together which can result in better business practices for creative industries, or more patent ideas for tech companies. ""What we are trying to do is have outside-in thinking. ""We are creating a future cultural drive for the economy,"" said Mr Stone.",tech
"Wi-fi web reaches farmers in Peru..A network of community computer centres, linked by wireless technology, is providing a helping hand for poor farmers in Peru...The pilot scheme in the Huaral Valley, 80 kilometres north of the capital Lima, aims to offer the 6,000-strong community up-to-date information on agricultural market prices and trends. The Agricultural Information Project for Farmers of the Chancay-Huaral Valley also provides vital links between local organisations in charge of water irrigation, enabling them to coordinate their actions. More than 13,000 rural inhabitants, as well as 18,000 students in the region, will also benefit from the telecoms infrastructure...The 14 telecentres uses only free open source software and affordable computer equipment. The network has been three years in the making and was officially inaugurated in September...The non-government organisation, Cepes (Peruvian Centre for Social Studies) led the $200,000 project, also backed by local institutions, the Education and Agriculture ministries, and European development organisations. ""The plan includes training on computers and internet skills for both operators and users of the system,"" said Carlos Saldarriaga, technical coordinator at Cepes. Farmers are also taking extra lessons on how to apply the new information to make the most of their plots of land. The Board of Irrigation Users which runs the computer centres, aims to make the network self-sustainable within three years, through the cash generated by using the telecentres as internet cafes...One of the key elements of the project is the Agricultural Information System, with its flagship huaral.org website. There, farmers can find the prices for local produce, as well as information on topics ranging from plague prevention to the latest farming techniques. The system also helps the inhabitants of the Chancay-Huaral Valley to organise their vital irrigation systems. ""Water is the main element that unites them all. It is a precious element in Peru's coastal areas, because it is so scarce, and therefore it is necessary to have proper irrigation systems to make the most of it,"" Mr Saldarriaga told the BBC News website. The information network also allows farmers to look beyond their own region, and share experiences with other colleagues from the rest of Peru and even around the world...Cepes says the involvement of the farmers has been key in the project's success. ""Throughout the last three years, the people have provided a vital thrust to the project; they feel it belongs to them,"" said Mr Saldarriaga. The community training sessions, attended by an equal number of men and women, have been the perfect showcase for their enthusiasm. ""We have had an excellent response, mainly from young people. But we have also had a great feedback when we trained 40 or 50-year old women, who were seeing a computer for the first time in their lives."" So far, the Huaral programme promoters say the experience has been very positive, and are already planning on spreading the model among other farmers' organisations in Peru. ""This is a pilot project, and we have been very keen on its cloning potential in other places,"" underlined Mr Saldarriaga...The Cepes researcher recalls what happened in Cuyo, a 50-family community with no electricity, during the construction of the local telecentre site. There it was necessary to build a mini-hydraulic dam in order to generate 2kW worth of power for the computers, the communications equipment and the cabin lights. ""It was already dark when the technicians realised they didn't have any light bulbs to test the generator, so they turned up to the local store to buy light bulbs,"" recalls Carlos Saldarriaga. ""The logical answer was 'we don't sell any', so they had to wait until the next morning to do the testing."" Now, with the wireless network, Cuyo as well as the other communities is no longer isolated.",tech
"Microsoft releases bumper patches..Microsoft has warned PC users to update their systems with the latest security fixes for flaws in Windows programs...In its monthly security bulletin, it flagged up eight ""critical"" security holes which could leave PCs open to attack if left unpatched. The number of holes considered ""critical"" is more than usual. They affect Windows programs, including Internet Explorer (IE), media player and instant messaging. Four other important fixes were also released. These were considered to be less critical, however. If not updated, either automatically or manually, PC users running the programs could be vulnerable to viruses or other malicious attacks designed to exploit the holes. Many of the flaws could be used by virus writers to take over computers remotely, install programs, change, and delete or see data...One of the critical patches Microsoft has made available is an important one that fixes some IE flaws. Stephen Toulouse, a Microsoft security manager, said the flaws were known about, and although the firm had not seen any attacks exploiting the flaw, he did not rule them out. Often, when a critical flaw is announced, spates of viruses follow because home users and businesses leave the flaw unpatched. A further patch fixes a hole in Media Player, Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger which an attacker could use to take control of unprotected machines through .png files. Microsoft announces any vulnerabilities in its software every month. The most important ones are those which are classed as ""critical"". Its latest releases came the week that the company announced it was to buy security software maker Sybari Software as part of Microsoft's plans to make its own security programs.",tech
"Virus poses as Christmas e-mail..Security firms are warning about a Windows virus disguising itself as an electronic Christmas card...The Zafi.D virus translates the Christmas greeting on its subject line into the language of the person receiving infected e-mail. Anti-virus firms speculate that this multilingual ability is helping the malicious program spread widely online. Anti-virus firm Sophos said that 10% of the e-mail currently on the net was infected with the Zafi virus...Like many other Windows viruses, Zafi-D plunders Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses and then uses mail-sending software to despatch itself across the web to new victims. To be infected users must open up the attachment travelling with the message which bears the code for the malicious bug. The attachment on the e-mail poses as an electronic Christmas card but anyone opening it will simply get a crude image of two smiley faces...The virus' subject line says ""Merry Christmas"" and translates this into one of 15 languages depending of the final suffix of the e-mail address the infected message has been sent to. The message in the body of the e-mail reads: ""Happy Holidays"" and this too is translated. On infected machines the virus tries to disable anti-virus and firewall software and opens up a backdoor on the PC to hand over control to the writer of the virus. The virus is thought to have spread most widely in South America, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary. The original Zafi virus appeared in April this year. ""We have seen these hoaxes for several Christmases already, and personally I prefer traditional pen and paper cards, and we recommend this to all our clients too,"" said Mikko Hypponen, who heads F-Secure's anti-virus team.",tech
"Apple laptop is 'greatest gadget'..The Apple Powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time, by US magazine Mobile PC...The 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first ""lightweight"" portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook PCs. The magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets, which includes the Sony Walkman at number three and the 1956 Zenith remote control at two. Gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. The magazine specified that gadgets also needed to be a ""self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device""...""In general we included only items that were potentially mobile,"" said the magazine...""In the end, we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget,"" it concluded. The oldest ""gadget"" in the top 100 is the abacus, which the magazine dates at 190 A.D., and put in 60th place. Other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position), the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the Kodak Brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). The Tivo personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10, which also includes the first flash mp3 player (Diamound Multimedia), as well as the first ""successful"" digital camera (Casio QV-10) and mobile phone (Motorola Startac). The most popular gadget of the moment, the Apple iPod, is at number 12 in the list while the first Sony transistor radio is at number 13...Sony's third entry in the top 20 is the CDP-101 CD player from 1983. ""Who can forget the crystalline, hiss-free blast of Madonna's Like A Virgin emenating from their first CD player?"" asked the magazine. Karl Elsener's knife, the Swiss Army Knife from 1891, is at number 20 in the list. Gadgets which could be said to feature surprisngly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd), the Nintendo GameBoy (25th), and the Pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). The list also contains plenty of oddities: the Pez sweet dispenser (98th), 1980s toy Tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre Ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th)...Why worry about mobile phones. Soon they will be subsumed into the PDA's / laptops etc...What about the Marine Chronometer? Completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. For it's time, a technological marvel!..Sony Net Minidisc! It paved the way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. I always used my NetMD, and could not go anywhere without it...A laptop computer is not a gadget! It's a working tool!..The Sinclair Executive was the world's first pocket calculator. I think this should be there as well...How about the clockwork radio? Or GPS? Or a pocket calculator? All these things are useful to real people, not just PC magazine editors...Are the people who created this list insane ? Surely the most important gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone? It has revolutionalised communication, which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. From outside the modern age, the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget, without which modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly...Has everyone forgot about the Breville pie maker??..An interesting list. Of the electronic gadgets, thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the Tandy 100. The size of A4 paper and light, three weeks on a set of batteries, an excellent keyboard, a modem. A pity Tandy did not make it DOS compatible...What's an Apple Powerbook 100 ? It's out of date - not much of a ""gadget"". Surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener, Swiss Army Knife, safety razor blade, wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves ?..It has to be the mobile phone. No other single device has had such an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time...The ball point pen has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. Also many might be grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule...The Casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in 1980. A true gadget, it could be carried around and shown off...All top 10 are electronic toys, so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-tech obsession than anyhting else. I say this as the Swiss Army Knife only made No 20...Sinclair QL a machine far ahead of its time. The first home machine with a true multi-takings OS. Shame the marketing was so bad!!!..Apple.. a triumph of fashion over... well everything else...Utter rubbish. Yes, the Apple laptop and Sony Walkman are classic gadgets. But to call the sextant and the marine chronometer 'gadgets' and rank them as less important than a TV remote control reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. The former literally helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. The latter is the seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. No competition...I'd also put Apple's Newton and the first Palm Pilot there as the front runners for portable computing, and possibly the Toshiba Libretto for the same reason. I only wish that Vulcan Inc's Flipstart wasn't just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top...How did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the telephone (mobile or otherwise)? What about radios and TVs?..The swiss army knife. By far the most useful gadget. I got mine 12 years ago. Still wearing and using it a lot! It stood the test of time...Psion Organiser series 3, should be up there. Had a usable qwerty keyboard, removable storage, good set of apps and programmable. Case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first, I think). Great product innovation...The first mobile PC was voted best gadget by readers of...err... mobile PC?! Why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site? It's obviously the mobile phone or remote control, and readers of a less partisan publication would tell you that...The Motorola Startac should be Number One. Why? There will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are either gone or integrated in communications devices...The Psion series 3c! The first most practical way to carry all your info around.....I too would back the Sinclair Spectrum - without this little beauty I would never have moved into the world of IT and earn the living that I do now...I'd have put the mobile phone high up the list. Probably a Nokia model...Sinclair Spectrum - 16k. It plugged into the tv. Games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that's what I do for a living now...I wish more modern notebooks -- even Apple's newest offerings -- were more like the PB100. Particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball, which has given way to the largely useless ""trackpad"" which every notebook on the market today uses. They're invariably inaccurate, uncomfortable, and cumbersome to use...Congratulations to Apple, a deserved win!",tech
"Google's toolbar sparks concern..Search engine firm Google has released a trial tool which is concerning some net users because it directs people to pre-selected commercial websites...The AutoLink feature comes with Google's latest toolbar and provides links in a webpage to Amazon.com if it finds a book's ISBN number on the site. It also links to Google's map service, if there is an address, or to car firm Carfax, if there is a licence plate. Google said the feature, available only in the US, ""adds useful links"". But some users are concerned that Google's dominant position in the search engine market place could mean it would be giving a competitive edge to firms like Amazon...AutoLink works by creating a link to a website based on information contained in a webpage - even if there is no link specified and whether or not the publisher of the page has given permission...If a user clicks the AutoLink feature in the Google toolbar then a webpage with a book's unique ISBN number would link directly to Amazon's website. It could mean online libraries that list ISBN book numbers find they are directing users to Amazon.com whether they like it or not. Websites which have paid for advertising on their pages may also be directing people to rival services. Dan Gillmor, founder of Grassroots Media, which supports citizen-based media, said the tool was a ""bad idea, and an unfortunate move by a company that is looking to continue its hypergrowth"". In a statement Google said the feature was still only in beta, ie trial, stage and that the company welcomed feedback from users. It said: ""The user can choose never to click on the AutoLink button, and web pages she views will never be modified. ""In addition, the user can choose to disable the AutoLink feature entirely at any time.""..The new tool has been compared to the Smart Tags feature from Microsoft by some users. It was widely criticised by net users and later dropped by Microsoft after concerns over trademark use were raised. Smart Tags allowed Microsoft to link any word on a web page to another site chosen by the company. Google said none of the companies which received AutoLinks had paid for the service. Some users said AutoLink would only be fair if websites had to sign up to allow the feature to work on their pages or if they received revenue for any ""click through"" to a commercial site. Cory Doctorow, European outreach coordinator for digital civil liberties group Electronic Fronter Foundation, said that Google should not be penalised for its market dominance. ""Of course Google should be allowed to direct people to whatever proxies it chooses. ""But as an end user I would want to know - 'Can I choose to use this service?, 'How much is Google being paid?', 'Can I substitute my own companies for the ones chosen by Google?'."" Mr Doctorow said the only objection would be if users were forced into using AutoLink or ""tricked into using the service"".",tech
"UK net users leading TV downloads..British TV viewers lead the trend of illegally downloading US shows from the net, according to research...New episodes of 24, Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under, appear on the web hours after they are shown in the US, said a report. Web tracking company Envisional said 18% of downloaders were from within the UK and that downloads of TV programmes had increased by 150% in the last year. About 70% were using file-sharing program BitTorrent, the firm said. ""It's now as easy to download a pirate TV show as it is to programme a VCR,"" said Ben Coppin from Envisional. A typical episode of 24 was downloaded by about 100,000 people globally, said the report, and an estimated 20,000 of those were from within the UK...Fans of many popular US TV programmes, like 24, usually have to wait weeks or months until the latest series is shown in the UK. But in some cases, said the report, people were able to watch the new episodes in Britain before US audiences on the west coast of the country. ""Missing a television show presents little problem to anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet,"" explained Mr Coppin...""Two clicks and your favourite programme is downloading. In effect, the internet is now a global video recorder."" Exact figures are difficult to pin down, but it is thought that about 80,000 to 100,000 people in the UK download TV programmes. Some may just want the odd episode, others are downloading regularly. Many broadcast analysts agree that the net is radically altering the way people get content, like TV programmes. This presents a challenge to broadcasters who are concerned that channel schedules may become less important to people. It is also of concern to them because advertisements are usually cut out of the downloaded programmes. The industry has coined the term ""time-shifting"" to describe this trend of being able to watch what you want, when you want. The increased popularity of personal digital video recorders, TiVo-type boxes which automatically record programmes like Sky+, have also contributed to the trend. There are also numerous programs available on the net which automatically search and store TV programmes for viewers, effectively creating a personal video recorder on a computer...Within half an hour, recorded episodes can be uploaded - or posted - onto file-sharing networks or other download sites. Because they tend to be shorter then full-length films, they can be processed - digitised - quickly. More people with high-speed broadband connections in the UK also means that episodes can be downloaded quickly...According to Jupiter Research 40% of homes with broadband say it helps them pick and choose the programmes they want to see or that friends have recommended. The Envisional reports said that the TV industry should consider offering a legal way to download shows. The BBC ran a trial of what it calls the Interactive Media Player (iMP) last year, which was based on a peer-to-peer distribution model. It let people download programmes it held the rights to up to eight days after they had already aired. It is looking to do a more expansive trial later this year. The BBC already allows radio fans to hear programmes they missed online up to a week after broadcast. About six million people in the UK now have a fast, always-on net connection via cable or phone lines.",tech
"IBM puts cash behind Linux push..IBM is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three years beefing up its commitment to Linux software...The cash injection will be used to help its customers use Linux on every type of device from handheld computers and phones right up to powerful servers. IBM said the money will fund a variety of technical, research and marketing initiatives to boost Linux use. IBM said it had taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software...In 2004 IBM said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using Linux to help staff work together more closely. The money will be used to help this push towards greater collaboration and will add Linux-based elements to IBM's Workplace software. Workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to corporate networks. One of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it easier to use Linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with Workplace. Even before IBM announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates of the open source way of working. In 2001 it put $300m into a three-year Linux program and has produced Linux versions of many of its programs. Linux and the open source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to tinker with the core components of software programs. They reason that more open scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation.",tech
"UK pioneers digital film network..The world's first digital cinema network will be established in the UK over the next 18 months...The UK Film Council has awarded a contract worth £11.5m to Arts Alliance Digital Cinema (AADC), who will set up the network of up to 250 screens. AADC will oversee the selection of cinemas across the UK which will use the digital equipment. High definition projectors and computer servers will be installed to show mainly British and specialist films. Most cinemas currently have mechanical projectors but the new network will see up to 250 screens in up to 150 cinemas fitted with digital projectors capable of displaying high definition images. The new network will double the world's total of digital screens. Cinemas will be given the film on a portable hard drive and they will then copy the content to a computer server...Each film is about 100 gigabytes and has been compressed from an original one terabyte-size file. Fiona Deans, associate director of AADC, said the compression was visually lossless so no picture degradation will occur...The film will all be encrypted to prevent piracy and each cinema will have an individual key which will unlock the movie. ""People will see the picture quality is a bit clearer with no scratches. ""The picture will look exactly the same as when the print was first made - there is no degradation in quality over time.""..The key benefit of the digital network will be an increase in the distribution and screening of British films, documentaries and foreign language films...""Access to specialised film is currently restricted across the UK,"" said Pete Buckingham, head of Distribution and Exhibition at the UK Film Council. ""Although a genuine variety of films is available in central London and a few other metropolitan areas, the choice for many outside these areas remains limited, and the Digital Screen Network will improve access for audiences across the UK,"" Digital prints costs less than a traditional 35mm print - giving distributors more flexibility in how they screen films, said Ms Deans. ""It can cost up to £1,500 to make a copy of a print for specialist films. ""In the digital world you can make prints for considerably less than that. ""Distributors can then send out prints to more cinemas and prints can stay in cinemas for much longer."" The UK digital network will be the first to employ 2k projectors - which are capable of showing films at resolutions of 2048 * 1080 pixels. A separate competitive process to determine which cinemas will receive the digital screening technology will conclude in May. The sheer cost of traditional prints means that some cinemas need to show them twice a day in order to recoup costs. ""Some films need word of mouth and time to build momentum - they don't need to be shown twice a day,"" explained Ms Deans. ""A cinema will often book a 35mm print in for two weeks - even if the film is a roaring success they cannot hold on to the print because it will have to go to another cinema. ""With digital prints, every cinema will have its own copy.""",tech
"EU software patent law faces axe..The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented...Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. The bill was backed by some hi-tech firms, saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile...Hugo Lueders, European director for public policy at CompTIA, an umbrella organization for technology companies, said only when intellectual property was adequately protected would European inventors prosper. He said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. Other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the excesses of the American system which allows the patenting of business practices as well as software. But opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation, be abused by firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. The proposed law had a troubled passage through the European parliament. Its progress was delayed twice when Polish MEPs rejected plans to adopt it. Also earlier this month the influential European Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support of MEPs. To become law both the European Parliament and a qualified majority of EU states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. The latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go back to the EU for re-consideration.",tech
"Xbox power cable 'fire fear'..Microsoft has said it will replace more than 14 million power cables for its Xbox consoles due to safety concerns...The company said the move was a ""preventative step"" after reports of fire hazard problems with the cables. It affects Xboxes made before 23 October 2003 for all regions but mainland Europe - and consoles in that region made before 13 January 2004. Microsoft said it had received 30 reports of minor injury or property damage due to faulty cables. The firm said fewer than one in 10,000 consoles had experienced component failures. The recall affects almost three quarters of all Xboxes sold around the world since its launch in 2001...In a statement, it added: ""In almost all instances, any damage caused by these failures was contained within the console itself or limited to the tip of the power cord at the back of the console."" But in seven cases, customers reported sustaining a minor burn to their hand. In 23 cases, customers reported smoke damage, or minor damage to a carpet or entertainment centre. ""This is a preventative step we're choosing to take despite the rarity of these incidents,"" said Robbie Bach, senior vice president, Microsoft home and entertainment division. ""We regret the inconvenience, but believe offering consumers a free replacement cord is the responsible thing to do."" Consumers can order a new cable from the Xbox website or by telephoning 0800 028 9276 in the UK. Microsoft said customers would get replacement cords within two to four weeks from the time of order. It advised users to turn off their Xboxes when not in use. A follow-up to Xbox is expected to released at the end of this year or the beginning of 2006.",tech
"Global blogger action day called..The global web blog community is being called into action to lend support to two imprisoned Iranian bloggers...The month-old Committee to Protect Bloggers' is asking those with blogs to dedicate their sites on 22 February to the ""Free Mojtaba and Arash Day"". Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad are both in prison in Iran. Blogs are free sites through which people publish thoughts and opinions. Iranian authorities have been clamping down on prominent sites for some time. ""I hope this day will focus people,"" Curt Hopkins, director of the Committee, told the BBC News website...The group has a list of actions which it says bloggers can take, including writing to local Iranian embassies. The Committee has deemed Tuesday ""Free Mojtaba and Arash Day"" as part of its first campaign. It is calling on the blogsphere - the name for the worldwide community of bloggers - to do what it can to help raise awareness of the plight of Mojtaba and Arash as well as other ""cyber-dissidents"". ""If you have a blog, the least you could do is put nothing on that blog except 'Free Mojtaba and Arash Day',"" said Mr Hopkins. ""That would mean you could see that phrase 7.1 million times. That alone will shine some light on the situation. ""If you don't have one, find one dedicated to that - it takes about 30 seconds."" Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks about six million blogs and says that more than 12,000 are added daily. A blog is created every 5.8 seconds, according to a US research think-tank...The Committee to Protect Bloggers was started by US blogger Curt Hopkins and counts fired flight attendant blogger Ellen Simonetti as a deputy director. She has since started the International Bloggers' Bill of Rights, a global petition to protect bloggers at work. Although not the only website committed to human rights issues by any means, it aims to be the hub or organisation, information and support for bloggers in particular and their rights to freedom of speech...The Committee, although only a month old, aims to be the focal point for blogger action on similar issues in the future, and will operate as a non-for-profit organisation. ""Blogging is in this weird no man's land. People think of it as being one thing or another depending on their point of view,"" said Mr Hopkins. ""Some think of themselves as pundits, kind of like journalists, and some like me have a private blog which is just a publishing platform. ""But they do not have a constituency and are out there in the cold.""..It is not just human rights issues in countries which have a track record of restricting what is published in the media that is of concern to bloggers. The question of bloggers and what rights they have to say what they want on their sites is a thorny one and has received much press attention recently. High profile cases in which employees have been sacked for what they have said on their personal, and often anonymous blogs, have highlighted the muddy situation that the blogsphere is currently in...""This is a big messy argument,"" explained Mr Hopkins. He added: ""It is just such a new way of doing business, there will be clamp downs."" But the way these issues get tested is through the courts which, said Mr Hopkins, ""is part of the whole messy conversation."" ""If you haven't already got bloggers in your company, you will have them tomorrow - and if you don't have a blogger policy now you had better start looking at having one. Mr Hopkins said that the blogsphere - which is doubling every five months - was powerful because it takes so little time and expertise to create a blog. ""Everyone does this - mums, radicals, conservatives,"" he said. Many companies offer easy-to-use services to create a blog and publish it in minutes to a global community. ""That is the essential difference. What I call 'templating software' gives every single person on Earth the chance to have one. ""You don't even have to have your own computer.""",tech
"Finding new homes for old phones..Re-using old mobile phones is not just good for the environment, it has social benefits too...Research has found that in some developing nations old mobile phones can help close the digital divide. The Forum for the Future research found that the low cost of these recycled handsets means they can have a very useful second life in poorer nations. But the Forum found that more needed to be done to collect old phones rather than let them rot in landfill sites...The report reveals that approximately 15 million mobile phones go out of use every year in the UK. Of the 15 million that are swapped for newer models each year, only 25% get returned to mobile phone firms for recycling or re-use. The slowly growing mass of unrecycled, discarded phones has now reached 90 million handsets, the equivalent of 9,000 tonnes of waste, estimates James Goodman, report author and a senior adviser at the Forum for the Future. ""It's quite common for people to have two or three phones just lying around,"" said Mr Goodman...Many of these older phones could end up in landfill sites leaking the potentially toxic materials they are made of into the wider world, said Mr Goodman. Far better, he said, to hand the phone back to an operator who can send it overseas where it can enjoy a second lease of life. ""We've heard the environmental argument for handing a phone back,"" said Mr Goodman, ""but there's a strong social argument too."" Older mobile phones are proving particularly useful in poorer nations where people want to use a mobile and keep in touch with friends and family but do not have the income to buy the most up to date model. The Forum for the Future report took an in-depth look at Romania where reconditioned mobile phones were proving very popular. ""It's an interesting country because it has a really crap fixed line network,"" said Mr Goodman, ""and there's a real desire for people to get mobile phones."" But the relatively low wages in Romania, which is one of the poorest countries in Europe, mean few people can afford a shiny new phone. ""The affordability of the handsets is a real barrier to getting one,"" he said. Reconditioned handsets have boosted take-up of mobiles as the report revealed that almost one-third of Romanian pre-pay mobile phone users were using reconditioned handsets. The re-used handsets tend to be about one-third of the price of a new handset. Georgeta Minciu, a Romanian part-time cleaner, said: ""Normally a mobile phone would not be possible on my wages. I am a single parent - keeping in touch with my daughter is important to me."" ""This is the only way I can afford to have a phone,"" she said. Mr Goodman said phone operators and consumers needed to do more to ensure that more of Britain's mobile mountain made it overseas. But, he added, those keen to use a mobile will not accept any old handset. ""If its more than a few years old people are not going to want it,"" he said.",tech
"PlayStation 3 chip to be unveiled..Details of the chip designed to power Sony's PlayStation 3 console will be released in San Francisco on Monday...Sony, IBM and Toshiba, who have been working on the Cell processor for three years, will unveil the chip at a technology conference. The chip is reported to be up to 10 times faster than current processors. It is being designed for use in graphics workstations, the new PlayStation console, and has been described as a supercomputer on a chip. Sony has said the Cell processor could be used to bridge the gap between movies and video games. Special effects and graphics designed for films could be ported for use directly in a video game, Sony told an audience at the E3 exhibition in Los Angeles last year...Cell could also be marketed as an ideal technology for televisions and supercomputers, and everything in between, said Kevin Krewell, the editor in chief of Microprocessor Report. The chip will be made of several different processing cores that work on tasks together. The PlayStation 3 is expected in 2006 but developers are expecting to get prototypes early next year to tune games that will appear on it at launch. Details of the chip will be released at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. Some details have already emerged, however. When put inside powerful computer servers, the Cell consortium expects it to be capable of handling 16 trillion floating point operations, or calculations, every second...The chip has also been refined to be able to handle the detailed graphics common in games and the data demands of films and broadband media. IBM said it would start producing the chip in early 2005 at manufacturing plants in the US. The first machines off the line using the Cell processor will be computer workstations and servers. A working version of the PS3 is due to be shown off in May 2005 but a full launch of the next generation console is not expected to start until 2006. ""In the future, all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network,"" said Ken Kutaragi, chief operating officer of Sony, said last year. ""Current PC architecture is nearing its limits,"" he added.",tech
"Intel unveils laser breakthrough..Intel has unveiled research that could mean data is soon being moved around chips at the speed of light...Scientists at Intel have overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon being used to generate and amplify laser light. The breakthrough should make it easier to interconnect data networks with the chips that process the information. The Intel researchers said products exploiting the breakthrough should appear by the end of the decade...""We've overcome a fundamental limit,"" said Dr Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's photonics technology lab. Writing in the journal Nature, Dr Paniccia - and colleagues Haisheng Rong, Richard Jones, Ansheng Liu, Oded Cohen, Dani Hak and Alexander Fang - show how they have made a continuous laser from the same material used to make computer processors. Currently, says Dr Paniccia, telecommunications equipment that amplifies the laser light that travels down fibre optic cables is very expensive because of the exotic materials, such as gallium arsenide, used to make it...Telecommunications firms and chip makers would prefer to use silicon for these light-moving elements because it is cheap and many of the problems of using it in high-volume manufacturing have been solved. ""We're trying to take our silicon competency in manufacturing and apply it to new areas,"" said Dr Paniccia. While work has been done to make some of the components that can move light around, before now silicon has not successfully been used to generate or amplify the laser light pulses used to send data over long distances. This is despite the fact that silicon is a much better amplifier of light pulses than the form of the material used in fibre optic cables. This improved amplification is due to the crystalline structure of the silicon used to make computer chips. Dr Paniccia said that the structure of silicon meant that when laser light passed through it, some colliding photons rip electrons off the atoms within the material. ""It creates a cloud of electrons sitting in the silicon and that absorbs all the light,"" he said. But the Intel researchers have found a way to suck away these errant electrons and turn silicon into a material that can both generate and amplify laser light. Even better, the laser light produced in this way can, with the help of easy-to-make filters, be tuned across a very wide range of frequencies. Semi-conductor lasers made before now have only produced light in a narrow frequency ranges. The result could be the close integration of the fibre optic cables that carry data as light with the computer chips that process it. Dr Paniccia said the work was the one of several steps needed if silicon was to be used to make components that could carry and process light in the form of data pulses. ""It's a technical validation that it can work,"" he said.",tech
"Security scares spark browser fix..Microsoft is working on a new version of its Internet Explorer web browser...The revamp has been prompted by Microsoft's growing concern with security as well as increased competition from rival browsers. Microsoft said the new version will be far less vulnerable to the bugs that make its current browser a favourite of tech-savvy criminals. Test versions of the new program, called IE 7, are due to be released by the summer...The announcement about Internet Explorer was made by Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect, during a keynote speech at the RSA Security conference currently being held in San Francisco. Although details were scant, Mr Gates, said IE7 would include new protections against viruses, spyware and phishing scams. This last category of threats involves criminals setting up spoof websites that look identical to those of banks and try to trick people into handing over login and account information...In a bid to shore up the poor security in IE 6, Microsoft has regularly issued updates to patch loopholes exploited by criminals and the makers of nuisance programs such as spyware. Earlier this month it released a security bulletin that patched eight critical security holes - some of which were found in the IE browser. Microsoft has also made a series of acquisitions of small firms that specialise in computer security. One of the first fruits of these acquisitions appeared last month with the release of a Microsoft anti-spyware program. An own-brand anti-virus program is due to follow by the end of 2005. The decision to make Internet Explorer 7 is widely seen as a U-turn because, before now, Microsoft said it had no need to update the browser. Typically new versions of its browser appear with successive versions of the Windows operating system. A new version of IE was widely expected to debut with the next version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, which is due to appear in 2006. The current version of Internet Explorer is four years old, and is widely seen as falling behind rivals such as Firefox and Opera. There are also persistent rumours that search engine Google is poised to produce its own brand browser based on Firefox. In particular the Firefox browser has been winning fans and users since its first full version was released in November 2004. Estimates of how many users Firefox has won over vary widely. According to market statistics gathered by Websidestory, Firefox's market share is now about 5% of all users. However, other browser stat gatherers say the figure is closer to 15%. Some technical websites report that a majority of their visitors use the Firefox browser. Internet Explorer still dominates with a share of about 90% but this is down from a peak of almost 96% in mid-2004.",tech
"Britons fed up with net service..A survey conducted by PC Pro Magazine has revealed that many Britons are unhappy with their internet service...They are fed up with slow speeds, high prices and the level of customer service they receive. 17% of readers have switched suppliers and a further 16% are considering changing in the near future. It is particularly bad news for BT, the UK's biggest internet supplier, with almost three times as many people trying to leave as joining...A third of the 2,000 broadband users interviewed were fed up with their current providers but this could be just the tip of the iceberg thinks Tim Danton, editor of PC Pro Magazine. ""We expect these figures to leap in 2005. Every month the prices drop, and more and more people are trying to switch,"" he said. The survey found that BT and Tiscali have been actively dissuading customers from leaving by offering them a lower price when they phone up to cancel their subscription. Some readers were offered a price drop just 25p more expensive than that offered by an alternative operator, making it hardly worth while swapping...Other found themselves tied into 12-month contracts. Broadband has become hugely competitive and providers are desperate to hold on to customers. 12% of those surveyed found themselves unable to swap at all. ""We discovered a huge variety of problems, but one of the biggest issues is the current supplier withholding the information that people need to give to their new supplier,"" said Tim Danton, editor of PC Pro. ""This breaks the code of practice, but because that code is voluntary there's nothing we or Ofcom can do to help,"" he said. There is a vast choice of internet service providers in the UK now and an often bewildering array of broadband packages. With prices set to drop even further in coming months Mr Danton advises everyone to shop around carefully. ""If you just stick with your current connection then there's every chance you're being ripped off,"" he warned.",tech
"Sun offers processing by the hour..Sun Microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the hour...Sun Grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour's worth of processing and storage power on systems maintained by Sun. So-called grid computing is the latest buzz phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a commodity as hardware and software. Sun likened grid computing to the development of electricity...The system could mature in the same way utilities such as electricity and water have developed, said Sun's chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz. ""Why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour?"" he asked in a webcast launching Sun's quarterly Network Computing event in California. The company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it said it already had interest from customers in the oil, gas and financial services industries...Some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5,000 processors each, Sun said. Mr Schwartz ran a demonstration of the service, showing how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. Hundreds of servers were used simultaneously, working on the problem for a few seconds each...Although it only took a few seconds, the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up 12 hour's worth of computing power. The Sun Grid relies on Solaris, the operating system owned by Sun. Initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. It has not said how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in IBM, which argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by Sun.",tech
"Lasers help bridge network gaps..An Indian telecommunications firm has turned to lasers to help it overcome the problems of setting up voice and data networks in the country...Tata Teleservices is using the lasers to make the link between customers' offices and its own core network. The laser bridges work across distances up to 4km and can be set up much faster than cable connections. In 12 months the lasers have helped the firm set up networks in more than 700 locations...""In this particular geography getting permission to dig the ground and lay the pipes is a bit of a task,"" said Mr R. Sridharan, vice president of networks at Tata. ""Heavy traffic and the layout under the ground mean that digging is uniquely difficult,"" he said. In some locations, he said, permission to dig up roads and lay cables was impossible to get. He said it was far easier to secure permission for putting networking hardware on roofs. This has led Chennai-based Tata to turn to equipment that uses lasers to make the final mile leap between Tata's core network and the premises of customers. The Lightpointe laser bridges work over distances of up to 4km and are being used to route both voice and data from businesses on to the backbone of the network. The hardware works in pairs and beam data through the air in the form of laser pulses...The laser bridges can route data at speeds up to 1.25gbps (2,000 times faster than a 512kbps broadband connection) but Tata is running its hardware at more modest speeds of 1-2mbps. The lasers are also ideal for India because of its climate. ""It's particularly suitable as the rain rate is a little low and it's hardly ever foggy,"" he said. In places where rain is heavy and fog is common laser links can struggle to maintain good connection speeds. The laser links also take far less time to set up and get working, said Mr Sridharan. ""Once we get the other permissions, normal time period for set up is a few hours,"" he said. By contrast, he said, digging up roads and laying cables can take weeks or months. This speed of set up has helped Tata with its aggressive expansion plans. Just over 12 months ago the firm had customers in only about 70 towns and cities. But by the end of March the firm hopes to reach more than 1,000. ""Speed is very important because of the pace of competition,"" said Mr Sridharan.",tech
"Game firm holds 'cast' auditions..Video game firm Bioware is to hold open auditions for people to become cast members for future games...The company, which makes role playing games such as Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights, is seeking people aged 18 to 99. The Canada-based company says it was looking for ""a wide variety of people to use as face models for characters"". Everyone chosen to appear in a video game will receive a performer's fee for the use of their image. The company is inviting people to come along to a shopping mall in West Edmonton, Alberta, on Friday and Saturday, bringing along a piece of photo identification...""There are hundreds and hundreds of characters in a typical Bioware game,"" said Shauna Perry, Bioware's audio and external resources producer. ""Those people live in any city and village and so we need ordinary people, people with interesting faces."" She added: ""Not everyone is a model in the world so we don't want just models in our games."" People chosen to appear in a game will have their head scanned in three dimensions. Hundreds of photos of the person's head are taken so that a model of the head can be generated in 3D. ""The 3D model will look exactly like the person - it's really quite incredible how detailed they are,"" said Ms Perry. She said chosen participants will have no control over how the image is used in a computer game. ""We cannot give people any control over how the images are used. ""But their face could be used in multiple games - so they could be the hero in one, the villain in another and just a merchant in a third.""",tech
"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.",tech
"Warnings about junk mail deluge..The amount of spam circulating online could be about to undergo a massive increase, say experts...Anti-spam group Spamhaus is warning about a novel virus which hides the origins of junk mail. The program makes spam look like it is being sent by legitimate mail servers making it hard to spot and filter out. Spamhaus said that if the problem went unchecked real e-mail messages could get drowned by the sheer amount of junk being sent...Before now many spammers have recruited home PCs to act as anonymous e-mail relays in an attempt to hide the origins of their junk mail. The PCs are recruited using viruses and worms that compromise machines via known vulnerabilities or by tricking people into opening an attachment infected with the malicious program. Once compromised the machines start to pump out junk mail on behalf of spammers. Spamhaus helps to block junk messages from these machines by collecting and circulating blacklists of net addresses known to harbour infected machines. But the novel worm spotted recently by Spamhaus routes junk via the mail servers of the net service firm that infected machines used to get online in the first place. In this way the junk mail gets a net address that looks legitimate. As blocking all mail from net firms just to catch the spam is impractical, Spamhaus is worried that the technique will give junk mailers the ability to spam with little fear of being spotted and stopped. Steve Linford, director of Spamhaus, predicted that if a lot of spammers exploit this technique it could trigger the failure of the net's e-mail sending infrastructure. David Stanley, UK managing director of filtering firm Ciphertrust, said the new technique was the next logical step for spammers. ""They are adding to their armoury,"" he said. The amount of spam in circulation was still growing, said Mr Stanley, but he did not think that the appearance of this trick would mean e-mail meltdown. But Kevin Hogan, senior manager at Symantec security response, said such warnings were premature. ""If something like this mean the end of e-mail then e-mail would have stopped two-three years ago,"" said Mr Hogan. While the technique of routing mail via mail servers of net service firms might cause problems for those that use blacklists and block lists it did not mean that other techniques for stopping spam lost their efficacy too. Mr Hogan said 90% of the junk mail filtered by Symantec subsidiary Brightmail was spotted using techniques that did not rely on looking at net addresses. For instance, said Mr Hogan, filtering out e-mail messages that contain a web link can stop about 75% of spam.",tech
"Warning over tsunami aid website..Net users are being told to avoid a scam website that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims...The site looks plausible because it uses an old version of the official Disasters Emergency Committee webpage. However, DEC has no connection with the fake site and says it has contacted the police about it. The site is just the latest in a long list of scams that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster...The link to the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. The message's subject line reads ""Urgent Tsunami Earthquake Appeal"" and its text bears all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing attempts. The web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate. Patricia Sanders, spokeswoman for the Disaster Emergency Committee said it was aware of the site and had contacted the Computer Crime Unit at Scotland Yard to help get it shut down. She said the spam e-mails directing people to the site started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was registered. It is thought that the fake site is being run from Romania. Ms Sanders said DEC had contacted US net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web...DEC was going to push for all cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. BT and DEC's hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down, she said...Ms Sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not DEC's style and that it would never canvass support in this way. She said that DEC hoped to get the fake site shut down as soon as possible. All attempts by the BBC News website to contact the people behind the site have failed. None of the e-mail addresses supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly available net records. This is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. One e-mail sent out in early January came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the Netherlands. The con was very similar to the familiar Nigerian forward fee fraud e-mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash pile. Other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed confidential information. In a monthly report anti-virus firm Sophos said that two e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during January. Another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the Zar worm which tries to spread via the familiar route of Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program. Anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to.",tech
"Piero gives rugby perspective..BBC Sport unveils its new analysis tool Piero at the Wales v England rugby union match on Saturday. But what does it do and how does it work?..Picture the scene - Wales are camped on the England line in the dying seconds of the Six Nations' opening match. A ball is flung out to winger Shane Williams who crosses to score the winning try for Wales. But the England players are incensed - arguing that the pass was forward and the try should not stand. In the past, sports fans would be left debating the validity of the try for days and weeks to come. But BBC Sport's new tool Piero could end discussions in minutes...Piero, named after the Italian painter and pioneer of perspective Piero della Francesco, creates a virtual stadium in which virtual players can be tracked from almost any angle. Viewers will be able to see precisely how the ball was thrown and by whom, giving a greater depth to the growing wealth of analysis available during sports broadcasts. The technology has been created by BBC Research and Development for BBC Broadcast and BBC Outside Broadcasts. BBC Sport is the first client to start using the system. ""In order to keep audiences growing and growing... we need to work closely with people who create technology and innovation to bring sport to life,"" said Andrew Thompson, the BBC's head of development, new media and sports news. ""We want to appeal to core fans - to give them more analysis, more detail, more definitive answers about key passages of play."" Piero works by taking telemetric data from fixed camera positions and sending that data inside the video signal to a PC which can then render the information into 3D graphics...The more cameras using Piero, the better the detail possible out the other end when the data is turned into 3D models. ""It allows us to tell the story of a passage of play, tracking individual players across the field, looking at tactics,"" said Andy Townsend, from BBC Broadcast...An operator can manipulate the information and provide almost real-time replays of incidents, as well as more in-depth analysis. The ""virtual camera"" can focus on virtually any aspect of the pitch, giving viewers an insight into action that the camera normally cannot see. Piero also provides a wealth of statistical detail - from the length of kicks, to the length of a run of an individual player and the height of a lift at any lineout. Mr Townsend said sports performance companies were already showing an interest in the technology. BBC Broadcast hopes the technology can be sold to third parties interested in using it a number of different ways - from sport broadcasting to entertainment and game shows.",tech
"Open source leaders slam patents..The war of words between Microsoft and the open source movement heated up this week as Linux founder Linus Torvalds led an attack on software patents...In a panel discussion at a Linux summit in California Mr Torvalds said software patents were a problem for the open source movement. Mitchell Kapor, chairman of the Mozilla foundation, warned that Microsoft could use patent lawsuits in the future. Linux is a freely-available alternative to Microsoft's Windows. It relies on a community of programmers for its development and is based on open source principles, which allow others to use and modify it without having to pay licence fees. The attack on software patents comes at a time when IBM has made 500 of its patents freely available. Other companies are expected to follow suit...There are between 150,000 and 300,000 registered software patents in the US and open source developers argue that many should never have been granted. This is a view corroborated by the UK Patent Office. ""Some of the patents have dubious validity and are being wielded by some big companies to force smaller companies to buy licenses in the knowledge that they can't afford to take them to court,"" said Dr Jeremy Philpott of the UK Patent Office. Some panel members are worried that Microsoft would issue a series of patent lawsuits in the future. ""If totally pushed to the wall - because their business model no longer holds up in an era in which open source is an economically superior way to produce software...of course they're going to unleash the WMDs,"" Mr Kapor is reported as saying. Microsoft did not want to comment directly, referring the issue instead to trade body Intellect, of which it is a member. ""As far as Intellect is concerned, open source and patents have co-existed for many years without problems,"" said spokeswoman Jill Sutherland. ""The industry respects the open source movement and in fact many of the members we represent use the open source system to develop software,"" ""We think the important point to make is that companies should be able to choose between patents, copyrights and open source as to the treatment of their intellectual discoveries, and not be forced into using one or the other,"" she added.",tech
"Reboot ordered for EU patent law..A European Parliament committee has ordered a rewrite of the proposals for controversial new European Union rules which govern computer-based inventions...The Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the Commission should re-submit the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive after MEPs failed to back it. It has had vocal critics who say it could favour large over small firms and impact open-source software innovation. Supporters say it would let firms protect their inventions. The directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to achieve their effect, in other words, ""computer implemented invention"". The draft law suffered setbacks when Poland, one of the largest EU member states, rejected its adoption twice in two months. Intense lobbying on the issue has started to gain momentum in some national parliaments putting them under immense pressure. Only two MEPs backed the draft law at the JURI meeting, with one voting to abstain...Opponents of the draft directive welcomed the decision and said a new first reading of the proposals would give the EU a chance to have fuller debates about its implications in all member states. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service, for example. Critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in Europe. This, they fear, could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. Supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing EU laws in line with the US.",tech
"Solutions to net security fears..Fake bank e-mails, or phishing, and stories about ID theft are damaging the potential of using the net for online commerce, say e-business experts...Trust in online security is falling as a result. Almost 70% of those asked in a poll said that net firms are not doing enough to protect people. The survey of more than 1,000 people reported that 43% were not willing to hand over personal information online. It is worrying for shopaholics and firms who want to exploit the net. More people are becoming aware of online security issues but they have little confidence that companies are doing enough to counter the threats, said security firm RSA, which carried out the poll. An estimated 12 million Britons now use the net as a way of managing their financial affairs. Security experts say that scare stories and the vulnerabilities dogging e-commerce and e-banking are being taken seriously - by banks in particular...""I don't think the threat is overplayed,"" Barry Beal, global security manager for Capgemini, told the BBC News website. He added: ""The challenge for banks is to provide the customer with something that improves security but balances that with usability."" Ensuring extra security measures are in place protects them too, as well as the individual, and it is up to both parties to make sure they do what is necessary to prevent fraud, he said. ""Card issuers will keep us informed of types of attacks and what procedure to take to protect ourselves. If we do that, they will indemnify us,"" he said. Many believe using login details like usernames and passwords are simply not good enough anymore though. One of the biggest challenges to improving security online is how to authenticate an individual's identity. Several security companies have developed methods which complement or replace passwords, which are easily compromised and easy to forget. Last year, a street survey found that more than 70% of people would reveal their password for a bar of chocolate...On average, people have to remember four different passwords. Some resort to using the same one for all their online accounts. Those who use several passwords often write them down and hide them in a desk or in a document on their computer. In a separate survey by RSA, 80% said they were fed up with passwords and would like a better way to login to work computer systems. For many, the ideal is a single online identity that can be validated once with a series of passwords and questions, or some biometric measurement like a fingerprint or iris scan with a token like a smartcard...Activcard is just one of the many companies, like RSA Security, which has been trying to come up with just that. RSA has a deal with internet provider AOL that lets people pay monthly for a one-time passcode generation service. Users get a physical token which automatically generates a code which stays active for 60 seconds. Many companies use a token-based method already for employees to access networks securely already. Activcard's method is more complex. It is currently trailing its one-time passcode generation technology with UK banks. Steve Ash, from Activcard, told the BBC News website there are two parts to the process of identification. The most difficult is to ascertain whether an individual is who they say they are when they are online...""The end solution is to provide a method where you combine something the user knows with something they have and present those both."" The method it has developed makes use of the chip embedded in bank cards and a special card reader which can generate unique codes that are active for a specified amount of time. This can be adjusted at any time and can be active for as little as 30 seconds before it changes. It combines that with usual usernames and passwords, as well as other security questions. ""You take the card, put it in the reader, enter your pin number, and a code is given. ""If you wanted then to transfer funds, for instance, you would have to have the code to authorise the transaction."" The clever bit happens back at the bank's secure servers. The code is validated by the bank's systems, matching the information they expect with the customer's unique key. ""Each individual gets a key which is unique to them. It is a 2048-bit long number that is virtually impossible to crack,"" said Mr Ash. It means that in a typical security attack, explains Mr Ash, even if password information is captured by a scammer using keystroke software or just through spoof websites, they need the passcode. ""By the time they go back [to use the information], the code has expired, so they can't prove who they are,"" according to Mr Ash. In the next few years, Mr Ash predicts that this kind of method will be commonplace before we see biometric authentication that is acceptable for widespread use. ""PCs will have readers built into them, the cost of readers will be very cheap, and more people will have the cards."" The gadgets we carry around, like personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobiles, could also have integrated card reader technology in them. ""The PDA or phone method is a possible alternative as people are always carrying phones around,"" he said.",tech
"Mobile networks seek turbo boost..Third-generation mobile (3G) networks need to get faster if they are to deliver fast internet surfing on the move and exciting new services...That was one of the messages from the mobile industry at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes last week. Fast 3G networks are here but the focus has shifted to their evolution into a higher bandwidth service, says the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. At 3GSM, Siemens showed off a system that transmits faster mobile data. The German company said data could be transmitted at one gigabit a second - up to 20 times faster than current 3G networks. The system is not available commercially yet, but Motorola, the US mobile handset and infrastructure maker, held a clinic for mobile operators on HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), a high-speed, high bandwidth technology available now. Early HSDPA systems typically offer around two megabits per second (Mbps) compared with less than 384 kilobits per second (Kbps) on standard 3G networks...""High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) - sometimes called Super 3G - will be vital for profitable services like mobile internet browsing and mobile video clips,"" according to a report published by UK-based research consultancy Analysys. A number of companies are developing the technology. Nokia and Canada-based wireless communication products company Sierra Wireless recently agreed to work together on High Speed Downlink Packet Access. The two companies aim to jointly market the HSDPA solution to global network operator customers...""While HSDPA theoretically enables data rates up to a maximum of 14Mbps, practical throughputs will be lower than this in wide-area networks,"" said Dr Alastair Brydon, author of the Analysys report: Pushing Beyond the Limits of 3G with HSDPA and Other Enhancements. ""The typical average user rate in a real implementation is likely to be in the region of one megabit per second which, even at this lower rate, will more than double the capacity... when compared to basic WCDMA [3G],"" he added. Motorola has conducted five trials of its technology and says speeds of 2.9Mbps have been recorded at the edge of an outdoor 3G cell using a single HSDPA device. But some mobile operators are opting for a technology called Evolution, Data Optimised (EV-DO)...US operator Sprint ordered a broadband data upgrade to its 3G network at the end of last year. We are ""expanding our network and deploying EV-DO technology to meet customer demand for faster wireless speeds,"" said Oliver Valente, Sprint's vice president for technology development, when the contract was announced. As part of $3bn in multi-year contracts announced late last year, Sprint will spend around $1bn on EV-DO technology from Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Motorola that provides average data speeds of 0.3-0.5 megabits a second, and peak download rates of 2.4Mbps. MMO2, the UK-based operator with services in the UK, Ireland and Germany, has opted for technology based on the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) standard. Using technology from Lucent, it will offer data speeds of 3.6Mbps from next summer on its Isle of Man 3G network, and will eventually support speeds of up to 14.4Mbps. US operator Cingular Wireless is also adopting HSDPA, using technology from Lucent alongside equipment from Siemens and Ericsson...Siemens' plans for a one gigabit network may be more than a user needs today, but Christoph Caselitz, president of the mobile networks division at the firm says that: ""By the time the next generation of mobile communication debuts in 2015, the need for transmission capacities for voice, data, image and multimedia is conservatively anticipated to rise by a factor of 10."" Siemens - in collaboration with the Fraunhofer German-Sino Lab for Mobile Communications and the Institute for Applied Radio System Technology - has souped up mobile communications by using three transmitting and four receiving antennae, instead of the usual one. This enables a data transmission, such as sending a big file or video, to be broken up into different flows of data that can be sent simultaneously over one radio frequency band. The speeds offered by3G mobile seemed fast at the time mobile operators were paying huge sums for 3G licences. But today, instead of connecting to the internet by slow, dial-up phone connection, many people are used to broadband networks that offer speeds of 0.5 megabits a second - must faster than 3G. This means users are likely to find 3G disappointing unless the networks are souped up. If they aren't, those lucrative ""power users"", such as computer geeks and busy business people will avoid them for all but the most urgent tasks, reducing the potential revenues available to mobile operators. But one gigabit a second systems will not be available immediately. Siemens says that though the system works in the laboratory, it still has to assess the mobility of multiple-antennae devices and conduct field trials. A commercial system could be as far away as 2012, though Siemens did not rule out an earlier date.",tech
"Global digital divide 'narrowing'..The ""digital divide"" between rich and poor nations is narrowing fast, according to a World Bank report...The World Bank questioned a United Nation's campaign to increase usage and access to technology in poorer nations. ""People in the developing world are getting more access at an incredible rate - far faster than... in the past,"" said the report. But a spokesman for the UN's World Summit on the Information Society said the digital divide remained very real. ""The digital divide is rapidly closing,"" the World Bank report said...Half the world's population now has access to a fixed-line telephone, the report said, and 77% to a mobile network...The report's figures surpass a WSIS campaign goal that calls for 50% access to telephones by 2015. The UN hopes that widening access to technology such as mobile phones and the net will help eradicate poverty. ""Developing countries are catching up with the rich world in terms of access [to mobile networks],"" the report said. ""Africa is part of a worldwide trend of rapid rollout... this applies to countries rich and poor, reformed or not, African, Asian, European and Latin American.""..A spokesman for the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS), which is meeting this week in Geneva, told the BBC News website: ""The digital divide is very much real and needs to be addressed. ""Some financing has to be found to help narrow the divide."" On Tuesday, a meeting of the WSIS in Geneva agreed to the creation of a Digital Solitary Fund. ""The fund is voluntary and will help finance local community-based projects,"" said the WSIS spokesman. Under the proposals agreed, voluntary contribution of 1% on contracts obtained by private technology service providers could be made to the Digital Solidarity Fund. The exact financing mechanism of the fund is to be ironed out in the coming days, said the WSIS. Sixty percent of resources collected by the fund will be made available for projects in least developed countries, 30% for projects in developing countries, and 10% for projects in developed countries.",tech
"UK gets official virus alert site..A rapid alerting service that tells home computer users about serious internet security problems is being launched by the UK government...The service, IT Safe, will issue warnings about damaging viruses, software vulnerabilities and weaknesses on devices such as mobile phones. Alerts tell people how the threats affect them and what they can do to avoid trouble and protect themselves. The service will be free and those who sign up can get e-mail or text alerts. The scheme is aimed at home users and small businesses. The government estimates it will issue security alerts about six to 10 times a year, based on previous experience of virus outbreaks. ""There is a clear need for easy-to-understand and simple independent advice for non-technically minded people who use computers either at home or at work,"" said Home Office Minister Hazel Blears. ""The purpose of this new government service is to ensure computer users are aware of the risks involved and how to deal with them easily and effectively without causing alarm."" Those signing up will only be told about the most serious security threats that have the potential to affect millions of people...Full-time staff are being employed to comb through the many hundreds of alerts issued each year by computer security firms to spot which ones have the potential to catch out a large number of people Between alerts the service will occasionally send messages giving people advice about safe ways to use their computers and phones. ""IT Safe will take our technical expertise and use it to help home users understand the risks and keep their computer systems, mobile phones and a range of related consumer electronic items, safe,"" said Roger Cumming, director of the National Infrastructure Security Coordination Centre (NISCC)...The NISCC, which is running the service, also stressed that those signing up would still need to use anti-virus software, firewalls, and software updates to stay secure. Warnings about security problems will tell people what the problem is, how it affects them and what they can do to avoid trouble. Alerts will not be issued unless users can do something to protect themselves against the threat. This might include downloading an update from an anti-virus vendor or updating software to close loopholes and fix vulnerabilities. However no software patches or programs will actually be dispensed through the site. The alerts will tell people how to go about getting hold of patches from security firms. The NISCC spokesman said the site and alerting service would stay in existence for as long as there were security bugs on home computers and other gadgets...Government statistics show that more than half of all UK households own a home computer. It was estimated that almost 13 million of these were able to access the internet in 2004. The launch comes as the number of viruses and other malicious programs in existence is reaching unprecedented numbers. In September 2004, the number of malicious programs circulating topped the 100,000 mark. Some fear that this figure could hit 150,000 by September 2005. The creation of the national alert service follows similar efforts in the Netherlands and US. The National Alerting Service for the Netherlands (aka De Waarschuwingsdienst) and the US National Cyber Alerting Service also tell citizens of serious security threats.",tech
"Iran jails blogger for 14 years..An Iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries...Arash Sigarchi was arrested last month after using his blog to criticise the arrest of other online journalists. Mr Sigarchi, who also edits a newspaper in northern Iran, was sentenced by a revolutionary court in the Gilan area. His sentence, criticised by human rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders, comes a day after an online ""day of action"" to secure his release. Iranian authorities have recently clamped down on the growing popularity of weblogs, restricting access to major blogging sites from within Iran. A second Iranian blogger, Motjaba Saminejad, who also used his website to report on bloggers' arrests, is still being held...A spokesman for Reporters Without Borders, which tracks press freedom across the globe, described Mr Sigarchi's sentence as ""harsh"" and called on Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to work to secure his immediate release. ""The authorities are trying to make an example of him,"" the organisation said in a statement...""By handing down this harsh sentence against a weblogger, their aim is to dissuade journalists and internet-users from expressing themselves online or contacting foreign media."" In the days before his arrest Mr Sigarchi gave interviews to the BBC Persian Service and the US-funded Radio Farda. Iranian authorities have arrested about 20 online journalists during the current crackdown. They accused Mr Sigarchi of a string of crimes against Iranian state, including espionage, insulting the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, and current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mr Sigarchi's lawyer labelled the revolutionary court ""illegal and incompetent"" and called for a retrial in a public court...Mr Sigarchi was sentenced one day after an online campaign highlighted his case in a day of action in defence of bloggers around the world...The Committee to Protect Bloggers designated 22 February 2005 as Free Mojtaba and Arash Day. Around 10,000 people visited the campaign's website during the day. About 12% of users were based in Iran, the campaign's director told the BBC News website. Curt Hopkins said Mr Sigarchi's sentence would not dent the resolve of bloggers joining the campaign to help highlight the case. ""The eyes of 8 million bloggers are going to be more focused on Iran since Sigarchi's sentence, not less. ""The mullahs won't be able to make a move without it be spread across the blogosphere.""",tech
"Microsoft seeking spyware trojan..Microsoft is investigating a trojan program that attempts to switch off the firm's anti-spyware software...The spyware tool was only released by Microsoft in the last few weeks and has been downloaded by six million people. Stephen Toulouse, a security manager at Microsoft, said the malicious program was called Bankash-A Trojan and was being sent as an e-mail attachment. Microsoft said it did not believe the program was widespread and recommended users to use an anti-virus program. The program attempts to disable or delete Microsoft's anti-spyware tool and suppress warning messages given to users...It may also try to steal online banking passwords or other personal information by tracking users' keystrokes...Microsoft said in a statement it is investigating what it called a criminal attack on its software. Earlier this week, Microsoft said it would buy anti-virus software maker Sybari Software to improve its security in its Windows and e-mail software. Microsoft has said it plans to offer its own paid-for anti-virus software but it has not yet set a date for its release. The anti-spyware program being targeted is currently only in beta form and aims to help users find and remove spyware - programs which monitor internet use, causes advert pop-ups and slow a PC's performance.",tech
"US woman sues over cartridges..A US woman is suing Hewlett Packard (HP), saying its printer ink cartridges are secretly programmed to expire on a certain date...The unnamed woman from Georgia says that a chip inside the cartridge tells the printer that it needs re-filling even when it does not. The lawsuit seeks to represent anyone in the US who has purchased an HP inkjet printer since February 2001. HP, the world's biggest printer firm, declined to comment on the lawsuit. HP ink cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise the user to make a change...But the suit claims the chips also shut down the cartridges at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty. ""The smart chip is dually engineered to prematurely register ink depletion and to render a cartridge unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date that is not revealed to the consumer,"" the suit said. The lawsuit is asking for restitution, damages and other compensation. The cost of printer cartridges has been a contentious issue in Europe for the last 18 months. The price of inkjet printers has come down to as little as £34 but it could cost up to £1,700 in running costs over an 18-month period due to cartridge, a study by Computeractive Magazine revealed last year. The inkjet printer market has been the subject of an investigation by the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which concluded in a 2002 report that retailers and manufacturers needed to make pricing more transparent for consumers.",tech
"Movie body hits peer-to-peer nets..The movie industry has struck out at file-sharing networks with another round of lawsuits in the US...The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) also said it had succeeded in getting a network called LokiTorrent closed down. It is the latest network which uses the peer-to-peer system called BitTorrent to be hit by the MPAA. The MPAA began its legal campaign against operators of similar networks across four continents in December. A Dallas court agreed that Hollywood lawyers would be allowed access to LokiTorrent's server records which could let them single out those who were sharing files illegally. In October 2004, the site had provided links to more than 30,000 files. The action came after the operators of LokiTorrent agreed a settlement with the MPAA. A stark message has appeared on the site from the MPAA warning ""You can click, but you can't hide"". In BitTorrent systems, server sites do not host the files being shared. They host links, called ""trackers"" that direct people to others that have it instead...As well as filing an unspecified number of file suits across the US, the MPAA said it had given operators that host eDonkey servers ""take down"" notices. Hollywood studios are aggressively clamping down on file-sharers who it says infringe copyright laws by copying films and TV programmes then share the files online. But it is now targeting the operators of BitTorrent networks themselves. It has filed 100 lawsuits against operators of BitTorrent server sites since December. The strategy of hitting those who run the servers which link to copyrighted material is intended to stunt file-sharers' ability to swap content using BitTorrent systems. The film industry says the black market for illegally copied videos and DVDs already costs them billions every year and it is worried that illegal file-sharing is adding to their losses. In December, the legal action claimed its most high-profile victim. The popular Suprnova.org website was forced to close, and others like Phoenix Torrent followed soon after.",tech
"Security warning over 'FBI virus'..The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the FBI...The e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients that they have accessed illegal websites. The messages warn that their internet use has been monitored by the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center. An attachment in the e-mail contains the virus, the FBI said. The message asks recipients to click on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. But rather than being a questionnaire, the attachment contains a virus that infects the recipient's computer, according to the agency. It is not clear what the virus does once it has infected a computer. Users are warned never to open attachment from unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know...""Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner,"" the FBI said in a statement. The bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. The agency earlier this month shut down fbi.gov accounts, used to communicate with the public, because of a security breach. A spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated.",tech
"Apple iPod family expands market..Apple has expanded its iPod family with the release of its next generation of the digital music players...Its latest challenges to the growing digital music gadget market include an iPod mini model which can hold 6GB compared to a previous 4GB. The company, which hopes to keep its dominant place in the digital music market, also said the gold coloured version of the mini would be dropped. A 30GB version has also been added to the iPod Photo family. The latest models have a longer battery life and their prices have been cut by an average of £40. The original iPod took an early lead in the digital music player market thanks to its large storage capacity and simple design...During 2004 about 25 million portable players were sold, 10 million of which were Apple iPods. But analysts agree that the success is also down to its integration with the iTunes online store, which has given the company a 70% share of the legal download music market. Mike McGuire, a research director at analyst Gartner, told the BBC News website that Apple had done a good job in ""sealing off the market from competition"" so far. ""They have created a very seamless package which I think is the idea of the product - the design, function and the software are very impressive,"" he said. He added that the threat from others was always present, however. ""Creative, other Microsoft-partnered devices, Real, Sony and so on, are ratcheting up the marketing message and advertising,"" he said. Creative was very upbeat about how many of its Creative Zen players it had shipped by the end of last year, he said. Its second-generation models, like the Creative Zen Micro Photo, is due out in the summer. It will have 5GB of memory on board...Digital music players are now the gadget of choice among young Americans, according to recent research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. One in 10 US adults - 22 million people - now owns a digital music player of some sort. Sales of legally downloaded songs also rose more than tenfold in 2004, according to the record industry, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months. The IFPI industry body said that the popularity of portable music players was behind the growth. Analysts say that the ease of use and growth of music services available on the net will continue to drive the trend towards portable music players...People are also starting to use them in novel ways. Some are combining automatic syncing functions many of them have with other net functions to automatically distribute DIY radio shows, called podcasts. But 2005 will also see more competition from mobile phone operators who are keen to offer streaming services on much more powerful and sophisticated handsets. According to Mr McGuire, research suggests that people like the idea of building up huge libraries of music, which they can do with high-capacity storage devices, like iPods and Creative Zens. Mobiles do not yet have this capacity though, and there are issues about the ease of portability of mobile music. Mr McGuire said Apple was ensuring it kept a foot in the mobile music door with its recent deal with Motorola to produce a version of iTunes for Motorola phones.",tech
"T-Mobile bets on 'pocket office'..T-Mobile has launched its latest ""pocket office"" third-generation (3G) device which also has built-in wi-fi - high-speed wireless net access...Unlike other devices where the user has to check which high-speed network is available to transfer data, the device selects the fastest one itself. The MDA IV, released in the summer, is an upgrade to the company's existing smartphone, the 2.5G/wi-fi MDA III. It reflects the push by mobile firms for devices that are like mini laptops. The device has a display that can be swivelled and angled so it can be used like a small computer, or as a conventional clamshell phone. The Microsoft Mobile phone, with two cameras and a Qwerty keyboard, reflects the design of similar all-in-one models released this year, such as Motorola's MPx. ""One in five European workers are already mobile - meaning they spend significant time travelling and out of the office,"" Rene Obermann, T-Mobile's chief executive, told a press conference at the 3GSM trade show in Cannes. He added: ""What they need is their office when they are out of the office."" T-Mobile said it was seeing increasing take up for what it calls ""Office in a Pocket"" devices, with 100,000 MDAs sold in Europe already...In response to demand, T-Mobile also said it would be adding the latest phone-shaped Blackberry to its mobile range. Reflecting the growing need to be connected outside the office, it announced it would introduce a flat-fee £20 ($38) a month wi-fi tariff for people in the UK using its wi-fi hotspots. It said it would nearly double the number of its hotspots - places where wi-fi access is available - globally from 12,300 to 20,000...It also announced it was installing high-speed wi-fi on certain train services, such as the UK's London to Brighton service, to provide commuters a fast net connection too. The service, which has been developed with Southern trains, Nomad Digital (who provide the technology), begins with a free trial on 16 trains on the route from early March to the end of April. A full service is set to follow in the summer. Wi-fi access points will be connected to a Wimax wireless network - faster than wi-fi - running alongside the train tracks. Brian McBride, managing director of T-Mobile in the UK, said: ""We see a growing trend for business users needing to access e-mail securely on the move...""We are able to offer this by maintaining a constant data session for the entire journey."" He said this was something other similar in-train wi-fi services, such as that offered on GNER trains, did not offer yet. Mr Obermann added that the mobile industry in general was still growing, with many more opportunities for more services which would bear fruit for mobile companies in future. Thousands of mobile industry experts are gathered in Cannes, France, for the 3GSM which runs from 14 to 17 February.",tech
"Hotspot users gain free net calls..People using wireless net hotspots will soon be able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net...Wireless provider Broadreach and net telephony firm Skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots around the UK this week. Users will need a Skype account - downloadable for free - and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net access. Skype allows people to make free PC-based calls to other Skype users...Users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. The system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. Its paid service - dubbed Skype Out - has so far attracted 940,000 users. It plans to add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing, voice mail and Skype In, a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from landlines and mobiles. London-based software developer Connectotel has unveiled software that will expand the SMS functions of Skype, allowing users to send text messages to mobile phones from the service. Broadreach Networks has around two million users and hotspots in places such as Virgin Megastores, the Travelodge chain of hotels and all London's major rail terminals. The company is due to launch wi-fi on Virgin Trains later in the year. ""Skype's success at spreading the world about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free access to Skype users in our hotspots,"" commented Broadreach chief executive Magnus McEwen-King.",tech
"DVD copy protection strengthened..DVDs will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-piracy measures devised by copy protection firm Macrovision...The pirated DVD market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years ago. Macrovision says its new RipGuard technology will thwart most, but not all, of the current DVD ripping (copying) programs used to pirate DVDs. ""RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer,"" said the firm. Macrovision said the new technology will work in ""nearly all"" current DVD players when applied to the discs, but it did not specify how many machines could have a problem with RipGuard. The new technology will be welcomed by Hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from DVD sales...The film industry has stepped up efforts to fight DVD piracy in the last 12 months, taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of DVD movies for download...""Ultimately, we see RipGuard DVD... evolving beyond anti-piracy, and towards enablement of legitimate online transactions, interoperability in tomorrow's digital home, and the upcoming high-definition formats,"" said Steve Weinstein, executive vice president and general manager of Macrovision's Entertainment Technologies Group. Macrovision said RipGuard was designed to plug the ""digital hole"" that was created by so-called DeCSS ripper software. It circumvents Content Scrambling System measures placed on DVDs and let people make perfect digital copies of copyrighted DVDs in minutes. Those copies could then be burned onto a blank DVD or uploaded for exchange to a peer-to-peer network. Macrovision said RipGuard would also prevent against ""rent, rip and return"" - where people would rent a DVD, copy it and then return the original. RipGuard is expected to be rolled out on DVDs from the middle of 2005, the company said. The new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used, those programs will now most likely crash, the company said. Macrovision has said that Rip Guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures.",tech
"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.",tech
"Sony PSP tipped as a 'must-have'..Sony's Playstation Portable is the top gadget for 2005, according to a round-up of ultimate gizmos compiled by Stuff Magazine...It beats the iPod into second place in the Top Ten Essentials list which predicts what gadget-lovers are likely to covet this year. Owning all 10 gadgets will set the gadget lover back £7,455. That is £1,000 cheaper than last year's list due to falling manufacturing costs making gadgets more affordable...Portable gadgets dominate the list, including Sharp's 902 3G mobile phone, the Pentax Optio SV digital camera and Samsung's Yepp YH-999 video jukebox...""What this year's Essentials shows is that gadgets are now cheaper, sexier and more indispensable than ever. We've got to the point where we can't live our lives without certain technology,"" said Adam Vaughan, editor of Stuff Essentials. The proliferation of gadgets in our homes is inexorably altering the role of the high street in our lives thinks Mr Vaughan. ""Take digital cameras, who would now pay to develop an entire film of photos? Or legitimate downloads, who would travel miles to a record shop when they could download the song in minutes for 70p?"" he asks. Next year will see a new set of technologies capturing the imaginations of gadget lovers, Stuff predicts. The Xbox 2, high-definition TV and MP3 mobiles will be among the list of must-haves that will dominate 2006, it says. The spring launch of the PSP in the UK is eagerly awaited by gaming fans.",tech
"BBC leads interactive Bafta wins..The BBC and the National Theatre have led the field at this year's Interactive Bafta awards...The National Theatre's Stagework website picked up the prize for best learning as well as top factual site. The BBC collected three awards, including best online entertainment for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Adventure Game. Spooks Interactive took the best interactive TV prize. The annual awards recognise the best in digital media. BBC Sport Interactive fought off competition from CBBC Newsround and the Guardian to take home the best news and sport trophy for its coverage of England's exit from Euro 2004. It was recognised for its ""groundbreaking"" use of animation. Bafta's Grant Dean, chair of Bafta's Interactive Entertainment committee, said all the entrants had been of ""outstanding quality"" and that judging had been ""enormously difficult"". ""Without a doubt, 2005 has been a landmark year for the Bafta Interactive Awards,"" he added...""Many of the top awards this year have gone to the companies we most commonly associate with traditional entertainment, showing how the gap between new media, film and television is closing.""..Awards were given out in 12 different categories, including interactive TV, film, music, design, as well as technical and social innovation, at a London ceremony. The top music award was given to SSEYO miniMIXA, a mobile music sequencer designed to let people write, edit and share compositions. Warner Bros was given two prizes for its ""inspiring"" efforts in film and DVD interactivity. The Chaplin Collection beat Oasis, Really Bend It Like Beckham, Shaun of the Dead and The Day Today in the DVD category, and Trauma won best film. Elsewhere, fashionista and clothes designer Alexander McQueen took the accolade for the best-designed website. The awards have been running since 1997, but in 2002 the British Academy of Film and Television decided to split them into separate games and interactive ceremonies. On Tuesday Half-Life 2 dominated the games prizes. It collected six Baftas, including best game and best online game.",tech
"Millions buy MP3 players in US..One in 10 adult Americans - equivalent to 22 million people - owns an MP3 player, according to a survey...A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that MP3 players are the gadget of choice among affluent young Americans. The survey did not interview teenagers but it is likely that millions of under-18s also have MP3 players. The American love affair with digital music players has been made possible as more and more homes get broadband...Of the 22 million Americans who own MP3 players, 59% are men compared to 41% of women. Those on high income - judged to be $75,000 (£39,000) or above - are four times more likely to have players than those earning less than $30, 000 ( £15,000). Broadband access plays a big part in ownership too. Almost a quarter of those with broadband at home have players, compared to 9% of those who have dial-up access. MP3 players are still the gadget of choice for younger adults. Almost one in five US citizens aged under 30 have one. This compares to 14% of those aged 30-39 and 14% of those aged 40-48. The influence of children also plays a part. Sixteen percent of parents living with children under 18 have digital players compared to 9% of those who don't. The ease of use and growth of music available on the net are the main factors for the upsurge in ownership, the survey found. People are beginning to use them as instruments of social activity - sharing songs and taking part in podcasting - the survey found. ""IPods and MP3 players are becoming a mainstream technology for consumers"" said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. ""More growth in the market is inevitable as new devices become available, as new players enter the market, and as new social uses for iPods/MP3 players become popular,"" he added.",tech
"'No re-draft' for EU patent law..A proposed European law on software patents will not be re-drafted by the European Commission (EC) despite requests by MEPs...The law is proving controversial and has been in limbo for a year. Some major tech firms say it is needed to protect inventions, while others fear it will hurt smaller tech firms The EC says the Council of Ministers will adopt a draft version that was agreed upon last May but said it would review ""all aspects of the directive"". The directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to achieve their effect, in other words, ""computer implemented invention""...In a letter, EC President José Manuel Barroso told the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, that the Commission ""did not intend to refer a new proposal to the Parliament and the Council (of ministers)"" as it had supported the agreement reached by ministers in May 2004...If the European Council agrees on the draft directive it will then return for a second reading at the European Parliament. But that will not guarantee that the directive will become law - instead it will probably mean further delays and controversy over the directive. Most EU legislation now needs the approval of both parliament and the Council of Ministers before it becomes law. French Green MEP Alain Lipietz warned two weeks ago that if the Commission ignored the Parliament's request it would be an ""insult"" to the assembly. He said that the parliament would then reject the Council's version of the legislation as part of the final or conciliation stage of the decision procedure. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted...This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service, for example. Critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in Europe. This, they fear, could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. Supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing EU laws in line with the US.",tech
"Domain system scam fear..A system to make it easier to create website addresses using alphabets like Cyrillic could open a back door for scammers, a trade body has warned...The Internationalised Domain Names system has been a work in progress for years and has recently been approved by the Internet Electronic Task Force. But the UK Internet Forum (UKIF) is concerned that the system will let scammers create fake sites more easily. The problem lies in the computer codes used to represent language...Registering names that look like that of legitimate companies but lead users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card details could become a whole lot easier for determined scammers, says Stephen Dyer, director of UKIF. Domain names are the ""real language"" addresses of websites, rather than their internet protocol address, which is a series of numbers. They are used so people can more easily navigate the web. So-called ASCII codes are used to represent European languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called Unicode is used. So, for example, website PayPal could now be coded using a mixture of the Latin alphabet and the Russian alphabet. The resulting domain as displayed to the users would look identical to the real site as a Russian 'a' look just like an English 'a'. But the computer code would be different, and the site it would lead users to could be a fake. This is more than just a theory. A fake Paypal.com has already been registered with net domain giant Verisign by someone who has followed the debate around the Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) system, said Mr Dyer. As the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has now been handed back to Paypal but it sets a worrying precedent, Mr Dyer said. ""Although the IDN problem is well known in technical circles, the commercial world is totally unaware how easily their websites can be faked,"" said Mr Dyer...""It is important to alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable way of diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site,"" he added. There are solutions. For instance, browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters and display them in different colours as a warning to users. Mr Dyer acknowledged that it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world's browsers. Another solution, to introduce IDN-disabled browsers could be a case of ""throwing out the baby with the bath water,"" he said. CENTR, the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries, agrees. ""A rush to introduce IDN-disabled browsers into the marketplace is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in IDNs - a technology that is desperately needed in the non-English speaking world,"" the organisation said in a statement.",tech
"Cheaper chip for mobiles..A mobile phone chip which combines a modem and a computer processor on one bit of silicon instead of two could make phones cheaper and more powerful...The specially-designed chip, developed by Texas Instruments, could drive down the cost of making mobiles capable of 3D gaming and 30-frame-a-second video. Currently, rich multimedia features tend to be on more expensive handsets. The technology, OMAP-Vox, is being tested by firms in Europe and Asia and could appear by the end of the year. Texas, which makes computer chips for more than half the world's mobile phones, said it was keen to make multimedia functions like video and gaming more affordable. ""We're going to drive them down into meat-and-potatoes phones that have the largest market share,"" said Doug Rasor, a marketing vice president at Texas. The chip also uses much less power than conventional chips, said Texas, which means less strain on mobile battery life...More than 50 million people own a mobile in the UK, but mobile operators are keen to encourage people to move onto more sophisticated handsets that can do more. Texas is keen to cash in on the third generation (3G) of mobile technology, which offers high-speed networks for video streaming and other multimedia functions. But it faces stiff competition from the likes of Intel which is also looking to provide better chips for high-end mobiles...Competition to get people using 3G mobiles will grow in the next year as almost all of the UK's operators have now launched third generation networks. A recent survey by Sony Ericsson predicted that the number of 3G handsets sold in 2005 would double from 2004 to account for 10% of all phones sold. Many consumers are still to be convinced though. A further recent survey said that only 4% of mobile owners were thinking of upgrading to 3G phones. Many said they were confused about the different ways to pay for phones and the vast array of features most have onboard...But there will be continued demand for better chips as the industry continues to develop new standards and future networks. Earlier in January, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone joined forces to develop the next generation of high-speed networks, known as ""super 3G"", intended to be 10 times faster than 3G services. The first stage of development is to be completed by 2007, but no date has been set for a commercial launch The newly-designed OMAP-Vox chip set was announced ahead of the start of a major mobile industry conference, 3GSM, which takes place in Cannes, France this week.",tech
"Blind student 'hears in colour'..A blind student has developed software that turns colours into musical notes so that he can read weather maps...Victor Wong, a graduate student from Hong Kong studying at Cornell University in New York State, had to read coloured maps of the upper atmosphere as part of his research. To study ""space weather"" Mr Wong needed to explore minute fluctuations in order to create mathematical models. A number of solutions were tried, including having a colleague describe the maps and attempting to print them in Braille. Mr Wong eventually hit upon the idea of translating individual colours into music, and enlisted the help of a computer graphics specialist and another student to do the programming work...""The images have three dimensions and I had to find a way of reading them myself,"" Mr Wong told the BBC News website. ""For the sake of my own study - and for the sake of blind scientists generally - I felt it would be good to develop software that could help us to read colour images."" He tried a prototype version of the software to explore a photograph of a parrot. In order to have an exact reference to the screen, a pen and tablet device is used. The software then assigns one of 88 piano notes to individually coloured pixels - ranging from blue at the lower end of this scale to red at the upper end. Mr Wong says the application is still very much in its infancy and is only useful for reading images that have been created digitally. ""If I took a random picture and scanned it and then used my software to recognise it, it wouldn't work that well.""..Mr Wong has been blind from the age of seven and he thinks that having a ""colour memory"" makes the software more useful than it would be to a scientist who had never had any vision. ""As the notes increase in pitch I know the colour's getting redder and redder, and in my mind's eye a patch of red appears."" The colour to music software has not yet been made available commercially, and Mr Wong believes that several people would have to work together to make it viable. But he hopes that one day it can be developed to give blind people access to photographs and other images.",tech
"Xbox 2 may be unveiled in summer..Details of the next generation of Microsoft's Xbox games console - codenamed Xenon - will most likely be unveiled in May, according to reports...It was widely expected that gamers would get a sneak preview of Xbox's successor at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March. But a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that it would not be at GDC. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all expected to release their more powerful machines in the next 18 months. The next Xbox console is expected to go on sale at the end of the year, but very few details about it have been released. It is thought that the machine may be unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, which takes place in May, according to a Reuters news agency report. E3 concentrates on showing off the latest in gaming to publishers, marketers and retailers. The GDC is aimed more at game developers. Microsoft chief, Bill Gates, used the GDC event to unveil the original Xbox five years ago. Since its launch, Microsoft has sold 19.9 million units worldwide...At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, there was very little mention of the next generation gaming machine. In his keynote speech, Mr Gates only referred to it as playing an essential part of his vision of the digital lifestyle...But the battle between the rival consoles to win gamers' hearts and thumbs will be extremely hard-fought. Sony has traditionally dominated the console market with its PlayStation 2. But earlier this year, Microsoft said it had reached a European milestone, selling five million consoles since its European launch in March 2002. Hit games like Halo 2, which was released in November, helped to buoy the sales figures...Gamers are looking forward to the next generation of machines because they will have much more processing and graphical power...They are also likely to pack in more features and technologies that make them more central as entertainment and communications hubs. Although details of PlayStation 3, Xenon, and Nintendo's so-called Revolution, are yet to be finalised, developers are already working on titles. Rory Armes, studio general manager for games giant Electronic Arts (EA) in Europe, recently told the BBC News website in an interview that EA was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. Microsoft had delivered development kits to EA, but he said the company was still waiting on Sony and Nintendo's kits. But, he added, the PlayStation 3 was rumoured to have ""a little more under the hood [than Xbox 2]"".",tech
"Microsoft launches its own search..Microsoft has unveiled the finished version of its home-grown search engine...The now formally launched MSN search site takes the training wheels off the test version unveiled in November 2003. The revamped engine indexes more pages than before, can give direct answers to factual questions, and features tools to help people create detailed queries. Microsoft faces challenges establishing itself as a serious search site because of the intense competition for queries...Google still reigns supreme as the site people turn to most often when they go online to answer a query, keep up with news or search for images. But in the last year Google has faced greater competition than ever for users as old rivals, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, and new entrants such as Amazon and Blinkx, try to grab some of the searching audience for themselves. This renewed interest has come about because of the realisation that many of the things people do online begin with a search for information - be it for a particular web page, recipe, book, gadget, news story, image or anything else. Microsoft is keen to make its home-grown search engine a significant rival to Google. To generate its corpus of data, Microsoft has indexed 5 billion webpages and claims to update its document index every two days - more often than rivals. The Microsoft search engine can also answer specific queries directly rather than send people to a page that might contain the answer...For its direct answer feature, Microsoft is calling on its Encarta encyclopaedia to provide answers to questions about definitions, facts, calculations, conversions and solutions to equations. Tony Macklin, director of product at Ask Jeeves, pointed out that its search engine has been answering specific queries this way since April 2003. ""The major search providers have moved beyond delivering only algorithmic search, so in many ways Microsoft is following the market,"" he said. Tools sitting alongside the MSN search engine allow users to refine results to specific websites, countries, regions or languages. Microsoft is also using so-called ""graphic equalisers"" that let people adjust the relevance of terms to get results that are more up-to-date or more popular. The company said that user feedback from earlier test versions had been used to refine the workings of the finished system. The test, or beta, version of the MSN search engine unveiled in November had a few teething troubles. On its first day many new users keen to try it were greeted with a page that said the site had been overwhelmed.",tech
"Moving mobile improves golf swing..A mobile phone that recognises and responds to movements has been launched in Japan...The motion-sensitive phone - officially titled the V603SH - was developed by Sharp and launched by Vodafone's Japanese division. Devised mainly for mobile gaming, users can also access other phone functions using a pre-set pattern of arm movements. The phone will allow golf fans to improve their swing via a golfing game...Those who prefer shoot-'em-ups will be able to use the phone like a gun to shoot the zombies in the mobile version of Sega's House of the Dead. The phone comes with a tiny motion-control sensor, a computer chip that responds to movement...Other features include a display screen that allows users to watch TV and can rotate 180 degrees. It also doubles up as an electronic musical instrument. Users have to select a sound from a menu that includes clapping, tambourine and maracas and shake their phone to create a beat. It is being recommended for the karaoke market. The phone will initially be available in Japan only and is due to go on sale in mid-February. The new gadget could make for interesting people-watching among Japanese commuters, who are able to access their mobiles on the subway. Fishing afficiandos in South Korea are already using a phone that allows them to simulate the movement of a rod. The PH-S6500 phone, dubbed a sports-leisure gadget, was developed by Korean phone giant Pantech and can also be used by runners to measure calorie consumption and distance run.",tech
"Junk e-mails on relentless rise..Spam traffic is up by 40%, putting the total amount of e-mail that is junk up to an astonishing 90%...The figures, from e-mail management firm Email Systems, will alarm firms attempting to cope with the amount of spam in their in-boxes. While virus traffic has slowed down, denial of service attacks are on the increase according to the firm. Virus mail accounts for just over 15% of all e-mail traffic analysis by the firm has found...It is no longer just multi-nationals that are in danger of so-called denial of service attacks, in which websites are bombarded by requests for information and rendered inaccessible. Email Systems refers to a small UK-based engineering firm, which received a staggering 12 million e-mails in January. The type of spam currently being sent has subtlety altered in the last few months, according to Email Systems analysis. Half of spam received since Christmas has been health-related with gambling and porn also on the increase. Scam mails, offering ways to make a quick buck, have declined by 40%. ""January is clearly a month when consumers are less motivated to purchase financial products or put money into dubious financial opportunities,"" said Neil Hammerton, managing director of Email Systems. ""Spammers seem to have adapted their output to reflect this, focussing instead on medically motivated and pornographic offers, presumably intentionally intended to coincide with what is traditionally considered to be the bleakest month in the calendar,"" he said.",tech
"Sporting rivals go to extra time..The current slew of sports games offers unparalleled opportunities for fans who like to emulate on-field action without ever moving from the couch...The two giants in the field - ESPN and EA Sports - have been locked in a heavyweight battle for years. The latter is the world's largest games manufacturer. Years of experience mean that the titles in their steady flow of sport sims are finely honed, massively entertaining and ooze flair. Sports broadcaster ESPN, meanwhile, has leant its name to a series of games that are similarly classy but lower in profile and price. But that status quo was changed forever - or for the next 15 years at least - by a deal earlier this year when ESPN sold EA the rights to its TV branding and on-air talent, meaning the ESPN games presently developed by Sega will have to come to and end in their present form...It was a massive-money deal that not only raised eyebrows but stirred active indignation in many quarters, with fans concerned that it is set to enable EA to monopolise the sports gaming landscape to an unhealthy degree. Some particularly disgruntled fans set up an online petition that notched more than 18,000 virtual signatures. Many of those clicking to complain were already rankled, for the ESPN coup happened just weeks after EA had pulled off another enormous licensing deal, controversially giving them exclusive rights to teams and personnel from America¿s National Football League (NFL). So, will the Sega - ESPN range be missed? A key reason for answering ""yes"" is that liking or disliking a sports game regularly comes down to personal taste, and having some options available always proves hugely handy. Online soccer fans will testify to that, between bouts of arguing over which high-profile title rules supreme out of the similar-yet-hugely-different FIFA 2005 and Pro Evolution Soccer 4. On the same note, the ESPN 2k5 and EA sports games have so little to choose between them that picking favourites will come down to players' personal preferences and spending budget rather than any technical elements. Taking hockey and basketball as examples, both publishers' efforts are phenomenally entertaining and fairly accessible. They also both look awesome, with the Sega / ESPN versions perhaps shading things on a graphical front...In terms of gameplay, I marginally preferred EA's NBA Live 2005 for basketball, and was more satisfied ice hockey-wise by ESPN's NHL 2K5. The ESPN games are a touch more arcade-like in look and feel and are slightly easier to get into, although like their rivals, they also offer a dizzyingly-extensive array of in-game tricks and overall challenge modes that should be enough to quench thirsts of even the most die-hard of sports fans. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ESPN deal will be seeing how it affects the presentation of EA's future titles. The front-end decoration of EA's games has become something of an art-form in itself, loaded with slick visuals and oodles of licensed music. They are also immediately identifiable as coming from the EA stable, and the inevitable compulsion to add an ESPN look will no doubt change that in various ways. What is a shame is that the ESPN titles took similar care about framing the gameplay with an authentic setting - their preambles look and sound much like they would on TV. They are neat and excellent-value games in their current form, and combining them with EA's own established brand should produce a truly formidable beast.",tech
"Half-Life 2 sweeps Bafta awards..PC first person shooter Half-Life 2 has won six Bafta Awards, including best game and best online game...The title, developed by Valve, was released last year to universal acclaim - receiving special praise for its immersive plot and physics engine. The game also won Baftas for best action adventure, best PC game, art direction and animation. Burnout 3 won three awards in the categories for racing, technical direction and best PlayStation 2 game. Grant Dean, chairman of the Bafta games awards, said at a ceremony in London on Tuesday: ""The last year has been a great year for the interactive entertainment industry...""These awards reflect the enormous achievements, progress and diversity that we have seen in that time."" Halo 2 won the best Xbox game category, while Prince of Persia: Warrior Within was adjudged the best GameCube title. The sports award went to Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 4. Bafta said the ""significant feature"" of this year's awards was the number of ""non-traditional games"". The originality award was won by PlayStation 2 title Singstar while the children's award went to GameCube bongo rhythm game Donkey Konga. The Handheld Award went to Colin McRae Rally 2005 while the mobile category was won by Blue Tooth Byplanes. The audio award was won by Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Hitman: Contracts won the music award.",tech
"BT boosts its broadband packages..British Telecom has said it will double the broadband speeds of most of its home and business customers...The increased speeds will come at no extra charge and follows a similar move by internet service provider AOL. Many BT customers will now have download speeds of 2Mbps, although there are usage allowances of between one gigabyte and 30 gigabytes a month. The new speeds start to come into effect on 17 February for home customers and 1 April for businesses. ""Britain is now broadband Britain,"" said Duncan Ingram, BT's managing director, broadband and internet services. He added: ""Ninety percent of our customers will see real increases in speed...""These speed increases will give people the opportunity to do a lot more with their broadband connections,"" he said. Upload speeds - the speed at which information is sent from a PC via broadband - will remain at the same speed, said Mr Ingram. Despite the increases, BT will continue to have usage allowances for home customers. ""The allowances are extremely generous,"" said Mr Ingram ""For what we are seeing in the market place - they are really not an issue."" BT will begin enforcing the allowances in the summer. Customers who exceed the amounts will either be able to pay for a bigger allowance or see their download speeds reduced. BT now has a 36% share of the broadband market - down from 39% - which is becoming increasingly competitive. In the last few months, many rival ISPs have begun to offer 2Mbps services, including AOL, Plusnet and UK Online...But Britain continues to lag behind some countries - especially Japan and South Korea - which offer broadband speeds of up to 40Mbps. But Mr Ingram said it was important to ""separate hype from reality"". He said that a limited number of people with those connections consistently received speeds of 40Mbps. Customers will not see their connections double immediately on 17 February. Mr Ingram said there would be a roll out across the network in order to prevent any problems.",tech
"Mobiles 'not media players yet'..Mobiles are not yet ready to be all-singing, all-dancing multimedia devices which will replace portable media players, say two reports...Despite moves to bring music download services to mobiles, people do not want to trade multimedia services with size and battery life, said Jupiter. A separate study by Gartner has also said real-time TV broadcasts to mobiles is ""unlikely"" in Europe until 2007. Technical issues and standards must be resolved first, said the report. Batteries already have to cope with other services that operators offer, like video playback, video messaging, megapixel cameras and games amongst others. Bringing music download services based on the success of computer-based download services will put more demands on battery life...Fifty percent of Europeans said the size of a mobile was the most important factor when it came to choosing their phone, but more power demands tend to mean larger handsets. ""Mobile phone music services must not be positioned to compete with the PC music experience as the handsets are not yet ready,"" said Thomas Husson, mobile analyst at Jupiter research. ""Mobile music services should be new and different, and enable operators to differentiate their brands and support third generation network launches."" Other problems facing mobile music include limited storage on phones, compared to portable players which can hold up to 40GB of music. The mobile industry is keen to get into music downloading, after the success of Apple's iTunes, Napster and other net music download services...With phones getting smarter and more powerful, there are also demands to be able to watch TV on the move. In the US, services like TiVo To Go let people transfer pre-recorded TV content onto their phones. But, the Gartner report on mobile TV broadcasting in Europe suggests direct broadcasting will have to wait. Currently, TV-like services, where clips are downloaded, are offered by several European operators, like Italy's TIM and 3. Mobile TV will have to overcome several barriers before it is widely taken up though, said the report...Various standards and ways of getting TV signals to mobiles are being worked on globally. In Europe, trials in Berlin and Helsinki are making use of terrestrial TV masts to broadcast compressed signals to handsets with extra receivers. A service from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation lets people watch TV programmes on their mobiles 24 hours a day. The service uses 3GP technology, one of the standards for mobile TV. But at the end of 2004, the European Telecommunications Institute (Etsi) formally adopted Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) as the mobile TV broadcasting standard for Europe. Operators will be working on the standard as a way to bring real-time broadcasts to mobiles, as well as trying to overcome several other barriers. The cost and infrastructure needs to set up the services will need to be addressed. Handsets also need to be able to work with the DVB-H standard. TV services will have to live up to the expectations of the digital TV generation too, which expects good quality images at low prices, according to analysts. People are also likely to be put off watching TV on such small screens, said Gartner. Digital video recorders, like Europe's Sky+ box, and video-on-demand services mean people have much more control over what TV they watch. As a result, people may see broadcasting straight to mobiles as taking away that control. More powerful smartphones like the XDA II, Nokia 6600, SonyEricsson P900 and the Orange E200, offering web access, text and multimedia messaging, e-mail, calendar and gaming are becoming increasingly common. A report by analysts InStat/MDR has predicted that smartphone shipments will grow by 44% over the next five years. It says that smartphones will make up 117 million out of 833 million handsets shipped globally by 2009.",tech
"Microsoft releases patches..Microsoft has warned PC users to update their systems with the latest security fixes for flaws in Windows programs...In its monthly security bulletin, it flagged up eight ""critical"" security holes which could leave PCs open to attack if left unpatched. The number of holes considered ""critical"" is more than usual. They affect Windows programs, including Internet Explorer (IE), media player and instant messaging. Four other important fixes were also released. These were considered to be less critical, however. If not updated, either automatically or manually, PC users running the programs could be vulnerable to viruses or other malicious attacks designed to exploit the holes. Many of the flaws could be used by virus writers to take over computers remotely, install programs, change, and delete or see data...One of the critical patches Microsoft has made available is an important one that fixes some IE flaws. Stephen Toulouse, a Microsoft security manager, said the flaws were known about, and although the firm had not seen any attacks exploiting the flaw, he did not rule them out. Often, when a critical flaw is announced, spates of viruses follow because home users and businesses leave the flaw unpatched. A further patch fixes a hole in Media Player, Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger which an attacker could use to take control of unprotected machines through .png files. Microsoft announces any vulnerabilities in its software every month. The most important ones are those which are classed as ""critical"". Its latest releases came the week that the company announced it was to buy security software maker Sybari Software as part of Microsoft's plans to make its own security programs.",tech
"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.",tech
"Ask Jeeves joins web log market..Ask Jeeves has bought the Bloglines website to improve the way it handles content from web journals or blogs...The Bloglines site has become hugely popular as it gives users one place in which to read, search and share all the blogs they are interested in. Ask Jeeves said it was not planning to change Bloglines but would use the 300 million articles it has archived to round out its index of the web. How much Ask Jeeves paid for Bloglines was not revealed...Bloglines has become popular because it lets users build a list of the blogs they want to follow without having to visit each journal site individually. To do this it makes use of a technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) that many blogs have adopted to let other sites know when new entries are made on their journals. The acquisition follows similar moves by other search sites. Google acquired Pyra Labs, makers of the Blogger software, in 2003. In 2004 MSN introduced its own blog system and Yahoo has tweaked its technology to do a better job of handling blog entries. Jim Lanzone, vice president of search properties at Ask Jeeves in the US, said it did not acquire Bloglines just to get a foothold in the blog publishing world. He said Ask Jeeves was much more interested in helping people find information they were looking for rather than helping them write it...""The universe of readers is vastly larger than the universe of writers,"" he said. Mr Lanzone said the acquisition would sit well with Ask's My Jeeves service which lets people customise their own web experience and build up a personal collection of useful links. ""Search engines are about discovering information for the first time and RSS is the ideal way to keep track of and monitor those sites,"" he said. It would also help drive information and entries from blogs to the portals that Ask Jeeves operates. There would be no instant sweeping changes to Bloglines, said Mr Lanzone. ""Our intent is to take our time to figure out the right business model not to try to monetise it right away,"" he said. Though Mr Lanzone added that Ask Jeeves would be helping organise the database of 300m blog entries Bloglines holds with its own net indexing technology. ""Being able to search the blogosphere as one corpus of information will be very useful in its own right,"" said Mr Lanzone. Rumours about the acquisition were broken by the Napsterization weblog which said it got the hint from Ask Jeeves insiders.",tech
"Digital guru floats sub-$100 PC..Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of MIT's Media Labs, says he is developing a laptop PC that will go on sale for less than $100 (£53)...He told the BBC World Service programme Go Digital he hoped it would become an education tool in developing countries. He said one laptop per child could be "" very important to the development of not just that child but now the whole family, village and neighbourhood"". He said the child could use the laptop like a text book. He described the device as a stripped down laptop, which would run a Linux-based operating system, ""We have to get the display down to below $20, to do this we need to rear project the image rather than using an ordinary flat panel...""The second trick is to get rid of the fat , if you can skinny it down you can gain speed and the ability to use smaller processors and slower memory."" The device will probably be exported as a kit of parts to be assembled locally to keep costs down. Mr Negroponte said this was a not for profit venture, though he recognised that the manufacturers of the components would be making money. In 1995 Mr Negroponte published the bestselling Being Digital, now widely seen as predicting the digital age. The concept is based on experiments in the US state of Maine, where children were given laptop computers to take home and do their work on...While the idea was popular amongst the children, it initially received some resistance from the teachers and there were problems with laptops getting broken. However, Mr Negroponte has adapted the idea to his own work in Cambodia where he set up two schools together with his wife and gave the children laptops. ""We put in 25 laptops three years ago , only one has been broken, the kids cherish these things, it's also a TV a telephone and a games machine, not just a textbook."" Mr Negroponte wants the laptops to become more common than mobile phones but conceded this was ambitious. ""Nokia make 200 million cell phones a year, so for us to claim we're going to make 200 million laptops is a big number, but we're not talking about doing it in three or five years, we're talking about months."" He plans to be distributing them by the end of 2006 and is already in discussion with the Chinese education ministry who are expected to make a large order. ""In China they spend $17 per child per year on textbooks. That's for five or six years, so if we can distribute and sell laptops in quantities of one million or more to ministries of education that's cheaper and the marketing overheads go away.""",tech
"Looks and music to drive mobiles..Mobile phones are still enjoying a boom time in sales, according to research from technology analysts Gartner...More than 674 million mobiles were sold last year globally, said the report, the highest total sold to date. The figure was 30% more than in 2003 and surpassed even the most optimistic predictions, Gartner said. Good design and the look of a mobile, as well as new services such as music downloads, could go some way to pushing up sales in 2005, said analysts. Although people were still looking for better replacement phones, there was evidence, according to Gartner, that some markets were seeing a slow-down in replacement sales...""All the markets grew apart from Japan which shows that replacement sales are continuing in western Europe,"" mobile analyst Carolina Milanesi told the BBC News website. ""Japan is where north America and western European markets can be in a couple of years' time. ""They already have TV, music, ringtones, cameras, and all that we can think of on mobiles, so people have stopped buying replacement phones.""..But there could be a slight slowdown in sales in European and US markets too, according to Gartner, as people wait to see what comes next in mobile technology. This means mobile companies have to think carefully about what they are offering in new models so that people see a compelling reason to upgrade, said Gartner. Third generation mobiles (3G) with the ability to handle large amounts of data transfer, like video, could drive people into upgrading their phones, but Ms Milanesi said it was difficult to say how quickly that would happen. ""At the end of the day, people have cameras and colour screens on mobiles and for the majority of people out there who don't really care about technology the speed of data to a phone is not critical."" Nor would the rush to produce two or three megapixel camera phones be a reason for mobile owners to upgrade on its own. The majority of camera phone models are not at the stage where they can compete with digital cameras which also have flashes and zooms...More likely to drive sales in 2005 would be the attention to design and aesthetics, as well as music services. The Motorola Razr V3 phone was typical of the attention to design that would be more commonplace in 2005, she added. This was not a ""women's thing"", she said, but a desire from men and women to have a gadget that is a form of self-expression too. It was not just about how the phone functioned, but about what it said about its owner. ""Western Europe has always been a market which is quite attentive to design,"" said Ms Milanesi...""People are after something that is nice-looking, and together with that, there is the entertainment side. ""This year music will have a part to play in this."" The market for full-track music downloads was worth just $20 million (£10.5 million) in 2004, but is set to be worth $1.8 billion (£9.4 million) by 2009, according to Jupiter Research. Sony Ericsson just released its Walkman branded mobile phone, the W800, which combines a digital music player with up to 30 hours' battery life, and a two megapixel camera. In July last year, Motorola and Apple announced a version of iTunes online music downloading service would be released which would be compatible with Motorola mobile phones. Apple said the new iTunes music player would become Motorola's standard music application for its music phones. But the challenge will be balancing storage capacity with battery life if mobile music hopes to compete with digital music players like the iPod. Ms Milanesi said more models would likely be released in the coming year with hard drives. But they would be more likely to compete with the smaller capacity music players that have around four gigabyte storage capacity, which would not put too much strain on battery life.",tech
"Yahoo celebrates a decade online..Yahoo, one of the net's most iconic companies, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week...The web portal has undergone remarkable change since it was set up by Stanford University students David Filo and Jerry Yang in a campus trailer. The students wanted a way of keeping track of their web-based interests. The categories lists they devised soon became popular to hundreds of people and the two saw business potential in their idea...Originally dubbed ""Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web"" the firm adopted the moniker Yahoo because the founders liked the dictionary definition of a yahoo as a rude, unsophisticated, uncouth person. The term was popularised by the 18th Century satirist Jonathan Swift in his classic novel, Gulliver's Travels. ""We were certainly not sophisticated or civilised,"" Mr Yang told reporters ahead of the anniversary, which will be officially recognised on 2 March...They did have business brains however, and in April 1995 persuaded venture capitalists Sequoia Capital, which also invested in Apple Computer and Cisco Systems, to fund Yahoo to the tune of $2m (£1.04m). A second round of funding followed in the autumn and the company floated in April 1996 with less than 50 employees. Now the firm employs 7,600 workers and insists its dot com culture of ""work hard, play hard"" still remains. It is one of just a handful of survivors of the dot-com crash although it now faces intense rivalry from firms such as Google, MSN and AOL. Jerry Yang, who remains the firm's ""Chief Yahoo"", is proud of what the company has achieved. ""In just one decade, the internet has changed the way consumers do just about everything - and it's been a remarkable and wonderful experience,"" he said. Through it all, we wanted to build products that satisfied our users wants and needs, but it's even more than that - it's to help every one of us to discover, get more done, share and interact.""",tech
"Kenyan school turns to handhelds..At the Mbita Point primary school in western Kenya students click away at a handheld computer with a stylus...They are doing exercises in their school textbooks which have been digitised. It is a pilot project run by EduVision, which is looking at ways to use low cost computer systems to get up-to-date information to students who are currently stuck with ancient textbooks. Matthew Herren from EduVision told the BBC programme Go Digital how the non-governmental organisation uses a combination of satellite radio and handheld computers called E-slates. ""The E-slates connect via a wireless connection to a base station in the school. This in turn is connected to a satellite radio receiver. The data is transmitted alongside audio signals."" The base station processes the information from the satellite transmission and turns it into a form that can be read by the handheld E-slates. ""It downloads from the satellite and every day processes the stream, sorts through content for the material destined for the users connected to it. It also stores this on its hard disc.""..The system is cheaper than installing and maintaining an internet connection and conventional computer network. But Mr Herren says there are both pros and cons to the project. ""It's very simple to set up, just a satellite antenna on the roof of the school, but it's also a one-way connection, so getting feedback or specific requests from end users is difficult.""..The project is still at the pilot stage and EduVision staff are on the ground to attend to teething problems with the Linux-based system. ""The content is divided into visual information, textual information and questions. Users can scroll through these sections independently of each other."" EduVision is planning to include audio and video files as the system develops and add more content. Mr Herren says this would vastly increase the opportunities available to the students. He is currently in negotiations to take advantage of a project being organised by search site Google to digitise some of the world's largest university libraries. ""All books in the public domain, something like 15 million, could be put on the base stations as we manufacture them. Then every rural school in Africa would have access to the same libraries as the students in Oxford and Harvard"" Currently the project is operating in an area where there is mains electricity. But Mr Herren says EduVision already has plans to extend it to more remote regions. ""We plan to put a solar panel at the school with the base station, have the E-slates charge during the day when the children are in school, then they can take them home at night and continue working."" Maciej Sundra, who designed the user interface for the E-slates, says the project's ultimate goal is levelling access to knowledge around the world. ""Why in this age when most people do most research using the internet are students still using textbooks? The fact that we are doing this in a rural developing country is very exciting - as they need it most.""",tech
"Tough rules for ringtone sellers..Firms that flout rules on how ringtones and other mobile extras are sold could be cut off from all UK phone networks...The rules allow offenders to be cut off if they do not let consumers know exactly what they get for their money and how to turn off the services. The first month under the new rules has seen at least ten firms suspended while they clean up the way they work. The rules have been brought in to ensure that the problems plaguing net users do not spread to mobile phones...In the last couple of years ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and lots of other extras for phones have become hugely popular. But fierce competition is making it difficult for firms to get their wares in front of consumers, said Jeremy Flynn, head of third party services at Vodafone...""If you are not on the operator's portal you are going to have quite heavy marketing costs because it's a problem of how people discover your services,"" he said. To combat this many ringtone and other mobile content sellers started using a new tactic to squeeze more cash out of customers. This tactic involved signing people up for a subscription to give them, for instance, several ringtones per week or month instead of the single track they thought they were getting. Mr Flynn said that the move to using subscriptions happened over the space of a few weeks at the end of 2004. Websites such as grumbletext.co.uk started getting reports from customers who were racking up large bills for phone content they did not know they had signed up for. ""What made us uncomfortable was that these services were not being marketed transparently,"" said Mr Flynn. ""People did not know they were being offered a subscription service."" ""We saw potential for substantial consumer harm here,"" he added...The swift adoption of subscription services led to the creation of a new code of conduct for firms that want to sell content for mobile phones. The drafting of the new rules was led by the Mobile Entertainment Forum and the UK's phone firms. ""Everyone is required to conform to this code of conduct,"" said Andrew Bud, regulatory head of the MEF and executive chairman of messaging firm MBlox...""It's all about transparency,"" he said. ""Consumers have to be told what they have got themselves into and how to get out of it."" ""The consumer has a right to be protected,"" he said. Christian Harris, partnership manager of mobile content firm Zed, said the new system was essential if consumers were to trust companies that sell ringtones and other downloads. ""The groundrules must be applied across the whole industry and if that's done effectively we will see the cowboys driven out,"" he said. The new rules came in to force on 15 January and the first month under the new regime has seen many firms cautioned for not honouring them. Some have been told to revamp websites so customers know what they get for their money and what they are signing up for, said Mr Flynn. Also, said Mr Flynn, Vodafone has briefly cut off between eight and ten content sellers flouting the rules. ""We have quite draconian contracts with firms,"" he said. ""We do not have to say why. We can just cut them off."" Under the rules consumers must be able to switch off the services by using a universal ""stop"" command sent via text message. He said the system had been designed to limit how much a consumer will pay if they inadvertently signed up for a service. ""The mobile is so personal that people really resent the abuse of what is effectively part of their personality,"" said Mr Flynn.",tech
"Creator of first Apple Mac dies..Jef Raskin, head of the team behind the first Macintosh computer, has died...Mr Raskin was one of the first employees at Apple and made many of the design decisions that made the Mac so distinctive when it was first released. He led the team that decided to use a graphical interface and mouse that let people navigate around the computer by pointing and clicking. The 1984 release of the Mac reflected Mr Raskin's belief that good design should make computers easy to use...Mr Raskin joined Apple in 1978 as employee number 31, initially to lead the company's publications department. However, in 1979 he was put in charge of a small team to design a computer that lived up to his idea of a machine that was cheap, aimed at consumers rather than computer professionals and was very easy to use...The result was the 1984 Macintosh that did away with the then common text-based interface in favour of one based around graphics that resembled a virtual desktop and used folders and documents. Users navigated around the machine using a mouse and by pointing, clicking and dragging. Although now in common use in almost all computers, these methods were pioneering when first used in the Macintosh. The GUI was developed by Xerox PARC, and used in its Star machine. But the acceptance of the interface did not truly begin until the concept was developed for use by Apple in its pioneering Lisa computer. ""His role on the Macintosh was the initiator of the project, so it wouldn't be here if it weren't for him,"" said Andy Hertzfeld, an early Macintosh team member. Although Mr Raskin drove the team that created the Macintosh he did not stay at Apple to see it released. In 1981 he was removed from the project following a dispute with Apple's mercurial boss Steve Jobs. In 1982, Mr Raskin left Apple entirely. The Macintosh was reputedly named after Mr Raskin's favourite apple, though the name was changed slightly following a trademark dispute with another company. After leaving Apple, Mr Raskin founded another company called Information Appliance and continued to work on better ways to interface with computers. He was also an accomplished musician, played three instruments and conducted San Francisco's Chamber Opera Society. Mr Raskin was diagnosed in December 2004 with pancreatic cancer and died on 26 February at his home in California.",tech
"'Friends fear' with lost mobiles..People are becoming so dependent on their mobile phones that one in three are concerned that losing their phone would mean they lose their friends...More than 50% of mobile owners reported they had had their phone stolen or lost in the last three years. More than half (54%) of those asked in a poll for mobile firm Intervoice said that they do not have another address book. A fifth rely entirely on mobiles. About 80% of UK adults own at least one mobile, according to official figures. It is estimated that 53% of over 65s own a mobile, according to Intervoice, but the figures are higher for those aged between 15 and 34...Most 15 to 24-year-olds (94%), and 25 to 34-year-olds (92%), own at least one. Nineteen percent of mobile owners were more concerned about how long it would take to find their contacts' information again if the phone was lost, stolen or replaced...The survey showed that extent to which people have become reliant on their phones as address book. Many mobile owners do not bother to make back-ups of their contact details, and with people changing their phones once a year on average, it becomes a problem. They also are becoming less likely to remember numbers by heart, relying on the mobile phone book instead. ""We're a nation of lazy so-and-sos,"" David Noone from Intervoice said. ""We put the numbers in our phones so we can call a friend at the touch of just one or two buttons and we certainly can't be bothered to write them down in an old fashioned address book. ""The mobile phone plays such a key role in modern relationships; take the phone away and the way we manage these relationships falls apart."" One in three women, the survey said, thought if they lost their phones, it would mean they would lose touch with people altogether. Most (62%) said they had no idea what their partner's number was. Mr Noone said it should be up to mobile operators to provide back-up services on the network itself, instead of relying on mobile owners to find ways themselves...Generally, information from Sim cards can be backed up on physical memory cards, or can be copied onto computers via cables if the phone is a smartphone model with the right software. Sim back-up devices can be bought from phone shops for just a few pounds...But some operators offer customers free web-based back-up services too. Orange told the BBC News website that those with Orange Smartphones could use the My Phone syncing service which means back-ups of address books and other data are created online. For non-smartphone users, a Memory Mate card could be used to back up data on the phone. O2 also offers a free, web-based syncing service which works over GPRS and GSM. Neither Vodafone or T-Mobile currently offer a free network service for back-ups, but encourage people to use Sim back-up devices. It is thought that about 10,000 phones are lost or stolen every month and 50% of total street crime involves a mobile. Mobile phone sales are expected to continue growing over the next year. Globally, more than 167 million mobile phones were sold in the third quarter of 2004, 26% more than the previous year, according to analysts. It is predicted that there will be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005.",tech
"Telewest to challenge Sky Plus..Cable firm Telewest is to offer a personal video recorder (PVR) in a set -top box to challenge Sky Plus...Sky Plus is the market leader in the field of digital video recorders in the UK, with 474,000 subscribers. PVRs record TV programmes to a hard drive, letting viewers pause, and rewind live television and effectively ""time shift"" the viewing experience. A number of PVRs incorporating Freeview digital terrestrial TV are also on the market but their success is limited. Telewest's PVR will offer a 160GB hard drive, which has storage for up to 80 hours of programmes. The box has three tuners, which means viewers can record two channels simultaneously while watching a third channel...Sky Plus boxes come in two versions - a 20GB version for £99 and a 160GB version for £399. Sky also charges a £10 subscription fee to the service, unless viewers have a subscription to one of its premium packages. Telewest has yet to reveal pricing for the new box or if it will be charging a subscription fee for the service...Eric Tveter, president and chief operating officer at Telewest Broadband, said: ""We will make our PVR set-top box available later this year, putting a stop to missed soaps, interrupted films and arguments over which programmes to record."" PVRs and recordable DVD players are set to replace video recorders as the standard method of recording and saving favourite TV programmes. Last year, high street retailer Dixons said it was going to stop selling VHS machines in favour of PVRs and recordable DVD machines. Sky has said it aims to have 25% of its subscribers using Sky Plus by 2010 - it is predicting 10 million total subscribers by that date. It currently has 7.4 million subscribers, while Telewest provides digital cable to 1.7 million customers.",tech
"Games enter the classroom..Video games could soon be transplanted from their natural habitat to the more academic atmosphere of the classroom...With violent titles continuing to top the charts, gaming and learning have not always sat well together but the tide could be beginning to turn. Recent research by the London Institute of Education concluded that games have a valid place in the classroom. ""Games teach life skills such as decision making, problem solving,"" said Martin Owen, at Futurelab. Mr Owen said games could also help children make quick assessments of situations and learning by trial and error...Futurelab is a non-profit organisation looking at ways of using technology for innovative learning. Most game firms are too busy turning a profit in the lucrative commercial market to consider developing games for use in schools but Liverpool-based games firm Lateral Visions saw a gap in the market. ""Learning games were somewhat old-fashioned and we didn't see anyone else doing what we wanted to do,"" said Dr Carl Gavin, managing director of Lateral Visions. The company set out to write something that had all the look and feel of a commercial game but with an educational and learning element. The result is Racing Academy, a massively multiplayer car racing game, which requires not only a thirst for speed but a working knowledge of physics and engineering as well...It is being used by Futurelab to test the viability of using gaming in the classroom. ""We are keen to find out whether alongside learning a game, we can also learn something that the rest of the world can understand as being educational,"" said Mr Owen. Players will have to understand how a car works in order to win races and the knowledge of physics and engineering that they gather along the way will be done in a way that no text book can teach. The game requires users to build and maintain their vehicles and to monitor and analyse performance using data from a variety of outputs, before and after racing. Teamwork is essential and a chat area allows students to exchange information and data, work collaboratively and review their own performances. This fusion of chatrooms and gaming is of special interest to Futurelab as it is through talking to others that much of the learning can be achieved, thinks Mr Owen...The game has been trialled in two secondary schools in Bristol and feedback from students has been positive. ""Pupils used the statistics to work out the best way to build their cars and the online message board to share ideas and support each other,"" said Ben Williamson, a researcher at Futurelab charged with testing the game in real schools. Dr Gavin thinks the game satisfies both teachers' need for learning outcomes and the children's desire to rise to a challenge. ""Games in the classroom need to support the teacher. It is not about giving children free rein to play game but recognising that games attract attention and offer a challenge,"" he said. Professor Angela MacFarlane, based at Bristol University, has spent several years researching how games can be incorporated into classrooms...Use of games in schools has been patchy she found, with Sim City proving the most popular. Traditionally schools have eschewed mainstream games in favour of used so-called edu-tainment software in a belief that such packages help to make learning fun, she found in her research. ""It is perhaps in a compromise between edutainment and mainstream games that the greatest potential for classroom useable games lies,"" she wrote in a paper entitled Games and Learning. 'Lite' versions of existing games could be the way forward and would overcome one of the biggest hurdles - persuading developers to write for the educational market. This would appeal to developers because of the low costs involved in adapting them as well as offering a new opportunity for marketing. Already there are games on the market, such as Civilisation and Age of Empire, that have educational elements said Mr Owen. ""Even in Grand Theft Auto it is not just the violence that engages people,"" he said. It could be some time until that particular game makes it into the classroom though.",tech
"Gadget growth fuels eco concerns..Technology firms and gadget lovers are being urged to think more about the environment when buying and disposing of the latest hi-tech products...At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, several hi-tech firms were recognised for their strategies to help the environment. Ebay also announced the Rethink project bringing together Intel, Apple, and IBM among others to promote recycling. The US consumer electronics market is set to grow by over 11% in 2005. But more awareness is needed about how and where old gadgets can be recycled as well as how to be more energy efficient, said the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Of particular growing concern is how much energy it takes to recharge portable devices, one of the fastest growing markets in technology. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has predicted that shipments of consumer technologies in 2005 will reach more than $125.73 billion (nearly £68 billion)...Ebay's initiative pulls together major technology firms, environment groups, government agencies and eBay users to give information about what to do with old computers and where to send them. The online auction house thinks that its already-established community of loyal users could be influential. ""We really became aware of the e-waste issue and we saw that our 125 million users can be a powerful force for good,"" eBay's David Stern told the BBC News website...""We saw the opportunity to meet the additional demand we have on the site for used computers and saw the opportunity too to good some good for the environment."" But it is not just computers that cause a problem for the environment. Teenagers get a new mobile every 11 months, adults every 18 months and a 15 million handsets are replaced in total each year. Yet, only 15% are actually recycled. This year, a predicted two billion people worldwide will own a mobile, according to a Deloitte report. Schemes in the US, like RIPMobile, could help in targeting younger generations with recycling messages. The initiative, which was also launched at CES, rewards 10 to 28-year-olds for returning unused phones. ""This system allows for the transformation of a drawer full of unused mobile phones into anything from music to clothes to electronics or games,"" said Seth Heine from RIPMobile...One group of students collected 1,000 mobiles for recycling in just three months. Mr Heine told the BBC News website that what was important was to raise awareness amongst the young so that recycling becomes ""learned behaviour"". Europe is undoubtedly more advanced than the US in terms of recycling awareness and robust ""end of life"" programmes, although there is a tide change happening in the rest of the world too. Intel showcased some its motherboards and chips at CES which are entirely lead free...""There is more and more awareness on the consumer side, but the whole industry is moving towards being lead free,"" Intel's Allen Wilson told the BBC News website. ""There is still low-level awareness right now, but it is on the rise - the highest level of awareness is in Europe."" A European Union (EU) directive, WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment), comes into effect in August. It puts the responsibility on electrical manufacturers to recycle items that are returned to them. But developments are also being made to design better technologies which are more energy efficient and which do not contain harmful substances. Elements like chromium, lead, and cadmium - common in consumer electronics goods - will be prohibited in all products in the EU by 2006...But it is not just about recycling either. The predicted huge growth in the gadget market means the amount of energy used to power them up is on the rise too. The biggest culprit, according to the EPA, is the innocuous power adaptor, nicknamed ""energy vampires"". They provide vital juice for billions of mobile phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), digital cameras, camcorders, and digital music players...Although there is a focus on developing efficient and improved circuits in the devices themselves, the technologies inside rechargers are still outdated and so eat up more energy than is needed to power a gadget. On 1 January, new efficiency standards for external power supplies came into effect as part of the European Commission Code of Conduct. But at CES, the EPA also unveiled new guidelines for its latest Energy Star initiative which targets external power adapters. These map out the framework for developing better adaptors that can be labelled with an Energy Star logo, meaning they are about 35% more efficient. The initiative is a global effort and more manufacturers' adaptors are being brought on board. Most are made in China. About two billion are shipped global every year, and about three billion are in use in the US alone. The EPA is already working with several companies which make more than 22% of power supplies on the market. ""We are increasingly finding companies that not only want to provide neat, hi-tech devices, but also bundle with it a hi-tech, efficient power supply,"" the EPA's Andrew Fanara said. Initiatives like this are critical; if power adaptors continue to be made and used as they are now, consumer electronics and other small appliances will be responsible for more than 40% of electricity used in US homes, said the EPA.",tech
"'Evil twin' fear for wireless net..People using wireless high-speed net (wi-fi) are being warned about fake hotspots, or access points...The latest threat, nicknamed evil twins, pose as real hotspots but are actually unauthorised base stations, say Cranfield University experts. Once logged onto an Evil Twin, sensitive data can be intercepted. Wi-fi is becoming popular as more devices come with wireless capability. London leads the global wi-fi hotspots league, with more than 1,000. The number of hotspots is expected to reach 200,000 by 2008, according to analysts. ""Users need to be wary of using their wi-fi enabled laptops or other portable devices in order to conduct financial transactions or anything that is of a sensitive or personal nature,"" said Professor Brian Collins, head of information systems at Cranfield University...""Users can also protect themselves by ensuring that their wi-fi device has its security measures activated,"" he added. BT Openzone, which operates a vast proportion of public hotspots in the UK, told the BBC News website that it made every effort to make its wi-fi secure. ""Naturally, people may have security concerns,"" said Chris Clark, chief executive for BT's wireless broadband...""But wi-fi networks are no more or less vulnerable than any other means of accessing the internet, like broadband or dial-up."" He said BT Openzone, as well as others, have sophisticated encryption from the start of the login process to the service at a hotspot. ""This means that users' personal information and data, logon usernames and passwords are protected and secure,"" said Mr Clark...In the vast majority of cases, base stations straight out of the box from the manufacturers are automatically set up with the least secure mode possible, said Dr Nobles. Cybercriminals who try to glean personal information using the scam, jam connections to a legitimate base station by sending a stronger signal near to the wireless client. Anyone with the right gear can find a real hotspot and substitute it with an evil twin. ""Cybercriminals don't have to be that clever to carry out such an attack,"" said Dr Phil Nobles, a wireless net and cybercrime expert at Cranfield. ""Because wireless networks are based on radio signals they can be easily detected by unauthorised users tuning into the same frequency.""..Although wi-fi is increasing in popularity as more people want to use high-speed net on the move, there have been fears over how secure it is. Some companies have been reluctant to use them in large numbers because of fears about security. A wireless network that is not protected can provide a backdoor into a company's computer system. Public wi-fi hotspots offered by companies like BT Openzone and The Cloud, are accessible after users sign up and pay for use. But many home and company wi-fi networks are left unprotected and can be ""sniffed out"" and hi-jacked by anyone with the correct equipment. ""BT advises that customers should change all default settings, make sure that their security settings on all equipment are configured correctly,"" said Mr Clark. ""We also advocate the use of personal firewalls to ensure that only authorised users can have access and that data cannot be intercepted."" Dr Nobles is due to speak about wireless cybercrime at the Science Museum's Dana Centre in London on Thursday.",tech
"China 'to overtake US net use'..The Chinese net-using population looks set to exceed that of the US in less than three years, says a report...China's net users number 100m but this represents less than 8% of the country's 1.3 billion people. Market analysts Panlogic predicts that net users in China will exceed the 137 million US users of the net by 2008. The report says that the country's culture will mean that Chinese people will use the net for very different ends than in many other nations...Already net use in China has a very different character than in many Western nations, said William Makower, chief executive of Panlogic. In many Western nations desktop computers that can access the net are hard to escape at work. By contrast in China workplace machines are relatively rare. This, combined with the relatively high cost of PCs in China and the time it takes to get phone lines installed, helps to explains the huge number of net cafes in China. Only 36% of Chinese homes have telephones according to reports. ""Net usage tends to happen in the evening,"" said Mr Makower, ""they get access only when they go home and go off to the internet café."" ""Its fundamentally different usage to what we have here,"" he said...Net use in China was still very much an urban phenomenon with most users living on the country's eastern seaboard or in its three biggest cities. The net is key to helping Chinese people keep in touch with friends, said Mr Makower. Many people use it in preference to the phone or arrange to meet up with friends at net cafes. What people can do on the net is also limited by aspects of Chinese life. For instance, said Mr Makower, credit cards are rare in China partly because of fears people have about getting in to debt. ""The most popular way to pay is Cash-On-Delivery,"" he said, ""and that's quite a brake to the development of e-commerce."" The arrival of foreign banks in China, due in 2006, could mean greater use of credit cards but for the moment they are rare, said Mr Makower. But if Chinese people are not spending cash online they are interested in the news they can get via the net and the view it gives them on Western ways of living. ""A large part of the attraction of the internet is that it goes below the radar,"" he said. ""Generally it's more difficult for the government to be able to control it."" ""Its real value is as an open window onto what's happening elsewhere in the world,"" he said. Government restrictions on how much advertising can appear on television means that the net is a source of many commercial messages Chinese people would not see anywhere else. Familiarity with the net also has a certain social cachet. ""It's a sign of them having made it that they can use the internet and navigate around it,"" said Mr Makower.",tech
"US peer-to-peer pirates convicted..The first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the US...New Yorker William Trowbridge and Texan Michael Chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. The two men faced charges following raids in August on suspected pirates by the FBI. The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000 (£130,000) fine...In a statement the US Department of Justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the Direct Connect peer-to-peer network. The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. Direct Connect allows users to set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers. Users would swap files, such as films and music, by exchanging data over the network. During its investigation FBI agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies, 40 software programs, 13 games and 178 ""sound recordings"" from the five hubs that made up the larger piracy group. The raids were organised under the umbrella of Operation Digital Gridlock which was aimed at fighting ""criminal copyright theft on peer-to-peer networks"". In total, six raids were carried out in August. Five were on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. The Department of Justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. They also pleaded guilty to acting for commercial advantage. The two men are due to be sentenced on 29 April.",tech
"Google launches TV search service..The net search giant Google has launched a search service that lets people look for TV programmes...The service, Google Video beta, searches closed caption information that comes with programmes. It only searches US channel content currently. Results list programmes with still images and text from the point where the search phrase was spoken. It should expand over time to include content from more channels, said a Google spokesperson. The first version of the service is part of Google's expanding efforts to be a ubiquitous search engine for people to find what they want on the web and beyond. ""We think TV is a big part of people's lives,"" said Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management. ""Ultimately, we would like to have all TV programming indexed.""..Google Video has been indexing US-based programmes from PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN since December. But there were few clues from Google about when more global broadcasters would be included. ""Over time, we plan to increase the number of television channels and video content available via Google Video but don't have more product details to share with you today,"" a Google spokesperson told the BBC News website...The results thrown up by the search will also include programme and episode information like channel, date and time. It also lets people find the next time and channel where a programme will aired locally using a US zip code search function. Rival search engine Yahoo has been developing a similar type of video search for webcasts and TV clips which it promotes from its homepage. It offers direct links to websites with movies or other clips relevant to the search query, but does not pinpoint when the search query occurred. A spokeswoman told the Financial Times on Monday that Yahoo was adding captioning for Bloomberg, BBC and BSkyB broadcasts. A smaller service, blinkx.tv, was launched last month. It searches for and links to TV news, film trailers, and other video and audio clips.",tech
"Rich pickings for hi-tech thieves..Viruses, trojans and other malicious programs sent on to the net to catch you out are undergoing a subtle change...The shift is happening as tech savvy criminals turn to technology to help them con people out of cash, steal valuable data or take over home PCs. Viruses written to make headlines by infecting millions are getting rarer. Instead programs are now crafted for directly criminal ends and firms are tightening up networks with defences to combat the new wave of malicious code...The growing criminal use of malware has meant the end of the neat categorisation of different sorts of viruses and malicious programs. Before now it has been broadly possible to name and categorise viruses by the method they use to spread and how they infect machines. But many of the viruses written by criminals roll lots of technical tricks together into one nasty package...""You cannot put them in to the neat little box that you used to,"" said Pete Simpson, head of the threat laboratory at security firm Clearswift. Now viruses are just as likely to spread by themselves like worms, or to exploit loopholes in browsers or hide in e-mail message attachments. ""It's about outright criminality now,"" said Mr Simpson, explaining why this change has come about. He said many of the criminal programs came from Eastern Europe where cash-rich organised gangs can find a ready supply of technical experts that will crank out code to order. Former virus writer Marek Strihavka, aka Benny from the 29A virus writing group, recently quit the malware scene partly because it was being taken over by spyware writers, phishing gangs, and spammers who are more interested in money rather than the technology. No longer do virus writers produce programs to show off their technical prowess to rivals in the underground world of malware authors. Not least, said Paul King, principal security consultant at Cisco, because the defences against such attacks are so common. ""In many ways the least likely way to do it is e-mail because most of us have got anti-virus and firewalls now,"" he said. Few of the malicious programs written by hi-tech thieves are cleverly written, many are much more pragmatic and use tried and tested techniques to infect machines or to trick users into installing a program or handing over important data. ""If you think of criminals they do not do clever,"" said Mr King, ""they just do what works.""..As the tactics used by malicious programs change, said Mr King, so many firms were changing the way they defend themselves. Now many scan machines that connect to the corporate networks to ensure they have not been compromised while off the core network...Many will not let a machine connect and a worker get on with their job before the latest patches and settings have been uploaded. As well as using different tactics, criminals also use technology for reasons that are much more transparent. ""The main motivation now is money,"" said Gary Stowell, spokesman for St Bernard software. Mr Stowell said organised crime gangs were turning to computer crime because the risks of being caught were low and the rates of return were very high. With almost any phishing or spyware attack, criminals are guaranteed to catch some people out and have the contacts to exploit what they recover. So-called spyware was proving very popular with criminals because it allowed them to take over machines for their own ends, to steal key data from users or to hijack web browsing sessions to point people at particular sites. In some cases spyware was being written that searched for rival malicious programs on PCs it infects and then trying to erase them so it has sole ownership of that machine.",tech
"Blog reading explodes in America..Americans are becoming avid blog readers, with 32 million getting hooked in 2004, according to new research...The survey, conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, showed that blog readership has shot up by 58% in the last year. Some of this growth is attributable to political blogs written and read during the US presidential campaign. Despite the explosive growth, more than 60% of online Americans have still never heard of blogs, the survey found. Blogs, or web logs, are online spaces in which people can publish their thoughts, opinions or spread news events in their own words. Companies such as Google and Microsoft provide users with the tools to publish their own blogs...The rise of blogs has spawned a new desire for immediate news and information, with six million Americans now using RSS aggregators. RSS aggregators are downloaded to PCs and are programmed to subscribe to feeds from blogs, news sites and other websites. The aggregators automatically compile the latest information published online from the blogs or news sites. Reading blogs remains far more popular than writing them, the survey found. Only 7% of the 120 million US adults who use the internet had created a blog or web-based diary. Getting involved is becoming more popular though, with 12% saying they had posted material or comments on other people's blogs...Just under one in 10 of the US's internet users read political blogs such as the Daily Kos or Instapundit during the US presidential campaign. Kerry voters were slightly more likely to read them than Bush voters. Blog creators were likely to be young, well-educated, net-savvy males with good incomes and college educations, the survey found. This was also true of the average blog reader, although the survey found there was a greater than average growth in blog readership among women and those in minorities. The survey was conducted during November and involved telephone surveys of 1,324 internet users.",tech
"Software watching while you work..Software that can not only monitor every keystroke and action performed at a PC but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-doing has been unveiled...Worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many employers to consider monitoring employees. The developers behind the system claim it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. But privacy advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software...The system is a joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists BridgeHead Software. They have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer activity, store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. More and more firms are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. Sabotage and data theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) A survey conducted on its behalf by NOP found evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some form of cyber-crime. BridgeHead Software has come up with techniques to prove, to a legal standard, that any stored file on a PC has not been tampered with. Ironically the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of time...The storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged. Potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party, copied, printed, deleted or saved to CD, floppy disk, memory stick or flash card. Other activities the system can monitor include the downloading of pornography, the use of racist or bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. Increasingly organisations that handle sensitive data, such as governments, are using biometric log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a particular machine at any given time. Privacy advocates are concerned that monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee's privacy but also to the relationship between employers and their staff. ""That is not the case,"" said Tim Ellsmore, managing director of 3ami. ""It is not about replacing dialogue but there are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof,"" he said. ""People need to recognise that you are using a PC as a representative of a company and that employers have a legal requirement to store data,"" he added.",tech
"New delay hits EU software laws..A fresh delay has hit controversial new European Union rules which govern computer-based inventions...The draft law was not adopted by EU ministers as planned at a Brussels meeting on Monday during which it was supposed to have been discussed. The fresh delay came after Polish officials had raised concerns about the law for the second time in two months. Critics say the law would favour large companies over small ones and could impact open-source software innovation. ""There was at one point the intention to put the item on today's agenda. But in the end we could not put it on,"" an EU spokesman told the Reuters agency. He added that no date had been chosen for more discussion of the law...In December, Poland requested more time to consider the issue because it was concerned that the law could lead to the patenting of pure computer software. Its ministers want to see the phrasing of the text of the Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions changed so that it excludes software patenting. Poland is a large EU member, so its backing for the legislation is vital. The EU says the law would bring Europe more in line with how such laws work in the US, but this has caused some angry debate amongst critics and supporters. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its ""one-click shopping"" service. Critics say a similar model in Europe would hurt small software developers which do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies. But supporters say current law does not let big companies protect inventions which they have spent years developing.",tech
"Savvy searchers fail to spot ads..Internet search engine users are an odd mix of naive and sophisticated, suggests a report into search habits...The report by the US Pew Research Center reveals that 87% of searchers usually find what they were looking for when using a search engine. It also shows that few can spot the difference between paid-for results and organic ones. The report reveals that 84% of net users say they regularly use Google, Ask Jeeves, MSN and Yahoo when online...Almost 50% of those questioned said they would trust search engines much less, if they knew information about who paid for results was being hidden. According to figures gathered by the Pew researchers the average users spends about 43 minutes per month carrying out 34 separate searches and looks at 1.9 webpages for each hunt. A significant chunk of net users, 36%, carry out a search at least weekly and 29% of those asked only look every few weeks. For 44% of those questioned, the information they are looking for is critical to what they are doing and is information they simply have to find...Search engine users also tend to be very loyal and once they have found a site they feel they can trust tend to stick with it. According to Pew Research 44% of searchers use just a single search engine, 48% use two or three and a small number, 7%, consult more than three sites. Tony Macklin, spokesman for Ask Jeeves, said the results reflected its own research which showed that people use different search engines because the way the sites gather information means they can provide different results for the same query. Despite this liking for search sites half of those questioned said they could get the same information via other routes. A small number, 17%, said they wouldn't really miss search engines if they did not exist. The remaining 33% said they could not live without search sites. More than two-thirds of those questioned, 68%, said they thought that the results they were presented with were a fair and unbiased selection of the information on a topic that can be found on the net. Alongside the growing sophistication of net users is a lack of awareness about paid-for results that many search engines provide alongside lists of websites found by indexing the web. Of those asked, 62% were unaware that someone has paid for some of the results they see when they carry out a search. Only 18% of all searchers say they can tell which results are paid for and which are not. Said the Pew report: ""This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results."" Commenting Mr Macklin said sponsored results must be clearly marked and though they might help with some queries user testing showed that people need to be able to spot the difference.",tech
"Games firms 'face tough future'..UK video game firms face a testing time as they prepare for the next round of games consoles, the industry warns...Fred Hasson, head of Tiga, which represents independent developers, said that more UK firms would go under due to greater risks in making new titles. Three leading UK video game companies also predicted that more firms would close as they struggled to adapt. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are expected to release new consoles in the next 18 months. Microsoft has said repeatedly that it wants to be first to the market and some analysts predict that Xbox 2 will be released in the US before the end of 2005...The new machines will all have much greater processing and graphical power which will have a huge impact on development of next generation games. Mr Hasson said: ""In the last four years we have probably lost a third of independent developers."" He said there were about 150 independent developers left in the industry and more were likely to close. ""Once the cull has finished its likely to present those still standing with great opportunities,"" he said...Mr Hasson said the industry was predicting that developments costs and teams were likely to need to double in order to cope with the demands of the new machines. That figure was endorsed by three independent companies contacted by the BBC News website - Codemasters, Climax and Rebellion...""As consoles get more powerful, the content gets more detailed and that means more cost,"" said Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, which develops games in house and also publishes titles. Jason Kingsley, chief executive of Rebellion, said the transition from the current generation of consoles to the new machines was difficult because ""the production quality expected by consumers will be that much bigger"". He added: ""We have been through five technology transitions and survived so far. ""Each one has involved the death of some people. All companies said they were investing in new tools - called middleware - in order to try and avoid staff numbers spiralling out of control...Simon Gardner, president of Climax's Action studio, said: ""We are investing in superior tools and editors. We are investing upfront to generate this content without the need for huge teams. ""It's vital we avoid huge teams."" He said Climax was already directing about 20% of its resources to preparation for next generation titles. Mr Dunn warned that companies could face a short supply of programming, development and artistic talent. ""If companies are hiring bigger and bigger teams, at some point the talent is going to run out."" Mr Hasson said games developers were beginning to realise that they had to be more ""business-like"". ""There are still some developers who were involved in games from the bedroom coding days. ""Some of them are still making games for peer group approval - that has to stop.""",tech
"Microsoft makes anti-piracy move..Microsoft says it is clamping down on people running pirated versions of its Windows operating system by restricting their access to security features...The Windows Genuine Advantage scheme means people will have to prove their software is genuine from mid-2005. It will still allow those with unauthorised copies to get some crucial security fixes via automatic updates, but their options would be ""limited"". Microsoft releases regular security updates to its software to protect PCs. Either PCs detect updates automatically or users manually download fixes through Microsoft's site. Those running pirated Windows programs would not have access to other downloads and ""add-ons"" that the software giant offers...People who try to manually download security patches will have to let Microsoft run an automated checking procedure on their computer or give an identification number...Microsoft's regular patches which it releases for newly-found security flaws are important because they stop worms, viruses and other threats penetrating PCs. Some security experts are concerned that restricting access to such patches could mean a rise in such attacks and threats, with more PCs left unprotected. But Graham Cluley, senior consultant at security firm Sophos, told the BBC News website that it was a positive decision. ""It sounds like their decision to allow critical security patches to remain available to both legitimate and illegitimate users of Windows is good news for everyone who uses the net,"" he said. Windows Genuine Advantage was first introduced as a pilot scheme in September 2004 for English-language versions of Windows...Microsoft's Windows operating system is heavily exploited by virus writers because it is so widespread and they are constantly seeking out new security loopholes to take advantage of. The company is trying to tackle security threats whilst cracking down on pirated software at the same time. Software piracy has cost the company billions, it says. The company announced earlier in January that it was releasing security tools to clean up PCs harbouring viruses and spyware, which 90% of PCs are infected with. The virus-fighting program, updated monthly, is a precursor to Microsoft's dedicated anti-virus software. Last year it introduced the Windows XP Counterfeit Project, a UK-based pilot scheme, which ran from November to December. The scheme meant that anyone with pre-installed copies of the operating system in PCs bought before November could replace counterfeit versions of Windows XP with legal ones for free. It is also increasing efforts to squash software piracy in China, Norway and the Czech Republic, where pirated software is a huge problem, by offering discounts on legitimate software to users of pirated copies Windows. ""China in particular is a problem, with piracy estimated at 92%,"" said Mr Cluley.",tech
"Nintendo handheld given Euro date..Nintendo's new handheld console, the DS, will launch in Europe on 11 March, the company has announced...The portable games machine, which features touch-screen control, will retail for £99 in the UK (149 euros). Nintendo said 15 games would be available in the UK at launch, with prices ranging from £19 to £29. More than 2.8 million DS consoles have been sold since it first appeared in the US and Japan at the end of 2004. Rival Sony has said it will launch its first handheld console, the PSP, in the US and Europe before the end of March. The PSP is expected to compete for a large part of the same handheld market, despite Sony's assertion that the machines are aimed at different consumers...The 15 games available on the European launch date will include Nintendo's Super Mario 64 DS, as well as titles from third-party developers such as Ubisoft's Rayman DS...More than 120 games are in development for the new console, Nintendo has said. The DS is backwards compatible with the Game Boy Advance, allowing the earlier machine's back catalogue of 700 games to be played. Additionally, a short-range wireless link for multiplayer gaming is built in to the DS, with a ""download play"" option which allows a group to play against each other, even if just one person owns a copy. Other features include a short-range messaging application called Pictochat, and a built-in microphone which is used in Sega's launch title Project Rub. Nintendo has also announced a media adapter, which will allow the console to play music and video on the move...The launch price of £99 (149 euros) compares favourably with the US price of $149, according to John Houlihan, editor of the Computerandvideogames.com magazine. ""It's a very, very competitive price point. There are some innovative features, and Nintendo has created quite a buzz,"" he says. ""However, the line-up of games could have been stronger. Everyone wanted to see the eight-player Mario Kart DS, for example.""..Mr Houlihan believes that there is likely to be an audience for both the Nintendo DS and Sony's new PSP, with the former aimed largely at a younger audience and the latter expected to be marketed as a multimedia device. ""The PSP is a sexy bit of kit, but Sony's attitude to the PSP has been very understated in Europe, so far,"" Mr Houlihan said. The worldwide handheld software market had an estimated worth of $2.6bn at the end of 2004, according to industry analysts Screen Digest...In the past, games consoles and handhelds have generally launched much later in Europe than in other parts of the world. However Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the company was ""pleased to have offered such a short period of time between the US and European launch"". ""Europe is an extremely important market for Nintendo,"" Mr Iwata added. Nintendo raised its sales targets for the DS console last December after selling a million in the US and Japan in just a few weeks.",tech
"Smart search lets art fans browse..If you don't know art but know what you like, new search technology could prove a useful gateway to painting...ArtGarden, developed by BT's research unit, is being tested by the Tate as a new way of browsing its online collection of paintings. Rather than search by the name of an artist or painting, users are shown a selection of pictures. Clicking on their favourite will change the gallery in front of them to a selection of similar works...The technology uses a system dubbed smart serendipity, which is a combination of artificial intelligence and random selection. It 'chooses' a selection of pictures, by scoring paintings based on a selection of keywords associated with them. So, for instance a Whistler painting of a bridge may have the obvious keywords such as bridge and Whistler associated to it but will also widen the search net with terms such as aesthetic movement, 19th century and water. A variety of paintings will then be shown to the user, based partly on the keywords and partly on luck. ""It is much more akin to wandering through the gallery,"" said Jemima Rellie, head of the Tate's digital programme. For Richard Tateson, who worked on the ArtGarden project, the need for a new way to search grew out of personal frustration. ""I went to an online clothes store to find something to buy my wife for Christmas but I didn't have a clue what I wanted,"" he said. The text-based search was restricted to looking either by type of garment or designer, neither of which he found helpful. He ended up doing his present shopping on the high street instead...He thinks the dominance of text-based searching is not necessarily appealing to the majority of online shoppers. Similarly, with art, browsing is often more important than finding a particular object. ""You don't arrive at Tate Britain and tell people what you want to see. One of the skills of showing off the collection is to introduce people to things they wouldn't have asked for,"" he said. The Tate is committed to making its art more accessible and technology such as ArtGarden can help with that, said Ms Rellie. She hopes the technology can be incorporated on to the website in the near future. BT research is looking at extending the technology to other searching, such as for music and films.",tech
"Warning over Windows Word files..Writing a Microsoft Word document can be a dangerous business, according to document security firm Workshare...Up to 75% of all business documents contained sensitive information most firms would not want exposed, a survey by the firm revealed. To make matters worse 90% of those companies questioned had no idea that confidential information was leaking. The report warns firms to do a better job of policing documents as corporate compliance becomes more binding...Sensitive information inadvertently leaked in documents includes confidential contractual terms, competitive information that rivals would be keen to see and special deals for key customers, said Andrew Pearson, European boss of Workshare which commissioned the research. ""The efficiencies the internet has brought in such as instant access to information have also created security and control issues too,"" he said. The problem is particularly acute with documents prepared using Microsoft Word because of the way it maintains hidden records about editing changes. As documents get passed around, worked on and amended by different staff members the sensitive information finds its way into documents. Poor control over the editing and amending process can mean that information that should be expunged survives final edits. Microsoft, however, does provide an add-on tool for Windows PCs that fixes the problem. ""The Remove Hidden Data add-in is a tool that you can use to remove personal or hidden data that might not be immediately apparent when you view the document in your Microsoft Office application,"" says the instructions on Microsoft's website. Microsoft recommends that the tool is used before people publish any Word document. A tool for Apple machines running Word is not available. Workshare surveyed firms around the world and found that, on average, 31% of documents contained legally sensitive information but in many firms up to three-quarters fell in to the high risk category. Often, said Mr Pearson, this sensitive information was invisible because it got deleted and changed as different drafts were prepared...However, the way that Windows works means that earlier versions can be recalled and reconstructed by those keen to see how a document has evolved. Few firms have any knowledge of the existence of this so-called metadata about the changes that a document has gone through or that it can be reconstructed. The discovery of this hidden information could prove embarrassing for companies if, for instance, those tendering for contracts found out about the changes to terms of a deal being negotiated. The research revealed that a document's metadata could be substantial as, on average, only 40% of contributors' changes to a document make it to the final draft. Problems with documents could mean trouble for firms as regulatory bodies step up scrutiny and compliance laws start to bite, said Mr Pearson.",tech
"Net regulation 'still possible'..The blurring of boundaries between TV and the internet raises questions of regulation, watchdog Ofcom has said...Content on TV and the internet is set to move closer this year as TV-quality video online becomes a norm. At a debate in Westminster, the net industry considered the options. Lord Currie, chairman of super-regulator Ofcom, told the panel that protecting audiences would always have to be a primary concern for the watchdog. Despite having no remit for the regulation of net content, disquiet has increased among internet service providers as speeches made by Ofcom in recent months hinted that regulation might be an option. At the debate, organised by the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), Lord Currie did not rule out the possibility of regulation...""The challenge will arise when boundaries between TV and the internet truly blur and then there is a balance to be struck between protecting consumers and allowing them to assess the risks themselves,"" he said. Adopting the rules that currently exist to regulate TV content or self-regulation, which is currently the practice of the net industry, will be up for discussion...Some studies suggest that as many as eight million households in the UK could have adopted broadband by the end of 2005, and the technology opens the door to TV content delivered over the net. More and more internet service providers and media companies are streaming video content on the web. BT has already set up an entertainment division to create and distribute content that could come from sources such as BSkyB, ITV and the BBC. Head of the division, Andrew Burke, spoke about the possibility of creating content for all platforms. ""How risque can I be in this new age? With celebrity chefs serving up more expletives than hot dinners, surely I can push it to the limit,"" he said...In fact, he said, if content has been requested by consumers and they have gone to lengths to download it, then maybe it should be entirely regulation free. Internet service providers have long claimed no responsibility for the content they carry on their servers since the Law Commission dubbed them ""mere conduits"" back in 2002. This defence does not apply if they have actual knowledge of illegal content and have failed to remove it. The level of responsibility they have has been tested in several high-profile legal cases. Richard Ayers, portal director at Tiscali, said there was little point trying to regulate the internet because it would be impossible. Huge changes are afoot in 2005, he predicted, as companies such as the BBC offer TV content over the net. The BBC's planned interactive media player which will give surfers the chance to download programmes such as EastEnders and Top Gear will make net TV mainstream and raise a whole new set of questions, he said...One of these will be about the vast sums of money involved in maintaining the network to supply such a huge quantity of data and could herald a new digital licence fee, said Mr Ayers. As inappropriate net content, most obviously pornography viewed by children, continues to dominate the headlines, internet regulation remains a political issue said MP Richard Allan, Liberal Democrat spokesman on IT. Mr Allan thinks that the answer could lie somewhere between the cries of ""impossible to regulate"" and ""just apply offline laws online"". In fact, instead of seeing regulation brought online, the future could bring an end to regulation as we know it for all TV content. After Lord Currie departed, the panel agreed that this could be a reality and that for the internet people power is likely to reign. ""If content is on-demand, consumers have pulled it up rather than had pushed to them, then it is the consumers' choice to watch it. There is no watershed on the net,"" said Mr Burke.",tech
"Voters flock to blog awards site..Voting is under way for the annual Bloggies which recognise the best web blogs - online spaces where people publish their thoughts - of the year...Nominations were announced on Sunday, but traffic to the official site was so heavy that the website was temporarily closed because of too many visitors. Weblogs have been nominated in 30 categories, from the top regional blog, to the best-kept-secret blog. Blogs had a huge year, with a top US dictionary naming ""blog"" word of 2004. Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks about six million blogs and says that more than 12,000 are added daily. A blog is created every 5.8 seconds, according to US research think-tank Pew Internet and American Life, but less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months...Nikolai Nolan, who has run the Bloggies for the past five years, told the BBC News website he was not too surprised by the amount of voters who crowded the site. ""The awards always get a lot of traffic; this was just my first year on a server with a bandwidth limit, so I had to guess how much I'd need,"" he said. There were many new finalists this year, he added, and a few that had won Bloggies before. Several entries reflected specific news events. ""There are four nominations for the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog, which is a pretty timely one for 2005,"" said Mr Nolan...The big Bloggies battle will be for the ultimate prize of blog of the year. The nominated blogs are wide-ranging covering what is in the news to quirky sites of interest. Fighting it out for the coveted award are Gawker, This Fish Needs a Bicycle, Wonkette, Boing Boing, and Gothamist. In a sign that blogs are playing an increasingly key part in spreading news and current affairs, The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog is also nominated in the best overall category. GreenFairyDotcom, Londonist, Hicksdesign, PlasticBag and London Underground Tube Blog are the nominees in the best British or Irish weblog...Included in the other categories is best ""meme"". This is for the top ""replicating idea that spread about weblogs"". Nominations include Flickr, a web photo album which lets people upload, tag, share and publish their images to blogs. Podcasting has also made an appearance in the category. It is an increasingly popular idea that makes use of RSS (really simple syndication) and audio technology to let people easily make their own radio shows, and distribute them automatically onto portable devices...Many are done by those who already have text-based blogs, so they are almost like audio blogs. Three new categories have been added to the list this year, including best food, best entertainment, and best writing of a weblog. One of the categories that was scrapped though was best music blog. The winners of the fifth annual Bloggies are chosen by the public. Public voting closes on 3 February and the winners will be announced sometime between 13 and 15 March.",tech
"Latest Opera browser gets vocal..Net browser Opera 8.0, due for official release at the end of next month, will be ""the most accessible browser on the market"", according to its authors...The latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud. The voice features, based on IBM technology, are currently only available in the Windows version. Opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create ""style sheets"", its developers say. This will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer. But the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by blind people, so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with some residual vision. ""Our mission was always to provide the best internet experience for everyone,"" said Opera spokeswoman, Berit Hanson. ""So we would obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users.""..Another feature likely to appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen width, which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling...The company points out that this will also appeal to anyone using Opera with a handheld device. The company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually impaired people. ""Our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer interaction more natural,"" said Ms Hanson. ""People are not always in a situation where they can access a keyboard, so this makes the web a more hands-free experience."" Unlike commercially available voice recognition software, Opera does not have to be ""trained"" to recognise an individual voice. Around 50 voice commands are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a microphone. The voice recognition function is currently only available in English. Opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the top right hand corner and with extra support. Opera began life as a research project - a spin-off from Norwegian telecoms company Telenor. Its browser is used by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of different platforms.",tech
"Web radio takes Spanish rap global..Spin the radio dial in the US and you are likely to find plenty of Spanish-language music. But what you will not find is much Spanish-language hip-hop...Hip-hop and rap are actually quite popular in the Spanish-speaking world, but local artists are having trouble marketing their work abroad. But now, a US company is bringing rap and hip-hop en espanol to computer users everywhere. Los Caballeros de Plan G are one of Mexico's hottest hip-hop acts. They have a devoted fan base in their native Monterrey. But most Mexican hip-hop fans, not to mention fans in most of the Spanish-speaking world, rarely get a chance to hear the group's tracks on the radio...""You can't really just go on the radio and listen to hip-hop in Spanish... it's just not accessible,"" says Manuel Millan, a native of San Diego, California. ""It's really hard for the Spanish hip-hop scene to get into mainstream radio. You usually have a very commercialised sound and the groups are not really known around the country or around the world."" Millan and two friends set out to change that - they wanted to make groups like Los Caballeros de Plan G accessible to fans globally...Mainstream radio stations were not going to play this kind of music, and starting their own broadcast station was economically impossible. So, Millan and his friends launched a website called latinohiphopradio.com. The name says it all: it is web-based radio, devoted to the hottest Spanish language rap and hip-hop tracks. The site, which is in both in English and Spanish, is meant to be easy to navigate. All the user has to do is download a media player. There are no DJs. It is just music streamed over the net for free. Suddenly, with the help of the website, Los Caballeros de Plan G are producing ""export quality"" rap...The web might be just the right medium for Spanish language hip-hop right now. The genre is in what Millan calls its ""infant stage"". But the production values are improving, and artists such as Argentina's Mustafa Yoda are pushing to make it better and better. Mustafa Yoda is currently one of the hottest tracks on latinohiphopradio.com. ""He's considered the Eminem of Argentina, and the Latin American hip-hop scene,"" Millan says. ""He really hasn't had that much exposure as far as anywhere in the world, but he's definitely the one to look out for as far as becoming the next big thing in the Spanish-speaking world."" Currently, the Chilean group Makisa is also in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10, as is Cuban artist Papo Record. ""Every country's got it's own cultural differences and they try to put those into their own songs,"" Millan says. Latinohiphopradio.com has been up and running for a couple of months now. The site has listeners from across the Spanish speaking world. Right now, Mexico leads the way, accounting for about 50% of listeners. But web surfers in Spain are logging in as well - about 25% of the web station's traffic comes from there. That is not surprising as many consider Spain to be the leader in Spanish-language rap and hip-hop. Millan says that Spain is actually just behind the United States and France in terms of overall rap and hip-hop production. That might be changing, though, as more and more Latin American artists are finding audiences...But one Spaniard is still firmly in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10. His name is Tote King and Manuel Millan says that he is the hip-hop leader in Spain. On his track Uno Contra Veinte Emcees, or One Against 20 Emcees, Tote King shows he is well aware of that fact. ""It's basically him bragging that he's one of the best emcees in Spain right now,"" Millan says. ""And it's pretty much true. He has the tightest productions, and his rap flow is impeccable, it's amazing."" Latinohiphopradio.com is hoping to expand in the coming year. Millan says they want to include more music and more news from the world of Spanish language hip-hop and rap...Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production.",tech
"Movie body targets children's PCs..The body that represents the US movie industry has released its latest tool in its campaign to clamp down on movie file-sharing, aimed at parents...The Movie Association for America's (MPAA) free Parent File Scan software lets parents check their children's computers for peer-to-peer programs. It will also list all movie and music files they have on their hard drive. Parents then have the choice to remove programs and files. The MPAA said files found would not be passed on to it. ""Our ultimate goal is to help consumers locate the resources and information they need to make appropriate decisions about using and trading illegal files,"" said Dan Glickman, MPAA chief. ""Many parents are concerned about what their children have downloaded and where they've downloaded it from.""..But some computer users who had tested the latest software reported on some technology sites that the program had identified Windows default wav files as copyrighted material and wanted to delete them. Movie piracy cost the industry £3.7bn ($7bn) in 2003, according to analysts. The MPAA said in a statement that it would continue to provide easy access to similar tools in the coming months to combat ""the deleterious effects of peer-to-peer software, including such common problems as viruses, Trojan horses and identity theft""...Mr Glickman said that the film industry was embracing ""digital age technologies"", like Movielink and CinemaNow, which are legal movie sites. ""But legal services such as these need a chance to grow and thrive without having to compete against illegitimate operations that depend on stolen property to survive,"" he added. The industry body also said it had launched a second round of legal action against online movie-swappers across the US, but did not say how many were being sued. Its first set of lawsuits were filed in November 2004. It also started a campaign against operators of BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect peer-to-peer networks. The first convictions for peer-to-peer piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software.",tech
"Norway upholds 'Napster' ruling..A Norwegian student who ran a website which linked to downloadable MP3 files has been ordered to pay compensation by the country's Supreme Court...Frank Allan Bruvik was ordered to pay 100,000 kroner (£8,000) to the music industry in Norway. He was a student when he set up his napster.no site, which allowed users to submit and receive links to MP3 files. Bruvik had earlier been cleared on appeal after a lower court had found for the music industry. Music industry bosses in Norway said the ruling would help build confidence in the internet as a distribution medium...Frank Allan Bruvik set up the napster.no website as part of a school project in 2001 while studying computer engineering in the Norwegian town of Lillehammer. The website was not associated with the napster.com site in the USA, which had been operating since 1999 and was already facing legal action...Bruvik's site was online between August and November 2001, and while it did not host any music, at its peak it was providing links to more than 170 free files on other servers. As well as providing links, the site allowed those visiting it to submit links that could later be accessed by other visitors. A legal complaint for copyright violation was filed by groups including Norway's performing rights society, Tono, and the Norwegian branches of Sony Music and Universal Music, who saw it as an important test of principle...A Norwegian court ruled in 2003 that Bruvik would have to pay 100,000 kroner to the music industry, but the country's Court of Appeal cleared him, saying that the copyright violation occurred when others posted the music. However, the Supreme Court stated that the music was clearly published in violation of copyright law It added that the case was decided based on the responsibility for abetting an illegal act, and that Bruvik's actions were premeditated. Norway's music industry said it was satisfied with the ruling, because showed that music piracy would not be accepted...Meanwhile, in the USA a further 717 lawsuits against people alleged to have traded copyrighted songs were filed this week by the Recording Industry Association of America. The suits, brought on behalf of the major record companies, cite the individuals for illegally distributing music via unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as KaZaa and eDonkey. As with preceding cases, the fresh action was made against so-called ""John Doe"" defendants, who are identified only by the codes given to their computers' internet connections.",tech
"The future in your pocket..If you are a geek or gadget fan, the next 12 months look like they are going to be a lot of fun...The relentless pace of development in the hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors, particularly among mobile phone firms, all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year. To begin with, 2005 will be the year that third-generation (3G) mobile phones become inescapable. The 3 network launched in 2003, Vodafone launched its consumer service in November, Orange followed in early December and T-Mobile and O2 are due to launch in 2005. The main result of these launches will likely be a slew of good deals for consumers as operators try to poach new customers from rivals and convince existing users to trade up...Already the extra capacity in 3G networks lets 3 offer good deals on voice calls at rates that will probably have to be matched by the other operators. But the shift in technology and low cost of voice calls means that operators lose a significant chunk of their revenue. ""Show me an operator that believes their voice business can sustain them, and I'll write their obituary"" said Niel Ransom, chief technology officer at Alcatel...Instead operators are likely to push all other things that 3G phones can do such as video messaging and other multimedia capabilities. Already camera phones look set to challenge digital cameras and are likely to win more fans as multi-megapixel devices go on sale. But 3G will not have everything its own way. It will face competition from emerging technologies such as Wimax. This wireless technology can boost data transmission speeds up to 75 megabits per second and works over distances of up to 30 miles. Kent is likely to be the site of the UK's first Wimax network which is due to go live in 2005 and it could be the way that rural areas get high-speed net access. Analyst firm Telecom View predicts that Wimax will steal a lot of market share from 3G and will be a clear winner. Bob Larribeau, principal analyst at Telecom View, said the better return on investment offered by technologies such as Wimax could dent the possible returns of 3G networks. And the growing ubiquity of wi-fi must not be forgotten either. The technology is popping up in more places than ever and its wider use is only held back by the price differences across countries and suppliers...Moves to unite mobile and fixed phones look set to get more emphasis in 2005 too...For a start, BT looks set to roll out its Bluephone project during the next 12 months. The service revolves around a hybrid device that uses the mobile networks when you are out and about but switches back to the fixed line when you are at home. Fixed line phones will also start to get much more serious competition from a technology that has the formidable name of Voice over IP (Voip). Voip routes calls via the net instead of the fixed line phone network. Anyone with a broadband connection, which is now more than 50% of the UK's net using population, can use Voip and could slash their monthly phone bills if they used it. Telecommunications regulator Ofcom has declared 056 to be the area code for Voip calls and 2005 is likely to see a lot more consumer-focused Voip call services starting up. Home broadband services will also start to increase in speed as dwindling numbers of new users signing force the pace of competition. If 2004 has been the year of the portable music player, they 2005 looks like it will be the year of the portable media player. Motorola has just announced a deal with Apple to produce a phone that works with the iTunes service and other hybrid gadgets that sport a big memory and lots of other functions will become commonplace. The pace of advancement in storage media will continue mean that the cost per megabyte of memory will plummet. Some of those devices will sport huge hard drives letting you store more data than you ever wanted or knew you had. Convergence could mean that single-function devices start to dwindle in number. Instead every gadget will be able to do almost anything and communicate almost any way you want. The only downside is that consumers will face a series of tough choices as they are confronted by a bewildering array of gadgets each with an enormous numbers of features and vast data holding capacities. But that is the kind of problem most gadget fans can live with.",tech
"What high-definition will do to DVDs..First it was the humble home video, then it was the DVD, and now Hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home entertainment - high-definition...High-definition gives incredible, 3D-like pictures and surround sound. The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out. But when high-definition films do come out on the new format DVDs, it will profoundly change home entertainment. For Rick Dean, director of business development for digital content company THX, a high-definition future is an exciting prospect. He has worked on the Star Wars DVD trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Indiana Jones. ""There was a time not so long ago when the film world and the video world were two completely separate worlds,"" he told the BBC News website...""The technology we are dealing with now means they are very much conjoined. ""The film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file that we take the home video master,"" he says. But currently, putting a master feature film onto DVD requires severe compression because current DVD technology cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. ""As much as you compress the picture data rate wise, you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight so hard to keep in the master,"" he explains. ""I would love to be able to show people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and I find it very exciting.""..High-definition DVDs can hold up to six times more data than the DVDs we are used to. It will take time though to persuade people who spent money on DVD players to buy the different players and displays required to watch high-definition DVDs in 18 months' time. Mr Dean is confident though: ""I think if they see real HD [high-definition], not some heavily compressed version of it, there is such a remarkable difference. ""I have heard comments from people who say the images pop off the screen.""..High-definition will mean some changes for those working behind the scenes too. On the whole, producing films for high-definition DVDs will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. Equally, it may mean Hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average DVD. ""When we master movies right now, our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per second,"" says Mr Dean. ""Our DVDs that we put out today have to be squashed down to about five or six megabits per second. ""That's a huge amount of compression that has to be applied - about 98%. So if you have anything that allows more space, you don't have to compress so hard."" Studios could fit a lot more marketing material, games, and features, onto high-capacity DVDs. Currently, an entire DVD project can take up to three months, says Mr Dean. Although the step of down-converting will be bypassed, this will realistically only save a day's work, says Mr Dean. One of the most time consuming elements is building DVD navigation and menu systems. On the fairly complex Star Wars disks, making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human hours alone. If studios want to cash in on the extra space, it could mean extra human hours, for which someone has to pay. ""If the decision on the studio side is that they are going to put a lot more on these disks, it could be more expensive because of all the extra navigation that is required."" And if studios do focus on delivering more ""added value content"", thinks Mr Dean, ultimately it could mean that they will want more money for it. Those costs could filter down to the price ticket on a high-definition DVD. But if the consumer is not willing to pay a premium price, studios will listen, thinks Mr Dean...High-definition throws up other challenge to film makers and DVD production alike. More clarity on screen means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous. ""When we did the first HD version of Star Wars Episode I, everybody was very sun-tanned, but that was make-up. ""In the HD version of Episode I, all these make-up lines showed up,"" explains Mr Dean. The restoration of the older Star Wars episodes revealed some interesting items too...""There are scans of a corridor [on the Death Star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots, there is a file cabinet stuck behind one of the doorways. ""You never used to be able to see it because things are just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn't see it."" What high-definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment and cinema worlds will blur. With home theatre systems turning living rooms into cinemas, this line blurs even further. It could also mean that how we get films, and in what format, will widen. ""In the future we are going to look towards file delivery over IP [internet protocol - broadband], giving a DVD-like experience from the set-top box to the hard drive,"" says Mr Dean. But that is some time off for most, and for now, people still like to show off something physical in their bookshelves.",tech
"Mobile games come of age..The BBC News website takes a look at how games on mobile phones are maturing. A brief round-up follows but you can skip straight to the reviews by clicking on the links below...If you think of Snake when some mentions ""mobile games"" then you could be in for a bit of a surprise. This is because mobile games have come a long way in a very short time. Even before Nokia's N-Gage game phone launched in late 2003, many mobile operators were realising that there was an audience looking for something to play on their handset...And given that many more people own handsets than own portable game playing gadgets such as the GameBoy it could be a very lucrative market. That audience includes commuters wanting something to fill their time on the way home, game fans looking for a bit of variety and hard core gamers who like to play every moment they can. Life for all these types of player has got immeasurably better in the last year as the numbers of titles you can download to your phone has snowballed. Now sites such as Wireless Gaming Review list more than 200 different titles for some UK networks and the ranges suit every possible taste. There are ports of PC and arcade classics such as Space Invaders, Lunar Lander and Bejewelled. There are also versions of titles, such as Colin McRae Rally, that you typically find on PCs and consoles...There are shoot-em-ups, adventure games, strategy titles and many novel games only found on handsets. Rarely now does an action movie launch without a mobile game tie-in. Increasingly such launches are all part of the promotional campaign for a film, understandable when you realise that a good game can rack up millions of downloads. The returns can be pretty good when you consider that some games cost £5. What has also helped games on mobiles thrive is the fact that it is easier than ever to get hold of them thanks to technology known as Wap push. By sending a text message to a game maker you can have the title downloaded to your handset. Far better than having to navigate through the menus of most mobile operator portals. The number of handsets that can play games has grown hugely too. Almost half of all phones now have Java onboard meaning that they can play the increasingly sophisticated games that are available - even the ones that use 3D graphics...The minimum technology specifications that phones should adhere to are getting more sophisticated which means that games are too. Now double key presses are possible making familiar tactics such as moving and strafing a real option. The processing power on handsets means that physics on mobile games is getting more convincing and the graphics are improving too. Some game makers are also starting to take advantage of the extra capabilities in a mobile. Many titles, particularly racing games, let you upload your best time to see how you compare to others. Usually you can get hold of their best time and race against a ""ghost"" or ""shadow"" to see if you can beat them. A few games also let you take on people in real time via the network or, if you are sitting close to them, via Bluetooth short-range radio technology. With so much going on it is hard to do justice to the sheer diversity of what is happening. But these two features should help point you in the direction of the game makers and give you an idea of where to look and how to get playing... TOO FAST TOO FURIOUS (DIGITAL BRIDGES)..As soon as I start playing this I remember why I never play driving games - because I'm rubbish at them. No matter if I drive the car via joystick or keypad I just cannot get the hang of braking for corners or timing a rush to pass other drivers. The game rewards replay because to advance you have to complete every section within a time limit. Winning gives you cash for upgrades. Graphically the rolling road is a convincing enough evocation of speed as the palm trees and cactus whip by and the city scrolls past in the background. The cars handle pretty well despite my uselessness but it was not clear if the different models of cars were appreciably different on the track. The only niggle was that the interface was a bit confusing especially when using a joystick rather than the keypad to play... FATAL FORCE (MACROSPACE)..A futuristic shooter that lets you either play various deathmatch modes against your phone or run through a series of scenarios that involves killing aliens invading Earth. Graphics are a bit cartoon-like but only helps to make clear what is going on and levels are well laid out and encourage you to leap about exploring. Both background music and sounds effects work well. The scenarios are well scripted and you regularly get hints from the Fatal Force commanders. Weapons include flamethrowers, rocket launchers, grenades and at a couple of points you even get chance to use a mech for a short while. With the right power-up you can go into a Matrix-style bullet time to cope with the onslaught of aliens. The game lets you play via Bluetooth if others are in range. Online the game has quite a following with clans, player rankings and even new downloadable maps.",tech
"California sets fines for spyware..The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California...From 1 January, a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software known as spyware. The legislation, which was approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their personal information. Spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the biggest nuisance and security threats facing PC users in the coming year. The software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information. At its worst, it has the ability to hijack personal data, like passwords, login details and credit card numbers. The programs are so sophisticated they change frequently and become impossible to eradicate...One form of spyware called adware has the ability to collect information on a computer user's web-surfing. It can result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close. In Washington, Congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills, but California is a step ahead. The state's Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act bans the installation of software that takes control of another computer. It also requires companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware. Consumers are able to seek up to $1,000 in damages if they think they have fallen victim to the intrusive software. The new law marks a continuing trend in California towards tougher privacy rights. A recent survey by Earthlink and Webroot found that 90% of PCs are infested with the surreptitious software and that, on average, each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. Currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as Spybot and Ad-Aware.",tech
"Web helps collect aid donations..The web is helping aid agencies gather resources to help cope with the aftermath of the tsunami disaster...Many people are making donations via websites or going online to see how they can get involved with aid efforts. High-profile web portals such as Google, Yahoo, Ebay and Amazon are gathering links that lead people to aid and relief organisations. So many were visiting some aid-related sites that some webpages were struggling to cope with the traffic. An umbrella organisation called the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has been set up by a coalition of 12 charities and has been taking many donations via its specially created website. It urged people to go online where possible to help because donations could be processed more quickly than cash donated in other ways, meaning aid could be delivered as quickly as possible. The site has so far received almost £8 million, with more than 11,000 donations being made online every hour...Telco BT stepped in to take over the secure payments on the DEC site and provided extra logistical support for phone and online appeals after it was initially crippled with online donations. It has also provided space in London's BT tower for one of the call centres dealing with donations...Some of the web's biggest firms are also helping to channel help by modifying their homepages to include links to aid agencies and organisations collecting resources. On its famously sparse homepage Google has placed a link that leads users to a list of sites where donations can be made. Among the 17 organisations listed are Oxfam, Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and Network for Good. Many of the sites that Google lists are also taking online donations. Online retailer Amazon has put a large message on its start page that lets people donate money directly to the American Red Cross that will be used with relief efforts. Auction site eBay is giving a list of sites that people can either donate directly to, divert a portion of their profits from anything they sell on eBay to the listed organisations or simply buy items that direct cash to those in the list. Yahoo is proving links direct to charities for those that want to donate. The Auction Drop website is asking people to donate old digital cameras, computers and other gadgets they no longer want that can be auction to raise cash for the aid effort. Sadly, the outpouring of goodwill has also encouraged some conmen to try to cash in. Anti-fraud organisations are warning about e-mails that are starting to circulate which try to convince people to send money directly to them rather than make donations via aid agencies. Those wanting to give cash were urged to use legitimate websites of charities and aid agencies.",tech
"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.",tech
"Blogs take on the mainstream..Web logs or blogs are everywhere, with at least an estimated five million on the web and that number is set to grow...These online diaries come in many shapes and styles, ranging from people willing to sharing their views, pictures and links, to companies interested in another way of reaching their customers. But this year the focus has been on blogs which cast a critical eye over news events, often writing about issues ignored by the big media or offering an eye-witness account of events. Most blogs may have only a small readership, but communication experts say they have provided an avenue for people to have a say in the world of politics. The most well-known examples include Iraqi Salam Pax's accounts of the US-led war, former Iranian vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi exclusive insight into the Islamic Republic's government, and the highs and lows of the recent US election campaign. There are already websites pulling together these first-hand reporting accounts heralded by blogs, like wikinews.com, launched last November...The blogging movement has been building up for many years...Andrew Nachison, Director of the Media Center, a US-based think-tank that studies media, technology and society, highlights the US presidential race as a possible turning point for blogs. ""You could look at that as a moment when audiences exercised a new form of power, to choose among many more sources of information than they have never had before,"" he says. ""And blogs were a key part of that transformation."" Among them were blogs carrying picture messages, saying ""we are sorry"" for George W Bush's victory and the responses from his supporters. Mr Nachison argues blogs have become independent sources for images and ideas that circumvent traditional sources of news and information such as newspapers, TV and radio. ""We have to acknowledge that in all of these cases, mainstream media actually plays a role in the discussion and the distribution of these ideas,"" he told the BBC News website. ""But they followed the story, they didn't lead it.""..Some parts of the so-called traditional media have expressed concerns about this emerging competitor, raising questions about the journalistic value of blogs...Others, like the French newspaper Le Monde, have applied a different strategy, offering blogs as part of its content. ""I don't think the mission and role of journalism is threatened. It is in transition, as society itself is in transition,"" says Mr Nachison. However, he agrees with other experts like the linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky, that mainstream media has lost the traditional role of news gatekeeper. ""The one-to-many road of traditional journalism, yes, it is threatened. And professional journalists need to acclimate themselves to an environment in which there are many more contributors to the discourse,"" says Mr Nachison. ""The notion of a gatekeeper who filters and decides what's acceptable for public consumption and what isn't, that's gone forever."" ""With people now walking around with information devices in their pockets, like camera or video phones, we are going to see more instances of ordinary citizens breaking stories.""..It seems unlikely that we will end up living in a planet where every human is a blogger...But the current number of blogs is likely to keep on growing, in a web already overloaded with information. Blog analysis firm Technorati estimates the number of blogs in existence, the so-called blogosphere, has already exceeded five million, and is growing at exponential levels. Tools such as Google's Blogger, MovableType and the recently launched beta version of MSN Spaces are making it easier to run a blog. US research think-tank Pew Internet & American Life says a blog is created every 5.8 seconds, although less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months. But experts agree that the phenomenon, allowing individuals to publish, share ideas, exchange information, comment on current issues, post images or video on the web easily, is here to stay. ""We are entering one era in which the technological infrastructure is creating a different context for how we tell our stories and how we communicate with each other,"" said Mr Nachison. ""And there's going to be bad that comes with the good.""",tech
"Honour for UK games maker..Leading British computer games maker Peter Molyneux has been made an OBE in the New Year Honours list...The head of Surrey's Lionhead Studios was granted the honour for services to the computer games industry. Mr Molyneux has been behind many of the ground-breaking games of the last 15 years such as Populous, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper and Black and White. He is widely credited with helping to create and popularise the so-called god-game genre...Speaking to the BBC News website Mr Molyneux said receiving the honour was something of a surprise. It's come completely out of the blue,"" he said, ""I never would have guessed that I'd have that kind of honour."" He said he was surprised as much because, not too long ago, many people thought computer gaming was a fad...""It was thought to be like skateboarding,"" he said, ""a craze that everyone thought would go away."" Now, he said, the gaming world rivals the movie industry for sales and cultural influence. ""Britain plays a big part in it,"" he said. ""It's one of the founding nations that made the industry what it is."" Mr Molyneux has been a pivotal figure in the computer games industry for almost 20 years. His career started at Bullfrog Studios which in 1987 produced Populous one of the first God-games. The title gave players control over the lives a small population of computerised people. Mr Molyneux said that his involvement with the games industry started almost by accident as back in the early days game making was more a hobby than a career. ""I thought everyone would treat Populous as weird,"" he said, ""but it became a huge international success."" He left Bullfrog in 1997 to set up Lionhead Studios which was behind the ambitous and widely acclaimed game Black & White. One of the next titles to come from Lionhead puts players in charge of a movie studio and tasks them with producing and directing a hit film. The veteran game maker says he has one problem still to solve. ""Being an absolute geek I've got no idea what I'm going to wear when I go and pick it up,"" he said.",tech
"Bush website blocked outside US..Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush...The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning. Since then people outside the US trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not authorised to view it. The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp...The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites. Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney failed...By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to view the site with no problems. The site can still be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site. The pattern of traffic to the website suggests that the blocking was not due to an attack by vandals or politically motivated hackers. Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. On 21 October, the George W Bush website began using the services of a company called Akamai to ensure that the pages, videos and other content on its site reaches visitors. Mike Prettejohn, president of Netcraft, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November. He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans overseas are barred too. Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer websites.",tech
"Blogger grounded by her airline..A US airline attendant is fighting for her job after she was suspended over postings on her blog, or online diary...Queen of the Sky, otherwise known as Ellen Simonetti, evolved into an anonymous semi-fictional account of life in the sky. But after she posted pictures of herself in uniform, Delta Airlines suspended her indefinitely without pay. Ms Simonetti was told her suspension was a result of ""inappropriate"" images. Delta Airlines declined to comment...""I was really shocked, I had no warning,"" Ms Simonetti told BBC News Online. ""I never thought I would get in trouble because of the blog. I thought if they had a problem, someone would have said something before taking action."" The issue has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. Ms Simonetti was suspended on 25 September pending an investigation and has since lodged a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A spokesperson for Delta Airlines told BBC News Online: ""All I can tell you is we do not discuss internal employee issues with the media."" She added she could not say whether a similar situation over personal websites had occurred in the past...Ms Simonetti started her personal blog in January to help her get over her mother's death. She had ensured she made no mention of which airline she worked for, and created fictional names for cities and companies. The airline's name was changed to Anonymous Airline and the city in which she was based was called Quirksville. A large part of the blog contained fictional stories because Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti...The images were taken from a digital camera she had inherited from her mother. ""We often take pictures on flight or on layovers. I just though why not include them on my blog for fun. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. She has also claimed that pictures of male Delta Airline employees in uniform are freely available on the web. Of the 10 or so images on the site, only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". ""They did not tell me which pictures they had a problem with. I am just assuming it was the one of me posing on seats where my skirt rode up,"" she said. The images were removed as soon as she learned she had been suspended. As far as Ms Simonetti knows, there is no company anti-blogging policy. There is guidance which suggests the company uniform cannot be used without approval from management, but use in personal pictures on websites is unclear...Jeffrey Matsuura, director of the law and technology programme at the University of Dayton, said personal websites can be hazardous for both employers and their employees. ""There are many examples of employees who have presented some kind of material online that have gotten them in trouble with employers,"" he said. It was crucial that any policy about what was and what was not acceptable was expressed clearly, was reasonable, and enforced fairly in company policy. ""You have to remember that as an employee, you don't have total free speech anymore,"" he said. Mr Matsuura added that some companies actively encouraged employees to blog. ""One of the areas where it does become a problem is that they encourage this when it suits them, but they may not be particularly clear when they [employees] do cross the line."" He speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images of Ms Simonetti in uniform were posted. ""Whether or not that is successful will depend on what exactly is prohibited, and whether you can reasonably say this content now crosses that line,"" he said. Ms Simonetti said her suspension has caused two of her friends to discontinue their blogs. One of them was asked to stop blogging by his company before any action was taken. ""If they had asked me just take down the blog, I would have done it, but that was not been given to me as an option,"" she said. ""This blogging thing is obviously a new problem for employers and they need to get a policy about it. If I had known it would cost me my job, I would not have done that.""",tech
"Camera phones are 'must-haves'..Four times more mobiles with cameras in them will be sold in Europe by the end of 2004 than last year, says a report from analysts Gartner...Globally, the number sold will reach 159 million, an increase of 104%. The report predicts that nearly 70% of all mobile phones sold will have a built-in camera by 2008. Improving imaging technology in mobiles is making them an increasingly ""must-have"" buy. In Europe, cameras on mobiles can take 1.3 megapixel images. But in Japan and Asia Pacific, where camera phone technology is much more advanced, mobiles have already been released which can take 3.2 megapixel images. Japan still dominates mobile phone technology, and the uptake there is huge. By 2008, according to Gartner, 95% of all mobiles sold there will have cameras on them...Camera phones had some teething problems when they were first launched as people struggled with poor quality images and uses for them, as well as the complexity and expense of sending them via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services). This has changed in the last 18 months. Handset makers have concentrated on trying to make phones easier to use. Realising that people like to use their camera phones in different ways, they have introduced more design features, like rotating screens and viewfinders, removable memory cards and easier controls to send picture messages...Mobile companies have introduced more ways for people to share photos with other people. These have included giving people easier ways to publish them on websites, or mobile blogs - moblogs. But the report suggests that until image quality increases more, people will not be interested in printing out pictures at kiosks. Image sensor technology inside cameras phones is improving. The Gartner report suggests that by mid-2005, it is likely that the image resolution of most camera phones will be more than two megapixels. Consumer digital cameras images range from two to four megapixels in quality, and up to six megapixels on a high-end camera. But a lot of work is being done to make camera phones more like digital cameras. Some handsets already feature limited zoom capability, and manufacturers are looking into technological improvements that will let people take more photos in poorly-lit conditions, like nightclubs. Other developments include wide-angle modes, basic editing features, and better sensors and processors for recording film clips...Images from camera phones have even made it into the art world. An exhibition next month in aid of the charity Mencap, will feature snaps taken from the camera phones of top artists...The exhibition, Fonetography, will feature images taken by photographers David Bailey, Rankin and Nan Goldin, and artists Sir Peter Blake, Tracey Emin and Jack Vettriano. But some uses for them have worried many organisations. Intel, Samsung, the UK's Foreign Office and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in the US, have decided to ban camera phones from their buildings for fear of sensitive information being snapped and leaked. Many schools, fitness centres and local councils have also banned them over fears about privacy and misuse. Italy's information commissioner has also voiced concern and has issued guidelines on where and how the phones can be used. But camera phone fears have not dampened the manufacturers' profits. According to recent figures, Sony Ericsson's profits tripled in the third-quarter because of new camera phones. Over 60% of mobiles sold during the three months through to September featured integrated cameras, it said.",tech
"Games 'deserve a place in class'..Computer games could enhance learning and have a legitimate place in the classroom, say researchers...Academics from the Institute of Education at London University found that ""games literacy"" was a key skill for youngsters. As well as being used in different areas of the curriculum, games are a legitimate area of study in their own right, researchers say. Pupils should also be able to create their own games, they say...""Like all games, computer and video games entertain while promoting social development, and playing and talking about games is an important part of young people's lives,"" said project manager Caroline Pelletier...""Games literacy is a way of investigating how games are means of expression and representation, just like writing or drawing,"" she said. The researchers conducted two studies into the impact of games on education, the first looking at how they can be used in different curriculum subjects to enhance learning. Researchers found that girls were often excluded from the male-dominated world of game playing. ""Without first-hand experience of how much fun a game can be, they have little motivation to play and remain disengaged from an engrossing and sociable activity,"" said research fellow Diane Carr...The second project looked at how games can be integrated into media education and concluded that writing games should be a core part of studying them. Sixth-form teacher Barney Oram already teaches computer games alongside the more traditional study of film, TV and popular music at the A-level course he runs at Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge...For parents, the idea that computer games could be brought into the classroom environment, could cause controversy. Dr Andrew Burn, associate director of the Institute of Education's Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media moved to reassure anxious parents. ""Games are a legitimate cultural form that deserve critical analysis in schools just as film, television and literature do,"" he said. ""But we also want to argue that full understanding only comes when children have the tools to create their own games."" The games industry welcomed the report, saying it showed how games had a positive impact on children. ""At a time of hysterical and inaccurate reporting it is heartening to see the cultural, social and educational value of computer and video games being assessed intelligently,"" said Roger Bennett, director general of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association. ""This report is further evidence, if it were needed, about the excellence and imagination that thrives in gaming. They have much to offer to the education of our children and they have much to offer as a career."" The three-year research project, which is being presented at a seminar on Tuesday in London, was partly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry.",tech
"Nuclear body seeks new tech..The computer systems used to monitor the world's nuclear power installations are so outdated that they are hampering the work of inspectors...A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its current technology could allow key information to be overlooked as it was more than 20 years old. Such systems are the only method of tracking nuclear material worldwide. The agency has appealed for more funds to update its hardware and software. ""A major overhaul of the system is needed to allow inspectors immediate, secure online access to information,"" said project manager Livio Costantini...IAEA inspectors make around 3,000 visits a year to more than 900 nuclear facilities worldwide. They are there to verify official reports of activities in the plants, to carry out environmental checks, and also to look for any signs that nuclear material is being smuggled in or out of the facility...The computer system inspectors currently use for comparing data from earlier visits, for instance, was built in the 1970s and largely paper based. An IAEA spokesman said this was extremely inefficient and makes searching for anomalies like searching for a needle in a haystack. The organisation is aiming to start a system upgrade in November, aiming to provide inspectors in the field with secure online access to previous inspection data, design blueprints of nuclear facilities, even satellite images of the plant. Where possible, it hopes to link the system with national records of the import and export of nuclear materials. Further analysis of these could help spot potential smuggling activities or illicit technology transfers between countries, according to a spokesman...Computer specialist at the IAEA, Peter Smith, would like to be able to incorporate state of the art visualisation techniques, more familiar to video games players, into the inspector's toolkit. ""The commercials you now see have people are moving around in a virtual world,"" he said. ""If we could have that on our laptops, we could be walking through the plant seeing, on the laptop, how the plant should look. ""And if there's a door in the wall that is not on our laptop, then we have a problem."" The IAEA estimates the total cost of the four-year project to upgrade its technology will be $40m. So far it has only received $11m from the US and the UK. ""Failure to replace the hardware and software, and to integrate fully all the information system components will carry large risks,"" said an agency statement.",tech
"Web logs aid disaster recovery..Some of the most vivid descriptions of the devastation in southern Asia are on the internet - in the form of web logs or blogs...Bloggers have been offering snapshots of information from around the region and are also providing some useful information for those who want to help. Indian writer Rohit Gupta edits a group blog called Dogs without Borders. When he created it, the site was supposed to be a forum to discuss relations between India and Pakistan. But in the wake of Sunday's tsunami, Mr Gupta and his fellow bloggers switched gears...They wanted to blog the tsunami and its aftermath. One Sri Lankan blogger in the group goes by the online name Morquendi. With internet service disrupted by the tsunami, Morquendi started sending SMS text messages via cell phone from the affected areas of Sri Lanka. ""We started publishing these SMSes,"" says Mr Gupta...""Morquendi was describing scenes like 1,600 bodies washed up on a shore, and people burying, and burying and burying them. People digging holes with their hands. And this was coming through an SMS message. ""We didn't have visual accounts on radio or on TV, or in the print media."" Soon, thousands of web users around the world were logging on to read Morquendi's first hand accounts. In one message, Morquendi wrote about a Sri Lankan woman who was running home with a friend when the wave hit. ""She was being swept away,"" Morquendi's message read. ""She grabbed a tree with one hand and her friend with the other. She says she watched the water pull her friend away."" Mr Gupta says the power of Morquendi's text message blogs was palpable. ""He was running around, looking for friends, burying bodies, carrying bodies,"" Mr Gupta says of Morquendi. ""I can't even begin to imagine the psychological state he was in when he was sending us reports, and doing the relief work at the same time. ""He was caught between being a journalist and being a human being.""..Others blogs are helping to spread information about relief efforts. Dina Mehta is an Indian blogger who's helping with the newly created South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog. She says the blog is not meant to be filled with first person accounts. ""What we're doing is we're building a resource,"" she says. ""Anyone who says, OK, I want to come and do some work in India, volunteer in India, or in Sri Lanka or Malaysia, this is the sort of one-stop-shop that they can come to for all sorts of resources - emergency help lines, relief agencies, aid agencies, contacts for them etc.""..Ms Mehta also says she wishes that governments in the region would realise the power of blogs. ""Imagine if they had this resource available to them, if there was a disaster, how quickly you could funnel aid in, and get people to help,"" she says. Bloggers in the United States are also getting involved. Ramdhan Yadav Kotamaraja is originally from India, but now lives in Dallas. Mr Kotamaraja wanted to help those affected by the tsunami by pooling money with concerned friends. So, he set up an online payment system on his website. Then, says Mr Kotamaraja, the blogging world found out. ""All my blogger friends started linking up my site, and I saw a lot of people other than my friends. I'd say 70% of the donations came from people I don't know. ""It's simply unbelievable to me, that people that I don't know will come and start donating."" News spreads quickly on weblogs, a phenomenon that helps bloggers expand their audience and scope. In Sri Lanka, blogger Morquendi is recruiting others to help. One recruit calls himself Heretic. In one of his latest posts, Heretic asks: ""Have you ever seen fishing trawlers on the road? Ever seen a bus inside a house? ""Well,"" Heretic writes, ""that was just the least affected areas - so you can just imagine - or can you?"" He concludes: ""Keep it blogged.""..Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production.",tech
"Pandas benefit from wireless net..The world's dwindling panda population is getting a helping hand from a wireless internet network...The Wolong Nature Reserve in the Sichuan Province of southwest China is home to 20% of the remaining 1,500 giant pandas in the world. A broadband and wireless network installed on the reserve has allowed staff to chronicle the pandas' daily activities. The data and images can be shared with colleagues around the world. The reserve conducts vital research on both panda breeding and bamboo ecology...Using the network, vets have been able to observe how infant pandas feed and suggest changes to improve the tiny cubs' chances of survival...""Digital technology has transformed the way we communicate and share information inside Wolong and with the rest of the world,"" said Zhang Hemin, director of the Wolong Nature Reserve. ""Our researchers now have state-of-the-art digital technology to help foster the panda population and manage our precious surroundings."" The network has been developed by Intel, working closely with the staff at Wolong. It includes a 802.11b wireless network and a video monitoring system using five cameras to observe pandas around the clock...Before the new infrastructure arrived at the panda park, staff walked or drove to deliver floppy disks across the reserve. Infant panda health was recorded on paper notebooks and research teams in the field had little access to the data. To foster cultural links across the globe, a children's learning lab has been incorporated in the network, in collaboration with Globio (Federation for Global Biodiversity Education for Children), an international non-profit organisation. It will enable children at local primary schools to hook up with their peers in Portland, Oregon in the US. ""Digital technology brings this story to life by enabling a global dialogue to help bridge cultures around the world,"" said Globio founder Gerry Ellis.",tech
"Search wars hit desktop PCs..Another front in the on-going battle between Microsoft and Google is about to be opened...By the end of 2004 Microsoft aims to launch search software to find any kind of file on a PC hard drive. The move is in answer to Google's release of its own search tool that catalogues data on desktop PCs. The desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded as Google, AOL, Yahoo and many smaller firms tout programs that help people find files...Microsoft made the announcement about its forthcoming search software during a call to financial analysts to talk about its first quarter results. John Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer said a test version of its desktop search software should be available for download by the end of the year...""We're going to have a heck of a great race in search between Google, Microsoft and Yahoo,"" he said. ""It's going to be really fun to follow."" Microsoft is coming late to the desktop search arena and its software will have to compare favourably with programs from a large number of rivals, many of which have fiercely dedicated populations of users. The program could be based on the software Microsoft owns as a result of its purchase of Lookout Software in early October. On 14 October Google released desktop search software that catalogues all the files on a PC and lets users use one tool to find e-mail messages, spreadsheets, text files and presentations. The software will also find webpages and messages sent via AOL Instant Messenger...Many other firms have released desktop search systems recently too. Companies such as Blinkx, Copernic, Enfish X1 Technologies and X-Friend all do the same job of cataloguing the huge amounts of information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home computer...Apple has also debuted a similar search system for its computers called Spotlight that is due to debut with the release of the Tiger operating system. Due to follow are net giants AOL and Yahoo. The latter recently bought Stata Labs to get its hands on search software that people can use. Microsoft is also reputedly working on a novel search system for the next version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn). However this is not likely to appear until 2006. ""The recent activity in the search industry shows that there is a need to move beyond simple keyword-based web search,"" said Kathy Rittweger, co-founder of Blinkx. ""Finding information of our own computers is becoming as difficult as it is to find the relevant webpage amongst the billions that exist.""..Desktop search has become important for several reasons. According to research by message analysts the Radicati Group up to 45% of the information critical to keeping many businesses running sits in e-mail messages and attachments. JF Sullivan, spokesman for e-mail software firm Sendmail said many organisations were starting to realise how important messaging was to their organisation and the way the work. ""The key thing is being able to manage all this information,"" he said. Also search is increasingly key to the way that people get around the internet. Many people use a search engine as the first page they go to when getting on the net. Many others use desktop toolbars that let them search for information no matter what other program they are using. Having a tool on a desktop can be a lucrative way to control where people go online. For companies such as Google which relies on revenue from adverts this knowledge about what people are looking for is worth huge amounts of money. But this invasiveness has already led some to ask about the privacy implications of such tools.",tech
"Home phones face unclear future..The fixed line phone in your home could soon be an endangered species...Research by handset maker Nokia shows that more and more people are using their mobile phone for every call they make or take. According to the study, more than 45 million people in the UK, Germany, US and South Korea now only use a mobile. It showed that people keep their fixed line phone because call charges are lower, but most of those questioned said the future was definitely mobile...The Nokia-sponsored research showed that mobiles and fixed phones were used for different purposes. Home phones were used for longer calls but conversations on mobiles tended to be shorter, between mobiles and to friends. In the UK 69% of those questioned said they turned to their fixed phone because it was still cheaper to use than a mobile. However, when pressed few could say with accuracy how tariffs on fixed and mobile phones compared. In the US and Germany many of those interviewed said they used the fixed phone because it was more reliable than a mobile handset and let them get access to the net at relatively high speeds. In all the countries where interviews were carried out, older people were more likely to use a fixed line phone more than a mobile. Women aged 50 or above almost never use a mobile phone, the research found...The move to mobile was most pronounced in South Korea where 65% of those questioned said they already make most of their calls from a mobile. 18% said they would not get a landline if they moved house...Many of those questioned said they had an emotional connection to their fixed phone that drew on its position in the home and the ""cosiness"" of making a call there. Nokia said these findings had implications for mobile operators who must work hard to ensure that mobiles are seen as cheap, reliable and providing good call quality. The survey also showed that it is not just voice calls that are going wireless. Some of those questioned said they were looking to use a mobile or wireless service to get net access within the next couple of years. Polling firm Mori interviewed more than 6,000 people in the UK, US, Germany and South Korea for the survey.",tech
"Podcasts mark rise of DIY radio..An Apple iPod or other digital music players can hold anything up to 10,000 songs, which is a lot of space to fill...But more and more iPod owners are filling that space with audio content created by an unpredictable assortment of producers. It is called ""podcasting"" and its strongest proponent is former MTV host and VJ (video jockey) Adam Curry. Podcasting takes its name from the Apple iPod, although you do not need an iPod to create one or to listen to a podcast. A podcast is basically an internet-based radio show which podcasters create, usually in the comfort of their own home. They need only a microphone, a PC, and some editing software. They then upload their shows to the internet and others can download and listen to them, all for free. Using technology based on XML computer code and RSS - Really Simple Syndication - listeners can subscribe to podcasts collected automatically in a bit of software, which Mr Curry has pioneered. The latest MP3 files of shows can then be picked up by a music playing device automatically...Mr Curry records, hosts, edits and produce a daily, 40 minute podcast called The Daily Source Code. He wants to make podcasting ""the Next Big Thing"" and says it is an extension of his childhood love of radio gadgetry. ""I was always into technologies and wires,"" he explains. ""My parents gave me the Radio Shack 101 project kit, which allows you to build an AM transmitter and subsequently an FM transmitter. ""I had my mom drive me around the block, see how far it would reach on the car radio.""..Mr Curry is American, but he grew up in the Netherlands where he hosted illegal, pirate radio shows in the Dutch capital. He tried university in the US, and ended up back in Holland where he hosted a music video show. He spent the next seven years in New York where he worked at MTV hosting the Top 20 Video Countdown, but spent most of his hours tinkering with this new thing called the internet. ""At a certain point in 1995, I was driving in on a Friday afternoon, beautiful blue sky, one of those beautiful days thinking, this is so stupid. ""You know, I'm going do the Top 20 Countdown, take the cheque, go home, and sit on the internet until three in the morning. ""So, after I finished the show, I quit. I said, on air, it's been great, I've been here for seven years at that point, there's something on the internet, I've got to go find it, and I'll see you later.""..But Mr Curry's technology and broadcast interests started to gel a couple of years ago when computer storage was growing exponentially and high-speed internet connections were becoming more widely available. The MP3 format also meant that people could create and upload audio more cheaply and efficiently than ever before...Most importantly, Mr Curry says, people across the globe were bored with the radio they were hearing. ""Listen to 99% of the radio that you hear today, it's radio voices, and it's fake, it's just fake."" He wanted to make it easier for people to find ""real voices"" on the internet. He wanted software that would automatically download new audio content directly onto players like, iPods. Mr Curry is not a computer programmer, so he asked others to create one for him. No one did, so he tried to write one himself. He finished it a few months ago and says it ""totally sucked."" He put it up on the net as open source software and now dozens of coders and audio junkies are refining it; the result is a work in progress called ""ipodder"". Doug Kaye, a California-based podcaster, praises the former MTV VJ for what he has done. ""Adam created a simple script that solved what we call the last mile problem. Ipodder takes audio from the web and brings it all the way down to the MP3 player,"" he explains. ""People can wake up in the morning, pick up their iPods as they go to work or before they go exercise, and discover that there's all this new content automatically put onto their players."" It is created an explosion in podcasting content and podcasters are springing up in Australia, Finland, Brazil, even Malaysia. One couple broadcasts theirs, The Dawn and Drew Show, from Wisconsin in the US, sometimes even from the comfort of their own bed. Topics range from the comfort of their bed, to the latest films or music and have thousands of listeners...Already, websites are springing up that point listeners in the right direction of good podcasts...Chris McIntyre runs Podcast Alley and says that there are good sites out there but that not everyone has the technological know-how to simply listen. ""If I were to tell my mom, or my mother-in-law to copy an XML or RSS file to their podcast aggregator, they would think I was speaking a foreign language,"" Mr McIntyre says. Along with technical challenges, there may be legal challenges to podcasters who air their favourite, albeit copyrighted, music. Some in podcasting also worry that too much attention may turn what they see as the ""anti-radio"" into something that is more like conventional broadcasting. Already there is interest in podcasting from the corporate world. Heineken is doing its own podcast now, and so is Playboy. For his part, Adam Curry's pressing ahead with his own vision of what podcasting should be. He loves doing The Daily Source Code because it is about introducing good music and cool ideas to new audiences. He has even been called the Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson of podcasting which, he says, ""is a badge I'll wear with great honour. ""To be the Johnny Carson, or Ed Sullivan of anything is wonderful. And you know what? You don't need a hell of a lot of talent. ""You just have to be nice, have your ears open, and let people shine. And that's good for me.""..Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production.",tech
"Sony wares win innovation award..Sony has taken the prize for top innovator at the annual awards of PC Pro Magazine...It won the award for taking risks with products and for its ""brave"" commitment to good design. Conferring the award, PC Pro's staff picked out Sony's PCG-X505/P Vaio laptop as a ""stunning piece of engineering"". The electronics giant beat off strong competition from Toshiba and chip makers AMD and Intel to take the gong...Paul Trotter, news and features editor of PC Pro, said several Sony products helped it to take the innovation award...He said Sony's Clie PEG UX50 media player with its swivel screen and qwerty keyboard ""broke the design rules yet again"". Other Sony products that helped included the Vaio W1 desktop computer and the RA-104 media server. Mr Trotter said Sony's combining of computer, screen and keyboard in the W1 was likely to be widely copied in future home PCs. The company has also become one of the first to use organic LEDs in its products. ""While not always inventing new technology itself, Sony was never afraid to innovate around various formats,"" said Mr Trotter...Other awards decided by PC Pro's staff and contributors included one for Canon's EOS 300D digital camera in the Most Wanted Hardware category...Microsoft's Media Player 10 took the award for Most Wanted Software. This year was the 10th anniversary of the PC Pro awards, which splits its prizes into two sections. The first are chosen by the magazine's writers and consultants, the second are voted for by readers. Mr Trotter said more than 13,000 people voted for the Reliability and Service Awards, twice as many as in 2003. Net-based memory and video card shop Crucial shared the award for Online Vendor of the year with Novatech.",tech
"Portable PlayStation ready to go..Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) will go on sale in Japan on 12 December...The long-awaited handheld game playing gadget will cost about 19,800 yen (145 euros) when it hits the shelves. At launch 21 games will be available for the PSP, including Need for Speed, Ridge Racer, Metal Gear Acid and Vampire Chronicle. Sony has not yet announced when the PSP will be available in Europe and the US, but analysts expect it to debut in those territories in early 2005...Fifa 2005 is back at the top of the UK games charts, a week after losing it to rival Pro Evolution Soccer 4. Konami's Pro Evo dropped only one place to two, while the only new entry in the top 10 was another football title, LMA Manager 2005, in at number seven. Tony Hawk's Underground 2 held its own at three, while Star Wars Battlefront inched up to four places to four. There was good news for Disney, with the spin-off from the Shark's Tale film moving up the charts into number eight...Fans of the Gran Turismo series in Europe are going to have to wait until next year for the latest version. Sony has said that the PAL version of GT4 will not be ready for Christmas. ""The product is localised into 13 different languages across the PAL territories, therefore the process takes considerably longer than it does in Japan,"" it said. Gran Turismo 4 for the PlayStation 2 is still expected to be released in Japan and the USA this year...Halo 2 has broken video game records, with pre-orders of more than 1.5 million in the US alone. Some 6,500 US stores plan to open just after midnight on Tuesday 9 November for the game's release. ""Halo 2 is projected to bring in more revenue than any day one box office blockbuster movie in the United States,"" said Xbox's Peter Moore. ""We've even heard rumours of fan anticipation of the 'Halo 2 flu' on 9 November.""",tech
"Viewers to be able to shape TV..Imagine editing Titanic down to watch just your favourite bits or cutting out the slushier moments of Star Wars to leave you with a bare bones action-fest...Manipulating your favourite films to make a more personalised movie is just the beginning of an ambitious new 7.5m euro (£5.1m) project funded by the European Union. New Media for a New Millennium (NM2) will have as its endgame the development of a completely new media genre, which will allow audiences to create their own media worlds based on their specific interests or tastes. Viewers will be able to participate in storylines, manipulate plots and even the sets and props of TV shows. BT is one of 13 partners involved in the project. It will be contributing software that was originally designed to spot anomalies in CCTV pictures. The software uses content recognition algorithms. The three-year project will work on seven productions as it develops a set of software tools that will allow viewers to edit content to their needs...One of the productions will be a experimental television show where the plot will be driven by text messages from the TV audience...Participants will text selected words which will impact how the characters in the drama interact. It is being developed in Finland and will be shown to Finnish TV audiences. Another team will work on the BBC's big budget drama of Mervyn Peake's gothic fantasy Gormenghast. It will be re-engineered to allow people to choose a variety of edited versions. ""The BBC is allowing us access to the material so that we can prove the technology and the principles,"" explained Dr Doug Williams of BT, who will be NM2's technical project manager. ""The TV at the moment is a relatively dumb box which receives signals. This project is about teaching the machine to look at content like Lego blocks that can be reassembled to make perfect sense,"" he said. ""At the moment we have interactive gaming and a limited form of interactive TV which usually means allowing audiences to vote on shows. We are hoping to occupy the space in-between,"" he added...NM2's co-ordinator Peter Stollenmayer explained that the new genre would radically alter the role of the audience...""Viewers will be able to interact directly with the medium and influence what they see and hear according to their personal tastes and wishes,"" he said. ""Media users will no longer be passive viewers but become active engagers."" It will also be important that the tools are sophisticated enough to obey the complex rules of cinematography and editing said John Wyver, from TV producer Illuminations Television Limited, which is also involved in the project. ""It's not just a matter of stringing together the romantic or action portions of a production,"" said Mr Wyver. ""The tool has to know which bits fit together both visually, by observing the time-honoured rules that go in editing, and in terms of the story."" ""Only then will the personalised version both make sense and be aesthetically pleasing,"" he added. Mr Wyver is planning a production entitled The Golden Age, about Renaissance art. It will allow viewers to create a so-called media world based on their own specific areas of interest such as poetry, music and architecture. Other productions that the NM2 team will make range from news, documentaries to a romantic comedy drama.",tech
"Games maker fights for survival..One of Britain's largest independent game makers, Argonaut Games, has been put up for sale...The London-based company behind the Harry Potter games has sacked about 100 employees due to a severe cash crisis. The administrators told BBC News Online that selling Argonaut was the only way to save it as it had run out of cash. Argonaut warned that it was low on cash 10 days ago when its shares were suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange...Argonaut has been making games for some 18 years and is one the largest independent games developers in the UK...Along with its headquarters in north London, it operates studios in Cambridge and Sheffield. Argonaut was behind the Harry Potter games which provided a healthy flow of cash into the company. But, like all software developers, Argonaut needed a constant flow of deals with publishers. Signs that it was in trouble emerged in August, when it warned it was heading for losses of £6m in the financial year due to delays in signing new contracts for games. Those new deals were further delayed, leading Argonaut to warn in mid-October that it was running out of cash and suspend trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange. As part of cost-cutting measures, some 100 employees were fired. ""When the news about the £6m loss came out, we knew there were going to be redundancies,"" said Jason Parkinson, one of the game developers sacked by Argonaut. ""A lot of people suspected that Argonaut had been in trouble for some time,"" he told BBC News Online. Mr Parkinson said staff were told the job losses were necessary to save Argonaut from going under. At the start of the year, the company employed 268 people. After the latest round of cuts there are 80 staff at Argonaut headquarters in Edgware in north London, with 17 at its Morpheme offices in Kentish Town, London, and 22 at the Just Add Monsters base in Cambridge...Argonaut called in administrators David Rubin & Partners on Friday to find a way to rescue the company from collapse. It spent the weekend going over the company's finances and concluded that the only way to save the business was to put it up for sale. The administrator told BBC News Online that the costs of restructuing would be too high, partly because of the overheads from the company's four premises across the UK. It said it was hopeful that it could save some 110 jobs by selling the business, saying it had had expressions of interest from several quarters and were looking for a quick sale. The administrator said it would ensure that staff made redundant would receive any wages, redundancy or holiday pay due to them, hopefully by Christmas.",tech
"Pompeii gets digital make-over..The old-fashioned audio tour of historical places could soon be replaced with computer-generated images that bring the site to life...A European Union-funded project is looking at providing tourists with computer-augmented versions of archaeological attractions. It would allow visitors a glimpse of life as it was originally lived in places such as Pompeii. It could pave the way for a new form of cultural tourism...The technology would allow digital people and other computer-generated elements to be combined with the actual view seen by tourists as they walk around an historical site...The Lifeplus project is part of the EU's Information Society Technologies initiative aimed at promoting user-friendly technology and enhancing European cultural heritage. Engineers and researchers working in the Europe-wide consortium have come up with a prototype augmented-reality system. It would require the visitor to wear a head-mounted display with a miniature camera and a backpack computer. The camera captures the view and feeds it to software on the computer where the visitor's viewpoint is combined with animated virtual elements. At Pompeii for example, the visitor would not just see the frescos, taverns and villas that have been excavated, but also people going about their daily life. Augmented reality has been used to create special effects in films such as Troy and Lord of the Rings and in computer gaming...""This technology can now be used for much more than just computer games,"" said Professor Nadia Magnenat-Thalman of the Swiss research group MiraLab...""We are, for the first time, able to run this combination of software processes to create walking, talking people with believable clothing, skin and hair in real-time,"" she said. Unlike virtual reality, which delivers an entirely computer-generated scene to the viewer, the Lifeplus project is about combining digital and real views. Crucial to the technique is the software that interprets the visitor's view and provides an accurate match between the real and virtual elements. The software capable of doing this has been developed by a UK company, 2d3. Andrew Stoddart, chief scientist at 2d3, said that the EU project has been driven by a new desire to bring the past to life. ""The popularity of television documentaries and dramatisations using computer-generated imagery to recreate scenes from ancient history demonstrates the widespread appeal of bringing ancient cultures to life,"" he said.",tech
"Fast moving phone bugs appear..Security firms are warning about several mobile phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs...The new strains of the Cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system. Despite the warnings, there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of Cabir...The original Cabir worm came to light in mid-June 2004 when it was sent to anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. A mistake in the way the original Cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory, the bug would only have been able to infect one phone at a time...However, the new Cabir strains have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range Bluetooth technology to any vulnerable phone in range. Bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of metres. The risk of being infected by Cabir is low because users must give the malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually install it. Users can protect themselves by altering a setting on Symbian phones that conceals the handset from other Bluetooth using devices. Finnish security firm F-Secure issued a warning about the new strains of Cabir but said that the viruses do not do any damage to a phone. All they do is block normal Bluetooth activity and drain the phone's battery. Anti-virus firm Sophos said the source code for Cabir had been posted on the net by a Brazilian programmer which might lead to even more variants of the program being created. So far seven versions of Cabir are know to exist, one of which was inside the malicious Skulls program that was found in late November. Symbian's Series 60 software is licenced by Nokia, LG Electronics, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens.",tech
"Joke e-mail virus tricks users..A virus that disguises itself as a joke is spreading rapidly across the net...Anti-virus firms are issuing high-level warnings about the new version of the Bagle e-mail program that seems to be catching a lot of people out. The Windows virus grabs e-mail addresses from Microsoft Outlook and uses its own mail sending software to spread itself to new victims. When it infects a machine, the Bagle variant turns off security measures that usually protect PCs...The new variant is called Bagle.AT, Bagle.BB and Bagle.AU and the attachment bearing the virus code is labelled as either ""joke"" or ""price""...The body of the virus usually contains nothing but a smiley or emoticon. The virus can strike computers running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP. Users will be infected if they open the attachment that travels with the e-mail. As well as plundering Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses to send itself to, Bagle.AT also tries to turn off the firewall and security centre services on Windows XP machines. BBC News Online has received five warnings about the virus from security companies. Finnish company F-Secure gave the virus its second highest threat level. ""We've had several reports all over the world,"" said Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research for F-Secure. Security firm Network Box said that it stopped more than 30,000 copies an hour of the virus as the outbreak reached a peak. Black Spider said it had stopped more than 1 million copies of Bagle.AT since the outbreak began at 0630 BST (0530 GMT). Anti-virus firms urged users to be wary of unexpected e-mail messages bearing attachments and to update their software to ensure they are protected against the latest threats.",tech
"Progress on new internet domains..By early 2005 the net could have two new domain names...The .post and .travel net domains have been given preliminary approval by the net's administrative body. The names are just two of a total of 10 proposed domains that are being considered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Icann. The other proposed names include a domain for pornography, Asia, mobile phones, an anti-spam domain and one for the Catalan language and culture...The .post domain is backed by the Universal Postal Union that wants to use it as the online marker for every type of postal service and to help co-ordinate the e-commerce efforts of national post offices...The .travel domain would be used by hotels, travel firms, airlines, tourism offices and would help such organisations distinguish themselves online. It is backed by a New York-based trade group called The Travel Partnership. Icann said its early decision on the two domains was in response to the detailed technical and commercial information the organisations behind the names had submitted. Despite this initial approval, Icann cautioned that there was no guarantee that the domains would actually go into service. At the same time Icann is considering proposals for another eight domains. One that may not win approval is a proposal to set up a .xxx domain for pornographic websites. A similar proposal has been made many times in the past. But Icann has been reluctant to approve it because of the difficulty of making pornographers sign up and use it. In 2000 Icann approved seven other new domains that have had varying degrees of success. Three of the new so-called top level domains were for specific industries or organisations such as .museum and .aero. Others such as .info and .biz were intended to be more generic. In total there are in excess of 200 domain names and the majority of these are for nations. But domains that end in the .com suffix are by far the most numerous.",tech
"Argonaut founder rebuilds empire..Jez San, the man behind the Argonaut games group which went into administration a week ago, has bought back most of the company...The veteran games developer has taken over the Cambridge-based Just Add Monsters studios and the London subsidiary Morpheme. The Argonaut group went into administration due to a severe cash crisis, firing about half of its staff. In August it had warned of annual losses of £6m for the year to 31 July...Jez San is one of the key figures in the UK's games industry. The developer, who received an OBE in 2002, was estimated to have been worth more than £200m at the peak of the dotcom boom...He founded Argonaut in 1982 and has been behind titles such as 1993 Starfox game. More recently it was behind the Harry Potter games for the PlayStation. But, like all software developers, Argonaut needed a constant flow of deals with publishers. In August it warned of annual losses of £6m, blaming delays in signing new contracts and tough conditions in the software industry. The group's three subsidiaries were placed in administration a week ago, with Mr Sans resigning as the company's CEO and some 100 staff being fired. After the latest round of cuts, there were 80 workers at Argonaut headquarters in Edgware in north London, with 17 at its Morpheme offices in Kentish Town, London, and 22 at the Just Add Monsters base in Cambridge. Mr San has re-emerged, buying back Morpheme and Just Add Monsters. ""We are pleased to announce the sale of these two businesses as going concerns,"" said David Rubin of administrators David Rubin & Partners. ""This has saved over 40 jobs as well as the substantial employment claims that would have arisen had the sales not been achieved."" Mr Rubin said the administrators were in talks over the sale of the Argonaut software division in Edgware and were hopeful of finding a buyer. ""This is a very difficult time for all the employees there, but I salute their commitment to the business while we work towards a solution,"" he said. Some former employees are angry at the way cash crisis was handled. One told BBC News Online that the staff who had been fired had been ""financially ruined in the space of a day"".",tech
"Dozens held over ID fraud site..Twenty-eight people, including a Briton, have been arrested after a global operation against a website allegedly involved in identity fraud...Those arrested are accused of operating Shadowcrew.com, which investigators claim was a global clearing house for criminals involved in credit card fraud. A 19-year-old man from Camberley, Surrey, was arrested by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit but has been bailed. Operation Firewall, led by the US Secret Service, involved seven nations. The British teenager was arrested on Wednesday but details only emerged on Friday. He has now been bailed to return to a Surrey police station in December. All 28 people detained globally are suspected of being involved in an internet-based network which stole people's identities and used computers and websites to defraud credit card companies. The authorities in the US, who have indicted 19 people in Newark, New Jersey, estimate the fraud caused losses of more than $4m. Assistant US Attorney Scott Christie said several people had been arrested in Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, Poland and Sweden. Mr Christie said one of the ringleaders was believed to be a Russian, Anatoly Tyukanov...Investigators from 30 law enforcement agencies worldwide spent 15 months looking into the activities of three websites - Shadowcrew, Carderplanet and Darkprofits. The US Secret Service was first tipped off in July 2003. An NHTCU spokeswoman said the American investigators went undercover on the Shadowcrew website and discovered some of the site's 4,000 members were using it for organised crime purposes...She said criminals were using the websites to traffic counterfeit credit cards and false identification information and documents such as credit cards, driver's licences, passports and birth certificates. The websites shared tips on how to commit fraud and provided a forum by which people could buy the information and tools they needed to commit such crime, she said. The Shadowcrew site, which has now been taken over by the US Secret Service, listed several discussion groups, in English and Russian, including one on hacking, spam and online anonymity tools. The head of the NHTCU, Acting Detective Chief Superintendent, Mick Deats, said: ""This investigation has resulted in the significant disruption of organised criminals using the internet for profit...""We believe that the suspects have trafficked at least 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers, leading to losses by financial institutions running into the millions."" Chief Supt Deats went on to warn: ""The internet offers huge legitimate benefits for modern society; however with it brings powerful opportunities for those seeking to abuse those benefits for criminal gain. ""Your identity is one of the most precious commodities. Criminals who try to steal the personal and financial information of ordinary citizens as well as the confidential and proprietary information of companies engaged in e-commerce, will be targeted by law enforcement.""",tech
"Robots learn 'robotiquette' rules..Robots are learning lessons on ""robotiquette"" - how to behave socially - so they can mix better with humans...By playing games, like pass-the-parcel, a University of Hertfordshire team is finding out how future robot companions should react in social situations. The study's findings will eventually help humans develop a code of social behaviour in human-robot interaction. The work is part of the European Cogniron robotics project, and was on show at London's Science Museum...""We are assuming a situation in which a useful human companion robot already exists,"" said Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, project leader at Hertfordshire. ""Our mission is to look at how such a robot should be programmed to respect personal spaces of humans.""..The research also focuses on human perception of robots, including how they should look, and how a robot can learn new skills by imitating a human demonstrator. ""Without such studies, you will build robots which might not respect the fact that humans are individuals, have preferences and come from different cultural backgrounds,"" Professor Dautenhahn told BBC News Online. ""And I want robots to treat humans as human beings, and not like other robots,"" she added...In most situations, a companion robot will eventually have to deal not only with one person, but also with groups of people. To find out how they would react, the Hertfordshire Cogniron team taught one robot to play pass-the-parcel with children...Showing off its skills at the Science Museum, the unnamed robot had to select, approach, and ask different children to pick up a parcel with a gift, moving it arm as a pointer and its camera as an eye. It even used speech to give instructions and play music. However, according to researchers, it will still take many years to build a robot which would make full use of the ""robotiquette"" for human interaction. ""If you think of a robot as a companion for the human being, you can think of 20 years into the future,"" concluded Professor Dautenhahn. ""It might take even longer because it is very, very hard to develop such a robot.""..You can hear more on this story on the BBC World Service's Go Digital programme.",tech
"Concerns over Windows ATMs..Cash machine networks could soon be more susceptible to computer viruses, a security firm has warned...The warning is being issued because many banks are starting to use the Windows operating system in machines. Already there have been four incidents in which Windows viruses have disrupted networks of cash machines running the Microsoft operating system. But banking experts say the danger is being overplayed and that the risks of infection and disruption are small...For many years the venerable IBM operating system, known as OS/2, has been the staple software used to power many of the 1.4m cash machines in operation around the world. But IBM will end support for OS/2 in 2006 which is forcing banks to look for alternatives. There are also other pressures making banks turn to Windows said Dominic Hirsch, managing director of financial analysis firm Retail Banking Research...He said many cash machines will also have to be upgraded to make full use of the new Europay, Mastercard and Visa credit cards that use computer chips instead of magnetic stripes to store data. US laws that demand disabled people get equal access to information will also force banks to make their cash machines more versatile and able to present information in different ways. Todd Thiemann, spokesman for anti-virus firm Trend Micro, said the move to Windows in cash machines was not without risks. Mr Thiemann said research by the TowerGroup showed that 70% of new cash machines being installed were Windows based...Already, he said, there have been four incidents in which cash machines have been unavailable for hours due to viruses affecting the network of the bank that owns them...In January 2003 the Slammer worm knocked out 13,000 cash machines of the Bank of America and many of those operated by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. In August of the same year, cash machines of two un-named banks were put out of action for hours following an infection by the Welchia worm. Incidents like this happen, said Mr Thiemann, because when banks start using Windows cash machines they also change the networking technology used to link the devices to their back office computers. This often means that all the cash machines and computers in a bank share the same data network. ""This could mean that cash machines get caught up in the viruses that are going around because they have a common transmission system,"" he said. ""Banks need to consider protection as part of the investment to maintain the security of that network,"" Mr Thiemann told BBC News Online...But Mr Hirsch from Retail Banking Research said the number of cash machines actually at risk was low because so few were upgraded every year...Currently, he said, a cash machine has a lifetime of up to 10 years which means that only about 10% of all ATMs get swapped for a newer model every year. ""Windows cash machines have been around for several years,"" he said. ""Most banks simply upgrade as part of their usual replacement cycle."" ""In theory there is a bigger threat with Windows than OS/2,"" he said, ""but I do not think that the banks are hugely concerned at the moment."" ""It's pretty unusual to hear about virus problems with ATMs,"" he said. The many different security systems built-in to cash machines meant there was no chance that a virus could cause them to start spitting out cash spontaneously, he said. Banks were more likely to be worried about internal networks being overwhelmed by worms and viruses and customers not being able to get cash out at all, he added. A spokesman for the Association of Payment and Clearing Services (Apacs) which represents the UK's payments industry said the risk from viruses was minimal. ""There's no concern that there's going to be any type of virus hitting the UK networks,"" he said. Risks of infection were small because the data networks that connect UK cash machines together and the operators of the ATMs themselves were a much smaller and tightly-knit community than in the US where viruses have struck.",tech
"Attack prompts Bush site block..The official re-election site of President George W Bush is blocking visits from overseas users for ""security reasons""...The blocking began early on Monday so those outside the US and trying to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view it. But keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very effective. Many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses...The policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website. Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said: ""The measure was taken for security reasons."" He declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy. The barring of non-US visitors has led to the campaign being inundated with calls and forced it to make a statement about why the blocking was taking place. In early October a so-called ""denial of service"" attack was mounted on the site that bombarded it with data from thousands of PCs. The attack made the site unusable for about five hours...About the same time the web team of the Bush-Cheney campaign started using the services of a company called Akamai that helps websites deal with the ebbs and flows of visitor traffic. Akamai uses a web-based tool called EdgeScape that lets its customers work out where visitors are based. Typically this tool is used to ensure that webpages, video and images load quickly but it can also be used to block traffic. Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. Readers of the Boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get at the site by using alternative forms of the George W Bush domain name. Ironically one of the working alternatives is for a supposedly more secure version of the site. There are now at least three working alternative domains for the Bush-Cheney campaign that let web users outside the US visit the site. The site can also be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site...The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites...Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney have failed. By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to view the site with no problems. Data gathered by Netcraft on the pattern of traffic to the site shows that the blocking is not the result of another denial of service attack. Mike Prettejohn, Netcraft president, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November. He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans overseas are barred too. Most American soldiers stationed overseas will be able to see the site as they use the US military's own portion of the net. Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer websites.",tech
"Loyalty cards idea for TV addicts..Viewers could soon be rewarded for watching TV as loyalty cards come to a screen near you...Any household hooked up to Sky could soon be using smartcards in conjunction with their set-top boxes. Broadcasters such as Sky and ITV could offer viewers loyalty points in return for watching a particular channel or programme. Sky will activate a spare slot on set-top boxes in January, marketing magazine New Media Age reported...Sky set-top boxes have two slots. One is for the viewer's decryption card, while the other has been dormant until now...Loyalty cards have become a common addition to most wallets, as High Street brands rush to keep customers with a series of incentives offered by store cards. Now similar schemes look set to enter the highly competitive world of multi-channel TV. Viewers who stay loyal to a particular TV channel could be rewarded by free TV content or freebies from retail partners. Broadcasters aiming content at children could offer smartcards which gives membership to exclusive content and clubs. ""Parents could pre-pay for some content, as a kind of TV pocket money card,"" said Nigel Whalley, managing director of media consultancy Decipher...Viewers could even be rewarded for watching ad breaks, with ideas such as ad bingo being touted by firms keen to make money out of the new market, said Mr Whalley. Credit cards that have been chipped could be used in set-top boxes to pay for movies, gambling and gaming. ""The idea of an intelligent card in boxes offers a lot of possibilities. It will be down to the ingenuity of the content players,"" said Mr Whalley. For the BBC, revenue-generating activity will be of little interest but the new development may prompt changes to Freeview set-top boxes, said Mr Whalley. Currently most Freeview boxes do not have a slot which would allow viewers to use a smartcard. Some 7.4 million households have Sky boxes and Sky is hoping to increase this to 10 million by 2010. Loyalty cards could play a role in this, particularly in reducing the number of people who cancel their Sky subscriptions, said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research.",tech
"The Force is strong in Battlefront..The warm reception that has greeted Star Wars: Battlefront is a reflection not of any ingenious innovation in its gameplay, but of its back-to-basics approach and immense nostalgia quotient...Geared towards online gamers, it is based around little more than a series of all-out gunfights, set in an array of locations all featured in, or hinted at during, the two blockbusting film trilogies. Previous Star Wars titles like the acclaimed Knights Of The Old Republic and Jedi Knight have regularly impressed with their imaginative forays into the far corners of the franchise's extensive universe, and their use of weird and wonderful new characters. Battlefront on the other hand wholeheartedly revisits the most recognisable elements of the hit movies themselves...The sights, sounds and protagonists on show here will all be instantly familiar to fans, who may well feel that the opportunity to relive Star Wars' most memorable screen skirmishes makes this the game they have always waited for. The mayhem can be viewed from either a third or first-person perspective, and you can either fight for the forces of freedom or join Darth Vader on the Dark Side, depending on the episode and type of campaign as well as the player's personal propensity for good or evil...There is ample chance to be a Wookie, shoot Ewoks and rush into battle alongside a fired-up Luke Skywalker. In each section, the task is simply to wipe out enemy troops, seize strategic waypoints and move on to the next planet. It really is no more complicated than that. Locations include the frozen wastes of Hoth, the ice planet from The Empire Strikes Back, complete with massive mechanical AT-ATs on the march. There are also the dusty, sinister deserts of Tatooine and Geonosis, as well as the forest moon of Endor, where Return Of The Jedi's much-maligned Ewoks lived. The feel of those places is well and truly captured, with both backdrops and characters looking good and very authentic. It is worth noting though that on the PlayStation 2, the game's graphics are a curiously long way behind those of the Xbox version. The pivotal element behind Battlefront's success is that it successfully gives you the feel of being of being plunged into the midst of large-scale war. The number of combatants, noise and abundance of laser fire see to that, and the sense of chaos really comes over...Speaking of noise, Battlefront is a real testament to the strength of the Star Wars galaxy's audio motifs...The multitude of distinctive weapon and vehicle noises are immensely familiar, as are the stirring John Williams symphonies that never let up. There is also a particularly snazzy remix of one of his themes in the menu section. It has to be said if the game did not have the boon of being Star Wars, it would not stand up for long. The gameplay is reliable, bog-standard stuff, short on originality. There are also odd annoyances, like the game's insistence on re-spawning you miles away from the action, an irritating price to pay for not getting blown up the second you appear. And some of the weapons and vehicles are not as responsive and fluid to operate as they might be. That said, it is still great fun to pilot a Scout Walker or Speeder Bike, however non user-friendly they prove. Whilst it is firmly designed with multiplayer action in mind, Battlefront is actually perfectly good fun as an offline game. The above-average AI of the enemy sees to that, although given the frenetic environments they operate in, their strategic behaviour does not need to be all that sophisticated. Battlefront's novelty value will doubtless wear off relatively fast, leaving behind a slightly empty one-trick-pony of a game. But for a while, it is an absolute blast, and one of the most immediately satisfying video game offerings yet from George Lucas' stable.",tech
"'Ultimate game' award for Doom 3..Sci-fi shooter Doom 3 has blasted away the competition at a major games ceremony, the Golden Joystick awards...It was the only title to win twice, winning Ultimate Game of the year and best PC game at the awards, presented by Little Britain star Matt Lucas. The much-anticipated sci-fi horror Doom 3 shot straight to the top of the UK games charts on its release in August. Other winners included Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which took the Most Wanted for Christmas prize. Only released last week, it was closely followed by Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed later this month...But they missed out on the prize for the Most Wanted game of 2005, which went to the Nintendo title, The Legend of Zelda. The original Doom, released in 1994, heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3D graphics. It helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. Doom 3 was developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). The top honour for the best online game of the year went to Battlefield Vietnam. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was handed the Unsung Hero Game of 2004. Its release was somewhat eclipsed by Doom 3, which was released on the same week. It was, however, very well received by gamers and was praised for its storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. Electronic Arts was named top publisher of the year, taking the crown from Nintendo which won in 2003. The annual awards are voted for by more than 200,000 readers of computer and video games magazines. Games awards like this have grown in importance. Over the last six years, the UK market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1,152m in 2003, according to a recent report by analysts Screen Digest.",tech
"Gadget show heralds MP3 season..Partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this Christmas...With Apple's iPod topping wish lists again, there may not be enough iPod minis to go round, predicts Oliver Irish, editor of gadget magazine Stuff. ""The iPod mini is likely to be this year's Tracey Island,"" said Mr Irish. Stuff has compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the iPod is at number one...For anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market, Stuff and What Hi-Fi? are hosting a best-of gadget show in London this weekend. Star of the show will be Sony's Qrio Robot, an all-singing, all-dancing, football-playing man-machine who can even hold intelligent conversations...But he is not for sale and Sony has no commercial plans for the robot. ""He will greet visitors and is flying in from Japan. He probably has his own airplane seat, that is how highly Sony prize him,"" said Mr Irish. Also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself onto any flat surface. The event will play host to a large collection of digital music players, from companies such as Creative, Sony and Philips as well as the ubiquitously fashionable iPod from Apple. Suggestions that it could be a gaming or wireless Christmas are unlikely to come true as MP3 players remain the most popular stocking filler, said Mr Irish. ""Demand is huge and Apple has promised that it can supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on iPod minis,"" said Mr Irish...For those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented, the Gizmondo, a powerful gaming console with GPS and GPRS, that also doubles up as an MP3 player, movie player and camera, could be a must-have. ""What is impressive is how much it can do and how well it can do them,"" said Mr Irish. This Christmas, gadgets will not be an all-male preserve. ""Women will be getting gadgets from husbands and boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves,"" said Mr Irish. ""Gadgets nowadays are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks.""",tech
"Commodore finds new lease of life..The once-famous Commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a US-based digital music distributor...New owner Yeahronimo Media Ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of Commodore computers. It also plans to develop a ""worldwide entertainment concept"" with the brand, although details are not yet known. The groundbreaking Commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s...In the chronology of home computing, Commodore was one of the pioneers...The Commodore 64, launched in 1982, was one of the first affordable home PCs. It was followed a few years later by the Amiga. The Commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer system, even to this day. The brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. Commodore International filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to Dutch firm Tulip Computers. In the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to Atari, which produced its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games, formerly known as Infogrames...Tulip Computers sold several products under the Commodore name, including portable USB storage devices and digital music players. It had planned to relaunch the brand, following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games. Commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PC, Apple Mac and even PDAs so that the original Commodore games can be still run. The sale of Commodore is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m.",tech
"Broadband in the UK growing fast..High-speed net connections in the UK are proving more popular than ever...BT reports that more people signed up for broadband in the last three months than in any other quarter. The 600,000 connections take the total number of people in the UK signing up for broadband from BT to almost 3.3 million. Nationally more than 5 million browse the net via broadband. Britain now has among the highest number of broadband connections throughout the whole of Europe...According to figures gathered by industry watchdog, Ofcom, the growth means that the UK has now surpassed Germany in terms of broadband users per 100 people. The UK total of 5.3 million translates into 7.5 connections per 100 people, compared to 6.7 in Germany and 15.8 in the Netherlands. The numbers of people signing up to broadband include those that get their service direct from BT or via the many companies that re-sell BT lines under their own name. Part of the surge in people signing up was due to BT stretching the reach of ADSL - the UK's most widely used way of getting broadband - beyond 6km...Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line technology lets ordinary copper phone lines support high data speeds. The standard speed is 512kbps, though faster connections are available. ""This breakthrough led to a dramatic increase in orders as we were suddenly able to satisfy the pent-up demand that existed in many areas,"" said Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale which provides phone lines that other firms re-sell. BT Retail, which sells net services under its own name, also had a good quarter and provided about 30% of the new broadband customers. This was a slight increase on the previous three months. Despite the good news about growth in broadband, figures from telecommunications regulator Ofcom show that BT faces increasing competition, and dwindling influence, in other sectors. Local Loop Unbundling, (LLU), in which BT rivals install their hardware in exchanges and take over the line to a customer's home or office, is growing steadily. Cable & Wireless and NTL have announced that they are investing millions to start offering LLU services. By the end of September more than 4.2 million phone lines were using so-called Carrier Pre-Section (CPS) services, such as TalkTalk and One.Tel, which route phone calls across non-BT networks from a local exchange. There are now more than 300 different firms offering CPS services and the percentage of people using BT lines for voice calls has shrunk to 55.4%.",tech
"Slim PlayStation triples sales..Sony PlayStation 2's slimmer shape has proved popular with UK gamers, with 50,000 sold in its first week on sale...Sales have tripled since launch, outstripping Microsoft's Xbox, said market analysts Chart-Track. The numbers were also boosted by the release of the PS2-only game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The title broke the UK sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. Latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677,000 copies...""It is obviously very, very encouraging for Sony because Microsoft briefly outsold them last week,"" John Houlihan, editor of Computerandvideogames.com told BBC News. ""And with Halo 2 [for Xbox] out next week, it really is a head-to-head contest between them and Xbox.""..Although Xbox sales over the last week also climbed, PS2 sales were more than double that. The figures mean Sony is reaching the seven million barrier for UK sales of the console. Edinburgh-based developer, Rockstar, which is behind the GTA titles, has seen San Andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. In comparison, blockbuster films like Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the UK box office. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took nearly £10m over its opening weekend, although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets...Gangster-themed GTA San Andreas is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto Vice City which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. The Xbox game Halo 2, released on 11 November in the UK, is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. The original title won universal acclaim in 2001, and sold more than four million copies...Mr Houlihan added that Sony had done well with the PS2, but it definitely helped that the release of San Andreas coincided with the slimline PS2 hitting the shelves. The run-up to Christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. Microsoft's Xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. The sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand, since GTA San Andreas has an 18 certificate. Sony and Microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. ""Both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience, plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales,"" said Mr Houlihan.",tech
"Seamen sail into biometric future..The luxury cruise liner Crystal Harmony, currently in the Gulf of Mexico, is the unlikely setting for tests of biometric technology...As holidaymakers enjoy balmy breezes, their ship's crew is testing prototype versions of the world's first internationally issued biometric ID cards, the seafarer's equivalent of a passport. Along with the owner's picture, name and personal details, the new Seafarers' Identity Document incorporates a barcode representing unique features of its holder's fingerprints. The cards are due to be issued in February next year, in line with the revised UN Convention on Seafarers' Identity Documents of June 2003. Tests currently under way in the Caribbean are designed to ensure that new cards and their machine readers, produced by different companies in different countries, are working to interoperable standards. Results of the current tests, which involve seafarers from a wide range of occupations and nationalities, will be published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by the end of November. Crystal Cruises, which operates the Crystal Harmony, is exploring the use of biometrics but has not yet committed to the technology...Authenti-corp, the US technology consultancy, has been working with the ILO on its technical specifications for the cards...""If you're issued a seafarer's ID in your country, you want to be sure that when the ship lands in a port in, say, my country you can validate yourself using whatever equipment we have installed,"" Authenti-corp's CEO, Cynthia Musselman, told the BBC's Go Digital programme. She said French, Jordanian and Nigerian nationals would be the first seafarers to get the new ID cards since their countries have already ratified the convention. It aims to combat international terrorism whilst guaranteeing the welfare the one million seafarers estimated to be at sea. The convention highlights the importance of access to shore facilities and shore leave as vital elements to a sailor's wellbeing and, therefore, it says, to safer shipping and cleaner oceans. ""By increasing security on the seas as well as border control and protection, the cards will hopefully reduce the number of piracy problems around the world,"" said Ms Musselman. ""It should be a safer environment for seafarers to work in, and will allow people protecting their borders to have confidence that the people getting off the ship are, in fact, seafarers.""",tech
"US duo in first spam conviction..A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers...It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses...They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was ""a snake oil salesman in a new format"", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A ""Fed-Ex refund processor"" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an ""internet history eraser"". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. ""He's been successful ripping people off all these years,"" AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. Jaynes was also found guilty of breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100,000 e-mails in 30 days, Virginia State Attorney General Jerry Kilgore reportedly said. Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term ""outrageous"" and said his client believed he was innocent. He pointed out that all three of the accused lived in North Carolina and were unaware of the Virginia state law. Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent.",tech
"US blogger fired by her airline..A US airline attendant suspended over ""inappropriate images"" on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired...Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life in the sky. She was suspended by Delta in September. In a statement, she said she was initiating legal action against the airline for ""wrongful termination"". A Delta spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Ms Simonetti was no longer an employee. Delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls ""internal employee matters"". A spokesperson reiterated this position on Wednesday, confirming only that Ms Simonetti was no longer with the company. The spokesperson also confirmed that there were ""very clear rules"" attached to the unauthorised use of Delta branding, including uniforms. Ms Simonetti announced on her blog she had been fired on 1 November...She said in an official statement: ""As a result of my suspension and subsequent termination without cause by Delta Airlines I am moving forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the Federal Government EEOC [US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]."" She added she had also hired a Texas-based law firm to initiate legal action for ""wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages."" Ms Simonetti told the BBC News website she had received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 September. Queen of the Sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the BBC News website and others...Her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. The blog, which she started in January as a way of getting over her mother's death, contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. In the postings, she made up fictional names for cities and other companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. But some postings contained images of herself in uniform. Of the 10 or so images only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". She removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. A legal expert in the US speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images were posted...Delta has been hit recently by pressures of rising fuel costs and fierce competition. It has said it needs to cut between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. Analysts had warned recently that the airline might have to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. Last week, it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from bankruptcy. The deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right to buy 30 million Delta shares, unions said. And on Monday, it negotiated a deal to defer about $135m in debt which was due next year, until 2007. The airline also said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from American Express.",tech
"Gates opens biggest gadget fair..Bill Gates has opened the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, saying that gadgets are working together more to help people manage multimedia content around the home and on the move...Mr Gates made no announcement about the next generation Xbox games console, which many gadget lovers had been hoping for. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and runs from 6 to 9 January. The latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies will all be on show over the three days...Mr Gates said that a lot of work had been done in the last year to sort out usability and compatibility issues between devices to make it easier to share content...""We predicted at the beginning of the decade that the digital approach would be taken for granted - but there was a lot of work to do. ""What is fun is to come to the show and see what has been done. It is going even faster than we expected and we are excited about it."" He highlighted technology trends over the last year that had driven the need to make technology and transferring content across difference devices ""seamless"". ""Gaming is becoming more of a social thing and all of the social genres will use this rich communications. ""And if we look at what has been going on with e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, entertainment - if we can make this seamless, we can create something quite phenomenal.""..Mr Gates said the PC, like Microsoft's Media Centre, had a central role to play in how people would be making the most out of audio, video and images but it would not be the only device. ""It is the way all these devices work together which will make the difference,"" he said. He also cited the success of the Microsoft Xbox video game Halo 2, released in November, which pushed Xbox console sales past PlayStation in the last two months of 2004 for the first time in 2004. The game, which makes use of the Xbox Live online games service, has sold 6.23 million copies since its release. ""People are online and playing together and that really points to the future,"" he said. Several partnerships with device and hardware manufacturers were highlighted during Mr Gates' speech, but there were few major groundbreaking new technology announcements. Although most of these affected largely US consumers, the technologies highlighted the kind of trends to come. These included what Mr Gates called an ""ecosystem of technologies"", like SBC's IPTV, a high-definition TV and digital video recorder that worked via broadband to give high-quality and fast TV. There were also other deals announced which meant that people could watch and control content over portable devices and mobile phones...CES features several more key speeches from major technology players, such as Intel and Hewlett Packard, as well as parallel conference sessions on gaming, storage, broadband and the future of digital music. About 50,000 new products will be unleashed at the tech-fest, which is the largest yet. Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers the CEA on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. That trend is predicted to continue with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005.",tech
"GTA sequel is criminally good..The Grand Theft Auto series of games have set themselves the very highest of standards in recent years, but the newest addition is more than able to live up to an increasingly grand tradition...The 18 certificate GTA: San Andreas for the PlayStation 2 could have got away with merely revisiting a best-selling formula with a more-of-the-same approach. Instead, it builds and expands almost immeasurably upon the last two games and stomps, carefree, over all the Driv3r and True Crime-shaped opposition. Even in the year that will see sequels to Halo and Half-Life, it is hard to envisage anything topping this barnstorming instant classic...The basic gameplay remains familiar. You control a character, on this occasion a youth named CJ, who sets out on a series of self-contained missions within a massive 3D environment. CJ can commandeer any vehicle he stumbles across from a push-bike to a city bus to a plane. All come in handy as he seeks to establish his presence in a tough urban environment and avenge the dreadful deeds waged upon his family. To make things worse, he is framed for murder the moment he arrives in town, and blackmailed by crooked cops played by Samuel L Jackson and Chris Penn. The setting for all this rampant criminality is the fictional US state of San Andreas, comprising three major cities: Los Santos, which is a thinly-disguised Los Angeles, San Fierro, aka San Francisco and Las Venturas, a carbon copy of Las Vegas. San Andreas sucks you in with its sprawling range, cast of characters and incredibly sharp writing...Its ability to capture the ambience of the real-world versions of these cities is something to behold, assisted no end by the monumental graphical advances since Vice City. The streets, and vast swathes of countryside, are by turns gloriously menacing, grungy and preppy. Flaunting awesome levels of graphical detail, the game's overall look, particularly during the many unusual weather conditions and dramatic sunsets, is stupendous. The outstanding bread-and-butter gameplay mechanics provide a solid grounding for the elaborate plot to hang on. Cars handle more convincingly than ever, a superb motion blur kicks in when you hit high speeds, and there's more traffic to navigate than before. Park your vehicle across the lanes of a freeway, and within seconds there will be a huge pile-up. Pedestrians are also out in force, and are a loquacious bunch. CJ can interact with them using a simple system on the control pad. They will pass comments on his appearance and credibility, aspects that the player now has control over. Clothes, tattoos and haircuts can all be purchased, and funding these habits can be achieved by criminal means or by indulging in mini-games like betting on horses and challenging bar patrons to games of pool. The character will put on or lose weight according to how long he spends on foot or in the gym. He will have to pause regularly in restaurants to keep energy levels up, but will swell up as a result of over-eating. And at last, this is a GTA hero who can swim...At a time when games are once again under fire for their supposed potential to corrupt the young, San Andreas' violence, or specifically the freedom it gives the player to commit violence, are sure to inflame the pro-censorship brigade. Developers Rockstar have not shied away from brutality, and in some respects ramp it up from past outings...When hijacking a car, for example, CJ will gratuitously shove the driver's head into the steering wheel rather than just fleeing with the vehicle. Indeed, the tone is darker than the jokey Vice City. The grim subject matter here hardly lends itself to gags in quite the same way as the cheesy 80s setting of the last game. This title, incidentally, is set in 1992, but that is really neither here nor there apart from the influence it has on the radio playlists. The wit is still present, just more restrained than in previous outings. A further reason for this is that the incredible range of in-vehicle radio stations available means you will spend less time happening upon the hilarious talk radio options, where GTA games' trademark humour is anchored. The quality of voice acting and motion capture is simply off-the-chart. The game's rather odious gangland lowlifes swagger and mouth off in a way that rings very true indeed. It is a testament to San Andreas' magnificence that it has a number of prominent flaws, but plus-points are so numerous that the niggles don't detract. The on-screen map, for instance, is needlessly fiddly, an unwelcome change from past editions. There is also a very jarring slowdown at action-packed moments. And the game suffers from the age-old problem that can be relied upon to blight all games of this genre, setting you back a vast distance when you fail right at the very end of a long mission. But the gameplay experience in its entirety is overwhelmingly positive. You simply will not be bothered by these minor failings. San Andreas is among the few unmissable games of 2004.",tech
"BT offers free net phone calls..BT is offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in December...The Christmas give-away entitles customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the UK via the internet. Users will need to use BT's internet telephony software, known as BT Communicator, and have a microphone and speakers or headset on their PC. BT has launched the promotion to show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers...People wanting to take advantage of the offer will need to be a BT Together fixed-line customer and will have to sign up to broadband online. The offer will be limited to the first 50,000 people who sign up and there are limitations - the free calls do not include calls to mobiles, non-geographical numbers such as 0870, premium numbers or international numbers. BT is keen to provide extra services to its broadband customers. ""People already using BT Communicator have found it by far the most convenient way of making a call if they are at their PC,"" said Andrew Burke, director of value-added services at BT Retail. As more homes get high-speed access, providers are increasingly offering add-ons such as cheap net calls. ""Broadband and telephony are attractive to customers and BT wants to make sure it is in the first wave of services,"" said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. ""BT Communicator had a quiet launch in the summer and now BT is waving the flag a bit more for it,"" he added...BT has struggled to maintain its market share of broadband subscribers as more competitors enter the market. Reports say that BT has lost around 10% of market share over the last year, down from half of broadband users to less than 40%. BT is hoping its latest offer can persuade more people to jump on the broadband bandwagon. It currently has 1.3 million broadband subscribers.",tech
"When invention turns to innovation..It is unlikely that future technological inventions are going to have the same kind of transformative impact that they did in the past...When history takes a look back at great inventions like the car and transistor, they were defining technologies which ultimately changed people's lives substantially. But, says Nick Donofrio, senior vice-president of technology and manufacturing at IBM, it was not ""the thing"" itself that actually improved people's lives. It was all the social and cultural changes that the discovery or invention brought with it. The car brought about a crucial change to how people lived in cities, giving them the ability to move out into the suburbs, whilst having mobility and access. ""When we talk about innovation and creating real value in the 21st Century, we have to think more like this, but faster,"" Mr Donofrio told the BBC News website, after giving the Royal Academy of Engineering 2004 Hinton Lecture. ""The invention, discovery is likely not to have the same value as the transistor had or the automobile had. ""The equivalent of those things will be invented or discovered, but by themselves, they are just not going to able to generate real business value or wealth as these things did."" These are not altogether new ideas, and academics have been exploring how technologies impact wider society for years. But what it means for technology companies is that a new idea, method, or device, will have to have a different kind thinking behind it so that people see the value that innovative technology has for them...We are in a different phase now when it comes to technology, argues Mr Donofrio, Industry Week's 2003 Technology Leader of the Year. The hype and over-promise is over and now technology leaders have to demonstrate that things work, make sense, make a difference and life gets better as a result...""In the dotcom era, there was something that was jumping up in your face every five minutes. ""Somebody had a new thing that would awe you. You weren't quite sure that it did anything, you weren't quite sure if you needed it, you weren't quite sure if it had value for it, but it was cool."" But change and innovation in technology that people will see affecting their daily lives, he says, will come about slowly, subtlety, and in ways that will no longer be ""in your face"". It will creep in pervasively. Nanotechnologies will play a key part in this kind of pervasive environment in all sorts of ways, through new superconducting materials, to coatings, power, and memory storage. ""I am a very big believer in the evolution of this industry into a pervasive environment, in an incredible network infrastructure,"" says Mr Donofrio. Pervasive computing is where wireless computing rules, and where jewellery, clothes, and everyday objects become the interfaces instead of bulky wires, screens and keyboards. The net becomes a true network that is taken for granted and just there, like air. ""People will not have to do anything to stay connected. People will know their lives are just better,"" says Mr Donofrio. ""Trillions of devices will be connected to the net in ways people will not know."" Natural interfaces will develop, devices will shape your persona, and our technologically underused voices could be telling our jewellery to sort out the finances...Ultimately, there will be, says Mr Donofrio, no value in being ""computer illiterate"". To some, it sounds like a technological world gone mad. To Mr Donofrio, it is a vision innovation that will happen. Behind this vision should be a rich robust network capability and ""deep computing"", says Mr Donofrio. Deep computing is the ability to perform lots of complex calculations on massive amounts of data, and integral to this concept is supercomputing. It has value, according to IBM, because it helps humans work out extremely complex problems to come up with valuable solutions, like how to refine millions of net search results, finding cures for diseases, or understanding of exactly how a gene or protein operates...But pervasive computing presumably means having technologies that are aware of diversity of contexts, commands, and requirements of a diverse world. As computing and technologies become part of the environment, part of furniture, walls, and clothing, physical space becomes a more important consideration...This is going to need a much broader range of skills and experience. ""I am confident that the SET [science, engineering and technology] industry is going to be short on skills,"" he says. ""If I am right about what innovation is, you need to be multidisciplinary and collaborative. ""Women tend to have those traits a lot better than men."" Eventually, women could win out in both life and physical sciences, he says. In the UK, a DTI-funded resource centre for women has set a target to have 40% representation on SET industry boards. IBM, according to Mr Donofrio, has 30%. ""Our goal is for our research team to become the preferred organisation for women in science and technology to begin their career."" The whole issue of global diversity is as much a business matter as it is a moral and social concern to Mr Donofrio. ""We believe in the whole issue of global diversity,"" he says. ""Our customers are diverse, our clients are diverse. They expect us to look like them. ""As more and more women or underrepresented minorities succeed into leadership positions, it becomes and imperative for us to constantly look like them.""",tech
"Firefox browser takes on Microsoft..Microsoft's Internet Explorer has a serious rival in the long-awaited Firefox 1.0 web browser, which has just been released...Few people get excited when some new software is released, especially when the program is not a game or a music or movie player. But the release of the first full version of Firefox has managed to drum up a respectable amount of pre-launch fervour. Fans of the software have banded together to raise cash to pay for an advert in the New York Times announcing that version 1.0 of the browser is available. The release of Firefox 1.0 on 9 November might even cause a few heads to turn at Microsoft because the program is steadily winning people away from the software giant's Internet Explorer browser...Firefox has been created by the Mozilla Foundation which was started by former browser maker Netscape back in 1998. Much of the development work done since then has gone into Firefox which made its first appearance under this name in February. Earlier incarnations, but which had the same core technology, were called Phoenix and Firebird. Since then the software has been gaining praise and converts, not least because of the large number of security problems that have come to light in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Rivals to IE got a boost in late June when two US computer security organisations warned people to avoid the Microsoft program to avoid falling victim to a serious vulnerability...Internet monitoring firm WebSideStory has charted the growing population of people using the Firefox browser and says it is responsible for slowly eroding the stranglehold of IE. Before July this year, according to WebSideStory, Internet Explorer was used by about 95% of web surfers. That figure had remained static for years. In July the IE using population dropped to 94.7% and by the end of October stood at 92.9%. The Mozilla Foundation claims that Firefox has been downloaded almost eight million times and has publicly said it would be happy to garner 10% of the Windows- using, net-browsing population. Firefox is proving popular because, at the moment, it has far fewer security holes than Internet Explorer and has some innovations lacking in Microsoft's program. For instance, Firefox allows the pages of different websites to be arranged as tabs so users can switch easily between them. It blocks pop-ups, has a neat way of finding text on a page and lets you search through the pages you have browsed...One of the most powerful features of Firefox is the many hundreds of extras, or extensions, produced for it. The Mozilla Foundation is an open source organisation which means that the creators of the browser are happy for others to play around with the core code for the program. This has resulted in many different add-ons or extensions for the browser which now include everything from a version of the familiar Google toolbar to a Homeland Security monitor that keep users aware of current threat levels. Firefox, which used to be called Firebird and before that Phoenix, also has a growing number of vocal net-based fans. A campaign co-ordinated by the Spread Firefox website attempted to raise the $50,000 needed for a full page advert in the New York Times. The campaign set itself a target of recruiting 2500 volunteers. Ten days in to the campaign 10,000 people had signed up and now about $250,000 has been raised. The ad is due to run sometime in a three-week period in late November/early December. The surplus cash will be used to help keep the Mozilla Foundation running. Microsoft is facing a growing challenge to IE's hold on the web using population. from alternative browsers such as Opera, Safari, Amaya and even Netscape.",tech
"Halo fans' hope for sequel..Xbox video game Halo 2 has been released in the US on 9 November, with a UK release two days later. Why is the game among the most anticipated of all time?..Halo is considered by many video game pundits to be one of the finest examples of interactive entertainment ever produced and more than 1.5 million people worldwide have pre-ordered the sequel. A science fiction epic, Halo centred the action on a human cyborg, controlled by the player, who had to save his crew from an alien horde after a crash landing on a strange and exotic world contained on the interior surface of a giant ring in space. Remembrance of Things Past it was not - but as a slice of schlock science fiction inspired by works such as Larry Niven's Ringworld and the film Starship Troopers, it fit the bill perfectly. Halo stood out from a crowd of similar titles - it was graphically impressive, had tremendous audio, using Dolby Digital, a decent storyline, instant playability and impressive physics...But what marked Halo as a classic were the thousands of details which brought a feeling of polish and the enormously-high production values not usually associated with video gaming...Produced by Bungie software, renowned for their innovation in gaming, it caused a stir among the gaming fraternity when the developer was bought by Microsoft and became an Xbox exclusive. Claude Errera, editor of fansite Halo.Bungie.Org, said: ""Bungie got everything right. They were really careful to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to. ""Nothing distracts you when you were playing. There was nothing in Halo that had not been done before but everything in there was as good as it could be."" He added: ""Graphically it was superior to everything else out there...""It also had a depth to it that made it stand out."" Halo was unusually immersive, sucking the player into the action and blurring the interface between screen and controller. It also capitalised on the growing popularity of LAN gaming in the PC world - for the first time it became easy to link multiple game consoles together, allowing up to 16 players to battle against each other at the same time...The game instantly cultivated an online following, which continues today with a score of Halo fan websites following every aspect of the sequel, Halo 2. Errera spends three to fours hours a day of his own time maintaining the hugely popular website, which attracts 600,000 page views a day from Halo fans eager for the latest news...When the Xbox launched on November 15 2001 in the US, Halo was one of the launch titles and had an immediate impact on critics and consumers. ""Halo is the most important launch game for any console ever,"" wrote the influential Edge magazine in its review, giving it a rare 10 out of 10 mark. The game had its critics and while it is not a one-off original as a game, it brought many original touches and flourishes to the genre which have defined all other first person shooters since. ""The first time I played it I just stood there watching the spent shells fall out of my gun,"" said Errera, remarking on the level of detail in the game...The game also inspired thousands of people to write their own fiction based on the storyline and produce downloadable video clips of the many weird and wonderful things that can be done in the game. ""It blew me away the first time someone managed to climb to the top of Halo,"" said Errera, referring to a fan who had created a video of Master Chief scaling the landscape of the graphical world. Video clips of the more outrageous stunts that are possible thanks to the game's amazing physics engine are incredibly popular and some have attained a cult following. Speculation about the sequel has seen every titbit analysed and poured over with all the intent of a forensic scientist examining a body. When early screenshots of the game were released some people wrote essay-length articles highlighting everything from the texture of graphics to clues about the story line. Errera said expectations of the sequel among fans were sky high. ""It does not feel like a game release any more. Somebody told me this was the biggest single release of any product in Microsoft's history. ""We're all just hoping that Bungie has got it right again.""..Halo 2 is out on 9 November in the US and 11 November in the UK",tech
"Players sought for $1m prize..UK gamers are getting a chance to take part in a $1m tournament thanks to one of the country's top teams...The Four-Kings clan is staging a Pop Idol type competition to find new members who can take on the world's best in the lucrative tournament. Four-Kings hopes the open qualifiers will turn up gamers good enough to beat all comers at the Painkiller game. Top players also get a contract with the Four-Kings team which will pay travelling expenses for the contest...UK gamers have until 12 November to register their interest in taking part and can sign up via the Four-Kings, Jolt.co.uk and Painkiller tournament websites. Philip Wride, who co-manages the Four-Kings team, said online qualifiers will be held from 16-28 November to find the best eight players of the Painkiller game. He said the clan was running the contest because Four-Kings does not currently have any players that excel at Painkiller. These eight players will be brought together in London on 3-5 December for the Bloodline Tournament that will find the best two players...The event will be filmed and the final cut made available online for others to watch. The movie is being put together by Simon Bysshe who has shot many other films about pro-gaming that have been widely shared online. Said Mr Bysshe: ""Painkiller is a new game and the opportunity is there for a new player to step up."" Painkiller has been described as a game that adds a few modern touches, such as improved graphics, to the old-fashioned first-person shooter. These two players will be put forward as the UK's entrants to the Cyberathlete Professional League $1m Painkiller contest that will take place throughout 2005. The event is being billed as the CPL World Tour and will be arranged around ten separate tournaments at different locations around the world. Travel expenses to all the stops on the tour will be paid by Four-Kings for the two UK players who make the grade. The top prize at each stop on the world tour will be $15,000. A further $150,000 will be given to the winner of the Grand Final due to be held in December 2005. Mr Wride said any gamer that wins a few tour stop tournaments and the grand final will have a very good year. The first stop on the world tour will be Istanbul, Turkey from 10-13 February. A total of $50,000 in cash prizes is on offer. The CPL has said that it picked a one-on-one game such as Painkiller to make it easier for spectators to follow the action. Counter-Strike, by far the most popular online game, pits teams against each other and can be confusing to follow if those watching are not familiar with the layout of the maps on which it is played. The decision to pick Painkiller was greeted with surprise by many gamers, as it was widely expected that Doom 3 would be chosen as the one-one-one title.",tech
"US top of supercomputing charts..The US has pushed Japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with IBM's prototype Blue Gene/L machine...It is being assembled for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, under the US Department of Energy. IBM test results show that Blue Gene/L has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. The previous top machine, Japan's NEC Earth Simulator, clocked up 35.86. The Top 500 list was announced on Monday and officially charts the fastest computers in the world...It is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially recognised mathematical speed test called Linpack which measures calculations per second...Once completed in 2005, Blue Gene/L will be more powerful than its current prototype. ""Next year with the final Blue Gene, four times what it is this year, it is going to be a real step up and will be hard to beat,"" said Erich Strohmaier, one of the co-founders of the Top500 list. It will help scientists work out the safety, security and reliability requirements for the US's nuclear weapons stockpile, without the need for underground nuclear testing. It will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power, a big problem for supercomputers...In second place was Silicon Graphics' Columbia supercomputer based at the US space agency's (Nasa) Ames Research Center in California. The Linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of 42.7 trillion calculations per second (teraflops) in October. It will be used to model flight missions, climate research, and aerospace engineering. The defeated Japanese contender, the Earth Simulator, which was listed in third place, losing the top spot it had held since June 2002. It is dedicated to climate modelling and simulating seismic activity...Since the first supercomputer, the Cray-1, was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, US, in 1976, computational speed has leaped 500,000 times. The Cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). The Blue Gene/L machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster. Started in 1993, the Top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science academics from around the world. It is presented at the International Supercomputer Conference in Pittsburgh.",tech
"Text messages aid disaster recovery..Text messaging technology was a valuable communication tool in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Asia...The messages can get through even when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken conversation. Now some are studying how the technology behind SMS could be better used during an emergency. Sanjaya Senanayake works for Sri Lankan television. The blogging world, though, might know him better by his online name, Morquendi. He was one of the first on the scene after the tsunami destroyed much of the Sri Lankan coast. Cell phone signals were weak. Land lines were unreliable. So Mr Senanayake started sending out text messages. The messages were not just the latest news they were also an on-the-ground assessment of ""who needs what and where"". Blogging friends in India took Mr Senanayake's text messages and posted them on a weblog called Dogs without Borders. Thousands around the world followed the story that unfolded in the text messages that he sent...And that's when Mr Senanayake started to wonder if SMS might be put to more practical use. ""SMS networks can handle so much more traffic than the standard mobile phone call or the land line call,"" he says...""In every rural community, there's at least one person who has access to a mobile phone, or has a mobile phone, and can receive messages."" Half a world away, in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Taran Rampersad read Morquendi's messages. Mr Rampersad, who used to work in the military, knew how important on the ground communication can be in times of disaster. He wondered if there might be a way to automatically centralise text messages, and then redistribute them to agencies and people who might be able to help. Mr Rampersad said: ""Imagine if an aid worker in the field spotted a need for water purification tablets, and had a central place to send a text message to that effect. ""He can message the server, so the server can send out an e-mail message and human or machine moderators can e-mail aid agencies and get it out in the field."" He added: ""Or, send it at the same time to other people who are using SMS in the region, and they might have an excess of it, and be able to shift supplies to the right places.""..Mr Rampersad and others had actually been thinking about such a system since Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Caribbean and the southern United States last September. Last week, he sent out e-mail messages asking for help in creating such a system for Asia...In only 72 hours, he found Dan Lane, a text message guru living in Britain. The pair, along with a group of dedicated techies, are creating what they call the Alert Retrieval Cache. The idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that links those in need with those who can help. ""This is a classic smart mobs situation where you have people self-organizing into a larger enterprise to do things that benefit other people,"" says Paul Saffo, a director at the California-based Institute for the Future. ""You may be halfway around the world from someone, but in cyberspace you're just one click or one e-mail away,"" he said, ""That's put a whole new dimension on disaster relief and recovery, where often people halfway around the world can be more effective in making something happen precisely because they're not right on top of the tragedy."" It is still very early days for the project, though. In an e-mail, Dan Lane calls it ""an early proof of concept."" Right now, the Alert Retrieval Cache can only take a text message and automatically upload it to a web-page, or distribute it to an e-mail list. In the near future, the group says it hopes to take in messages from people in affected areas, and use human moderators to take actions based on the content of those messages. But there's still another challenge. You have to get people to know that the system is there for them to use. ""It's amazing how difficult it is to find someone to pass it along to, and say, look this is what we're trying to do and everything like that,"" says Mr Rampersad. ""So the big problem right now is the same problem we're trying to solve - human communication."" He is optimistic, however. He thinks that the Alert Retrieval Cache is an idea whose time has come and he hopes governments, too, will sit up and take notice. And he stands by his motto, courtesy of Michelangelo: criticise by creating...Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production.",tech
"Putting a face to 'Big Brother'..Literally putting a face on technology could be one of the keys to improving our interaction with hi-tech gadgets...Imagine a surveillance system that also presents a virtual embodiment of a person on a screen who can react to your behaviour, and perhaps even alert you to new e-mails. Basic versions of these so-called avatars already exist. Together with speech and voice recognition systems, they could replace the keyboard and mouse in the near future. Some of these ideas have been showcased at the London's Science Museum, as part of its Future Face exhibition...One such avatar is Jeremiah. It is a virtual man, which you can download for free and install in your computer...His creator, Richard Bowden, lecturer at the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey, refers to Jeremiah as ""him"", rather than it. ""Jeremiah is a virtual face that attempts to emulate humans in the way it responds to activity. He is very childlike, he likes visual stimulus,"" he told the BBC News website. ""When he sees children running and laughing and waving at him, he smiles at them. If you ignore him, he gets angry. If you leave, he gets sad. And you can also even surprise him."" Jeremiah is not actually intelligent. It works on vision, reacting in a preset way to the information provided by a surveillance tracker system. It is not able to talk or to hear you, at least not yet. The Surrey team is already working on Jeremiah's next version, that will replace the human face with an underwater and more interactive creature: Finn the fish. ""I am interested in the interaction, providing the ability of a system to watch what's going on and make decisions based on that,"" explained Dr Bowden...The research comes at a time when people are having to cope with an increasing number of hi-tech gadgets...Experts say a much more natural way to interact with these devices, such as a virtual human, could make it much easier to make the most of all those new gizmos. ""If you get up at three o'clock in the morning, and you go downstairs, there are probably two things you are going to do: either going to the bathroom, or maybe you are going to make a cup of tea,"" said Dr Bowden. ""Now if the system can watch your behaviour over time, it can learn this, so it would predict what you are going to do, turn on the lights for you, or, before you even get to the kettle, it could have switched it on."" You might even be able to tell your home surveillance system that you will be going away on holiday, and ask if it could make sure that the house is secure once you have left. This might sound like a scary vision of an Orwellian future. But it might all depend on the face that is watching you. ""When we put the surveillance cameras in our centre, a lot of people were very unhappy about the fact that there was a system watching them,"" said Dr Bowden. ""But when Jeremiah's camera went in, nobody minded, because although it's still watching them, they could see what it was watching.""",tech
"Football Manager scores big time..For the past decade or so the virtual football fans among us will have become used to the annual helping of Championship Manager (CM). Indeed, it seems like there has been a CM game for as many years as there have been PCs...However, last year was the final time that developers Sports Interactive (SI) and publishers Eidos would work together. They decided to go their separate ways, and each kept a piece of the franchise. SI kept the game's code and database, and Eidos retained rights to the CM brand, and the look and feel of the game. So at the beginning of this year, fans faced a new situation. Eidos announced the next CM game, with a new team to develop it from scratch, whilst SI developed the existing code further to be released, with new publishers Sega, under the name Football Manager. So what does this mean? Well, Football Manager is the spiritual successor to the CM series, and it has been released earlier than expected. At this point CM5 looks like it will ship early next year. But given that Football Manager 2005 is by and large the game that everybody knows and loves, how does this new version shape up?..A game like FM2005 could blind you with statistics. It has an obscene number of playable leagues, an obscene number of manageable teams and a really obscene number of players and staff from around the world in the database, with stats faithfully researched and compiled by a loyal army of fans. But that does not do justice to the game really. What we are talking about is the most realistic and satisfying football management game to ever grace the Earth...You begin by picking the nations and leagues you want to manage teams from, for instance England and Scotland. That will give you a choice not just of the four main Scottish leagues, but the English Premiership all the way down to the Conference North and South. Of course you might be looking for European glory, or to get hold of Abramovich's millions, in which case you can take control at Chelsea, or even Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan ... the list goes on a very long way. Once in a team you will be told by the board what they expect of you. Sometimes it is promotion, or a place in Europe, sometimes it is consolidation or a brave relegation battle. It might even be a case of Champions or else. Obviously the expectations are linked to the team you choose, so choose wisely. Then it is time to look at your squad, work out your tactics, seeing how much cash, if any, you have got to splash, having a look at the transfer market, sorting out the training schedule and making sure your backroom staff are up to it. Then bring on the matches, which are once more available in the ever-improving top down 2D view. With the exception of the improved user interface on the surface, not much else seems to have changed...However, there have been a lot of changes under the bonnet as well - things like the manager mind-games, which let you talk to the media about the opposition bosses. The match engine is also much improved, and it is more of a joy than ever to watch. In fact just about every area of the game has been tweaked, and it leads to an ever more immersive experience...With a game that is so complex and so open-ended, there are of course a few glitches, but nowhere near the sorts of problems that have blighted previous releases. With so many calculations to perform the game can take some time to process in between matches, though there have been improvements in this area. And a sport like football, which is so high profile and unpredictable itself, can never be modelled quite to everybody's satisfaction. But this time around a great deal of hard work has been put in to ensure that any oddities that do crop up are cosmetic only, and do not affect gameplay. And if there are problems further down the line, Sports Interactive have indicated their usual willingness to support and develop the game as far as possible. In all there are many more tweaks and improvements. If you were a fan of the previous CM games, then FM2005 might make you forget there was anything else before it. If you are new to the genre but like the idea of trying to take Margate into the Premiership, Spurs into Europe, or even putting Rangers back on the top of the tree, FM2005 could be the best purchase you ever made. Just be warned that the family might not see you much at Christmas...Football Manager 2005 out now for the PC and the Mac",tech
"Musicians 'upbeat' about the net..Musicians are embracing the internet as a way of reaching new fans and selling more music, a survey has found...The study by US researchers, Pew Internet, suggests musicians do not agree with the tactics adopted by the music industry against file-sharing. While most considered file-sharing as illegal, many disagreed with the lawsuits launched against downloaders. ""Even successful artists don't think the lawsuits will benefit musicians,"" said report author Mary Madden...For part of the study, Pew Internet conducted an online survey of 2,755 musicians, songwriters and music publishers via musician membership organisations between March and April 2004...They ranged from full-time, successful musicians to artists struggling to make a living from their music. ""We looked at more of the independent musicians, rather than the rockstars of this industry but that reflects more accurately the state of the music industry,"" Ms Madden told the BBC News website. ""We always hear the views of successful artists like the Britneys of the world but the less successful artists rarely get represented."" The survey found that musicians were overwhelming positive about the internet, rather than seeing it as just a threat to their livelihood. Almost all of them used the net for ideas and inspiration, with nine out of 10 going online to promote, advertise and post their music on the web. More than 80% offered free samples online, while two-thirds sold their music via the net. Independent musicians, in particular, saw the internet as a way to get around the need to land a record contract and reach fans directly. ""Musicians are embracing the internet enthusiastically,"" said Ms Madden. ""They are using the internet to gain inspiration, sell it online, tracking royalties, learning about copyright.""..Perhaps surprisingly, opinions about online file-sharing were diverse and not as clear cut as those of the record industry...Through the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it has pursued an aggressive campaign through the courts to sue people suspected of sharing copyrighted music. But the report suggests this campaign does not have the wholehearted backing of musicians in the US. It found that most artists saw file-sharing as both good and bad, though most agreed that it should be illegal. ""Free downloading has killed opportunities for new bands to break without major funding and backing,"" said one musician quoted by the report. ""It's hard to keep making records if they don't pay for themselves through sales."" However 60% said they did not think the lawsuits against song swappers would benefit musicians and songwriters. Many suggested that rather than fighting file-sharing, the music industry needed to recognise the changes it has brought and embrace it. ""Both successful and struggling musicians were more likely to say that the internet has made it possible for them to make more money from their music, rather than make it harder for them to protect their material from piracy,"" said Ms Madden.",tech
"Broadband takes on TV viewing..The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests...Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings. The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark. The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research. It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net..The report by Nielsen/NetRatings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year...The biggest jump was in Italy, where it rose by 120%. Britain was close behind, with broadband users almost doubling in a year. The growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on, fast-net subscription plans. ""Twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in Europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing,"" said Gabrielle Prior, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst. ""As the number of high-speed surfers grows, websites will need to adapt, update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones."" The total number of Europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year, the report showed, with the biggest rise in France, Italy, Britain and Germany...The ability to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time...A study by analysts Jupiter Research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. In homes with broadband, 40% said they were spending less time watching TV. The threat to TV was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up, in particular the UK, France and Spain, said the report. It said TV companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years, with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. ""Year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where, when and how Europe's population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for TV, newspaper and radio,"" said Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillian.",tech
"Freeze on anti-spam campaign..A campaign by Lycos Europe to target spam-related websites appears to have been put on hold...Earlier this week the company released a screensaver that bombarded the sites with data to try to bump up the running costs of the websites. But the site hosting the screensaver now displays a pink graphic and the words ""Stay tuned"". No one at Lycos was available for comment on latest developments in its controversial anti-spam campaign...Lycos Europe's ""Make love not spam"" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the mountain of junk mail flooding inboxes. People were encouraged to download the screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data to sites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages. Lycos said the idea was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills for the spammers behind the sites. But the plan has proved controversial...Monitoring firm Netcraft analysed response times for some of the sites targeted by the screensaver and found that a number were completely knocked offline...The downing of the sites could dent Lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount to a distributed denial of service attack. In such attacks thousands of computers bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them. Laws in many countries do not explicitly outlaw such attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use laws to make them specific offences. Lycos Europe now appears to have put the plan on hold. The site hosting the screensaver currently shows a holding page, with the words, ""Stay tuned"". The numerical internet address of the site has also changed. This is likely to be in response to spammers who have reportedly redirected traffic from their sites back to the Lycos screensaver site. The campaign has come under fire from some corners of the web. Many discussion groups have said that it set a dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism. ""Attacking a spammer's website is like poking a grizzly bear sleeping in your back garden with a pointy stick,"" said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. ""Not only is this screensaver similar in its approach to a potentially illegal distributed denial of service attack, but it also is in danger of turning innocent computer users into vigilantes, who may not be prepared for whatever retaliation the spammers care to dream up.""",tech
"ITunes user sues Apple over iPod..A user of Apple's iTunes music service is suing the firm saying it is unfair he can only use an iPod to play songs...He says Apple is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with the site. Apple, which opened its online store in 2003 after launching the iPod in 2001, uses technology to ensure each song bought only plays on the iPod. Californian Thomas Slattery filed the suit in the US District Court in San Jose and is seeking damages...""Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice,"" the lawsuit states. The key to such a lawsuit would be convincing a court that a single brand like iTunes is a market in itself separate from the rest of the online music market, according to Ernest Gellhorn, an anti-trust law professor at George Mason University. ""As a practical matter, the lower courts have been highly sceptical of such claims,"" Prof Gellhorn said. Apple has sold more than six million iPods since the gadget was launched and has an 87% share of the market for portable digital music players, market research firm NPD Group has reported...More than 200 million songs have been sold by the iTunes music store since it was launched. ""Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa,"" the lawsuit said. Mr Slattery called himself an iTunes customer who ""was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod"" if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment. Apple's online music store uses a different format for songs than Napster, Musicmatch, RealPlayer and others. The rivals use the MP3 format or Microsoft's WMA format while Apple uses AAC, which it says helps thwart piracy. The WMA format also includes so-called Digital Rights Management which is used to block piracy.",tech
"Microsoft gets the blogging bug..Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging...It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces. Microsoft is trailing behind competitors like Google and AOL, which already offer services which make it easy for people to set up web journals. Blogs, short for web logs, have become a popular way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online...MSN Spaces is free to anyone with a Hotmail or MSN Messenger account. People will be able to choose a layout for the page, upload images and share photo albums and music playlists. The service will be supported by banner ads. ""This is a simple tool for people to express themselves,"" said MSN's Blake Irving. This is Microsoft's first foray into blogging, which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year. Competitors like Google already offer free services through its Blogger site, while AOL provides its members with journals. Accurate figures for the number of blogs in existence are hard to come by. According to blog analysis firm Technorati, the so-called blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. It now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million, although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained.",tech
"Broadband fuels online change..Fast web access is encouraging more people to express themselves online, research suggests...A quarter of broadband users in Britain regularly upload content and have personal sites, according to a report by UK think-tank Demos. It said that having an always-on, fast connection is changing the way people use the internet. More than five million households in the UK have broadband and that number is growing fast...The Demos report looked at the impact of broadband on people's net habits. It found that more than half of those with broadband logged on to the web before breakfast. One in five even admitted to getting up in the middle of the night to browse the web...More significantly, argues the report, broadband is encouraging people to take a more active role online. It found that one in five post something on the net everyday, ranging from comments or opinions on sites to uploading photographs. ""Broadband is putting the 'me' in media as it shifts power from institutions and into the hands of the individual,"" said John Craig, co-author of the Demos report. ""From self-diagnosis to online education, broadband creates social innovation that moves the debate beyond simple questions of access and speed."" The Demos report, entitled Broadband Britain: The End Of Asymmetry?, was commissioned by net provider AOL. ""Broadband is moving the perception of the internet as a piece of technology to an integral part of home life in the UK,"" said Karen Thomson, Chief Executive of AOL UK, ""with many people spending time on their computers as automatically as they might switch on the television or radio."" According to analysts Nielsen//NetRatings, more than 50% of the 22.8 million UK net users regularly accessing the web from home each month are logging on at high speed They spend twice as long online than people on dial-up connections, viewing an average of 1,444 pages per month. The popularity of fast net access is growing, partly fuelled by fierce competition over prices and services.",tech
"'Blog' picked as word of the year..The term ""blog"" has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by a US dictionary publisher...Merriam-Webster said ""blog"" headed the list of most looked-up terms on its site during the last twelve months. During 2004 blogs, or web logs, have become hugely popular and some have started to influence mainstream media. Other words on the Merriam-Webster list were associated with major news events such as the US presidential election or natural disasters that hit the US...Merriam-Webster defines a blog as: ""a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks"". Its list of most looked-up words is drawn up every year and it discounts terms such as swear words, that everyone likes to look up, or those that always cause problems, such as ""affect"" and ""effect""...Merriam-Webster said ""blog"" was the word that people have asked to be defined or explained most often over the last 12 months. The word will now appear in the 2005 version of Merriam-Webster's printed dictionary. However, the word is already included in some printed versions of the Oxford English Dictionary. A spokesman for the Oxford University Press said that the word was now being put into other dictionaries for children and learners, reflecting its mainstream use. ""I think it was the word of last year rather than this year,"" he said. ""Now we're getting words that derive from it such as 'blogosphere' and so on,"" he said. ""But,"" he added, ""it's a pretty recent thing and in the way that this happens these days it's got established very quickly.""..Blogs come in many different forms. Many act as news sites for particular groups or subjects, some are written from a particular political slant and others are simply lists of interesting sites. Other terms in the top 10 were related to natural disasters that have struck the US, such as ""hurricane"" or were to do with the US election. Words such as ""incumbent"", ""electoral"" and ""partisan"" reflected the scale of interest in the vote. Blogs also proved very useful to both sides in the US election battle because many pundits who maintain their own journals were able to air opinions that would never appear in more mainstream media. Speculation that President Bush was getting help during debates via a listening device was first aired on web logs. Online journals also raised doubts about documents used by US television news organisation CBS in a story about President Bush's war record. The immediacy of many blogs also helped some wield influence over topics that made it in to national press...This is despite the fact that the number of people reading even the most influential blogs is tiny. Statistics by web influence ranking firm HitWise reveal that the most popular political blog racks up only 0.0051% of all net visits per day. One of the reasons that blogs and regularly updated online journals have become popular is because the software used to put them together make it very easy for people to air their views online. According to blog analysis firm Technorati the number of blogs in existence, the blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. Technorati now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million. Some speculate that less than a quarter of this number are regularly maintained. According to US research firm Pew Internet & American Life a blog is created every 5.8 seconds. Another trend this year has been the increasing numbers of weblogs that detail the daily lives of many ordinary workers in jobs that few people know much about. In many repressive regimes and developing nations, blogs have been embraced by millions of people keen to give their plight a voice.",tech
"New Year's texting breaks record..A mobile phone was as essential to the recent New Year's festivities as a party mood and Auld Lang Syne, if the number of text messages sent is anything to go by...Between midnight on 31 December and midnight on 1 January, 133m text messages were sent in the UK. It is the highest ever daily total recorded by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). It represents an increase of 20% on last year's figures...Wishing a Happy New Year to friends and family via text message has become a staple ingredient of the year's largest party. While texting has not quite overtaken the old-fashioned phone call, it is heading that way, said Mike Short, chairman of the MDA. ""In the case of a New Years Eve party, texting is useful if you are unable to speak or hear because of a noisy background,"" he said. There were also lots of messages sent internationally, where different time zones made traditional calls unfeasible, he said. The British love affair with texting shows no signs of abating and the annual total for 2004 is set to exceed 25bn, according to MDA. The MDA predicts that 2005 could see more than 30bn text messages sent in the UK. ""We thought texting might slow down as MMS took off but we have seen no sign of that,"" said Mr Short. More and more firms are seeing the value in mobile marketing. Restaurants are using text messages to tell customers about special offers and promotions...Anyone in need of a bit of January cheer now the party season is over, can use a service set up by Jongleurs comedy club, which will text them a joke a day. For those still wanting to drink and be merry as the long days of winter draw in, the Good Pub Guide offers a service giving the location and address of their nearest recommended pub. Users need to text the word GOODPUB to 85130. If they want to turn the evening into a pub crawl, they simply text the word NEXT. And for those still standing at the end of the night, a taxi service in London is available via text, which will locate the nearest available black cab.",tech
"DS aims to touch gamers..The mobile gaming industry is set to explode in 2005 with a number of high-profile devices offering a range of gaming and other features such as movie and music playback. Market leader Nintendo, however, is releasing a handheld console that it says will revolutionise the way games are played...The first striking thing about the DS is how retro it looks. Far from looking like a mould-breaking handheld, it looks more like Nintendo dug out a mould from a 1980s handheld prototype. The lightweight clam shell device opens up to reveal two screens, and when switched on it instantly reveals its pedigree. Both screens are crisp and clear while the bottom of the two is touch sensitive. Nintendo has given developers free rein to utilise the dual screens and ability to control the action by simply touching the screen...The Japanese gaming giant hopes the DS will maintain the firm's pre-eminence in an increasingly-competitive mobile gaming market...Nintendo first launched its GameBoy console in 1989 and has dominated the market ever since. But its lead can no longer be taken for granted. Sony will enter the market later this year with its PlayStation Portable, while start-up companies Gizmondo and Tapwave Zodiac are also offering hybrid devices. ""We believe the DS will appeal to all ages, both genders and gamers of any skill,"" said David Yarnton, Nintendo Europe's general manager said at the recent press launch for the handheld. With its two screens, wireless connectivity and backwards compatibility with the GameBoy Advance, the DS certainly has a number of unique selling points. It went on sale in the US in mid-November priced $150 and Nintendo says sales have exceeded expectations, without giving detailed figures. Japan and Europe will have to wait until the first quarter of 2005 to get the device. With more than two million pre-orders for the device in Japan, Nintendo is confident it will keep its number one spot. But will the device prove to be as revolutionary as claimed? The game ships with a demo of Metroid Hunters - a 3D action title which can be played alone or with a group of friends using the machine's wireless capabilities. It certainly looks impressive on the small machine and plays smoothly even with a group of people...The game can be controlled by using the supplied stylus to aim. The top screen is used to navigate the action while the bottom screen offers a top-down map and the ability to switch weapons. It is certainly a unique control method and while it makes aiming more controlled it can be a little disorientating. Super Mario 64 DS is a faithful re-creation of the Nintendo 64 classic with a host of new mini-games and new levels. The game looks stunning on the portable machine and the sound too is impressive for such a small machine. One thing is for certain. Hardened gamers will have to learn to adapt to a new way of playing while it could prove to be an accessible way in to gaming for novices, Ultimately the success or failure of the device lies in the hands of developers. If they manage to create titles which use the Nintendo DS's key features then a whole new market of gamers could open up. The fear is that the touch screen and voice recognition are treated as little more than gimmicks.",tech
"No half measures with Half-Life 2..Could Half-Life 2 possibly live up to the hype? After almost two years of tantalising previews and infuriating delays it's safe to say that this is the most highly-anticipated computer game of all time...Fortunately, it doesn't merely live up to its promise, but exceeds it. No-one who plays the finished product will wonder why it took so long. The impression is of a game that has been endlessly refined to get as close to perfection as could realistically be hoped. All the money - or indeed time - is on the screen. The player sees things through the eyes of Gordon Freeman, the bespectacled scientist who starred in the original 1998 Half-Life. Having survived that skirmish in an desolate monster-infested research facility, he's back in another foreboding troublespot - the enigmatic City 17. It has the look of a beautiful Eastern European city, but as soon as your train pulls in to the station, it's clear that all is not well here. Sinister police patrol the unkempt streets, and the oppressive atmosphere clobbers you like a sledgehammer. A casual smattering of the nightmarish creatures from the first game makes this an even less pleasant place to be...You are herded around like a prisoner and have to mingle with a few freedom-fighting civilians to gather information and progress in your task. It is not immediately explained what your objectives are, nor precisely why everything is so ravaged. Finding out step-by-step is all part of the experience, although you never fully get to understand what it was all about. That does not really matter. HL2 does not waste energy blinding you with plot. Underplaying the narrative in this way is gloriously effective, and immerses the player in the most vivid, convincing and impressive virtual world they are likely to have seen. There are no cut-scenes to interrupt the flow. Exposition is accomplished by other characters stopping to talk directly to you...Whereas the highly impressive Doom III felt like a top-notch theme park thrill-ride, wandering through Half-Life's world truly does feel like being part of a movie...Considering its sophistication, the game runs surprisingly well on computers that only just match the modest minimum specifications. But if ever there was an incentive to upgrade your PC's components, this is it. On our test machine - an Alienware system with an Athlon 3500+ processor and ATI's Radeon X800 video card - everything ran at full quality without trouble, and the visual experience was simply jaw-dropping. It is not simply that the surfaces, textures and light effects push the technical envelope without mercy, but that such care and artistic flair has gone into designing them. The haunting, grim landscapes become strangely beautiful. Luckily you get time to pause mid-task and marvel at the awesome graphical flourishes of your surroundings. So impressive are the physics that you'll find yourself hurling bits of rubbish around and prodding floating corpses just to marvel at the lifelike way they move. There are puzzles to be solved along the way, pitched at about the right difficulty, but most progress is achieved by force. Freeman is quickly reunited with the original game's famous crowbar, and an array of more sophisticated weapons soon follow...Virtually anything not nailed to the floor can be interacted with, and in realistic fashion. You will be wowed by the attention-to-detail as you chip bits of plaster off walls, chase a pigeon out of your way, or dodge exploding barrels as they ping around at deadly speed. At times Half-Life 2 feels like one of those annoying people who are unfeasibly brilliant at everything they turn their hand to, and in a curious way, its unrelenting goodness actually becomes almost tiresome. Running around on foot is great enough, but jumping into vehicles proves even more fun. Human foes are rendered just as well as alien ones. The stealth sections are as exhilarating as the open gun battles. In gameplay terms, HL2 somehow gets almost everything perfect. And without resorting to the zombies-leaping-out-of-shadows approach of Doom III, it's all incredibly unsettling. The vacant environment is distinctly eerie, and at one point I even caught myself hesitating to go down a murky tunnel for fear of what might be inside...The game does have a couple of problems. Firstly, the carefully-scripted way that you progress through each level might irk some people...A lot of things are meticulously choreographed to happen on cue, which makes for exciting moments, but may be an annoyance to some players and limit the appeal of playing again once you've completed it. If you like things open-ended and free-ranging, Far Cry will be a lot more pleasing. But the real downside is the hassle of getting the game to run. Installing it proved a life-draining siege that would test a saint's patience. Developer Valve has rashly assumed that everyone wanting to play the game will have an internet connection and it forces you to go online to authenticate your copy. The box does warn you of this anti-piracy measure, but does not say just how many components have to be downloaded. The time spent doing this will depend on your connection speed, the temperamental Valve servers and the time of day, but it can take hours. It would take a mighty piece of work to feel worthwhile after such annoyances - but luckily, Half-Life 2 is up to the challenge. It is surely the best thing in its genre, and possibly, many will feel, of any genre. The bar has been raised, and so far out of sight that you have to sympathise with any game that tries to do anything remotely similar in the near future...Half-Life 2 is out now for the PC",tech
"Games win for Blu-ray DVD format..The next-generation DVD format Blu-ray is winning more supporters than its rival, according to its backers...Blu-ray, backed by 100 firms including Sony, is competing against Toshiba and NEC-backed HD-DVD to be the format of choice for future films and games. The Blu-Ray Association said on Thursday that games giants Electronic Arts and Vivendi would both support its DVD format. The next generation of DVDs will hold high-definition video and sound. This offers incredible 3D-like quality of pictures which major Hollywood studios and games publishers are extremely keen to exploit in the coming year. In a separate press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba announced that DVD players for its technology would be on the market by the end of 2005...""As we move from standard definition video images to high-definition images, we have a much greater need for storage,"" Richard Doherty, from Panasonic's Hollywood Laboratories, one of the pioneers of Blu-ray, told the BBC news website. ""So by utilising blue laser-based technology we can make an optical laser disc that can hold six times as much as today's DVD."" A Blu-ray disc will be able to store 50GB of high-quality data, while Toshiba's HD-DVD will hold 30GB. Mr Doherty added that it was making sure the discs could satisfy all high-definition needs, including the ability to record onto the DVDs and smaller discs to fit into camcorders. Both Toshiba and Blu-ray are hopeful that the emerging DVD format war, akin to the Betamax and VHS fight in the 1980s, can be resolved over the next year when next-generation DVD players start to come out. When players do come out, they will be able to play standard DVDs too, which is good news for those who have huge libraries of current DVDs...But the support from Vivendi and Electronics Arts is a big boost to Blu-ray in the battle for supremacy...Gaming is a $20 billion industry worldwide, so is as crucial as the film industry in terms of money to be made. ""The technical requirement for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc technologies,"" said Michael Heilmann, chief technology officer for Vivendi Universal. ""Blu-ray offers the capacity, performance and high-speed internet connectivity to take us into the future of gaming."" EA, a leading games developer and publisher, added that the delivery of high-definition games of the future was vital and Blu-ray had the capacity, functionality and interactivity needed for the kinds of projects it was planning. Sony recently announced it would be using the technology in its next generation of PlayStations. Mr Doherty said gamers were ""ravenous"" for high-quality graphics and technology for the next generation of titles. ""Gamers, especially those working on PCs, are always focused on more capacity to deliver textures, deeper levels, for delivering higher-resolution playback.""..He added: ""The focus for games moving forward on increased immersion...""Gaming companies really like to focus on creating a world which involves creating complicated 3D models and textures and increasing the resolution, increasing the frame rate - all of these are part of getting a more immersive experience."" Fitting these models on current DVD technologies means compressing the graphics so much that much of this quality is lost. As games move to more photo-real capability, the current technology is limiting. ""They are thrilled at the advanced capacity to start to build these immersive environments,"" said Mr Doherty. Currently, graphics-intensive PC games also require multiple discs for installation. High-definition DVDs will cut down on that need. Likewise, consoles rely on single discs, so DVDs that can hold six times more data mean much better, high-resolution games. Blu-ray has already won backing from major Hollywood studios, such as MGM Studios, Disney, and Buena Vista, as well as top technology firms like Dell, LG, Samsung and Phillips amongst others. While Toshiba's HD-DVD technology has won backing from Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. ""The real world benefits (of HD-DVD) are apparent and obvious,"" said Jim Cardwell, president of Warner Home Video. Mr Cardwell added that rapid time to market and dependability were significant factors in choosing to go with HD-DVD. Both formats are courting Microsoft to be the format of choice for the next generation Xbox, but discussions are still on-going. Next generation DVDs will also be able to store images and other data. CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world, and runs from 6 to 9 January.",tech
"File-swappers ready new network..Legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down...One site behind the success of the BitTorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. A test version of the new Exeem program will be released in late January. But doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are ""quality copies""...In late December movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the BitTorrent network. The legal campaign worked because of the way that BitTorrent is organised. That file-sharing system relies on links called ""trackers"" that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. Shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the BitTorrent network. One of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the BitTorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or TV programmes they claimed to...Now the man behind suprnova.org, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed Exeem. In an interview with Novastream web radio, Sloncek said Exeem would combine ideas from the BitTorrent and Kazaa file-sharing systems. Like BitTorrent, Exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. Like Kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. There will be no centrally maintained list. This, said Sloncek, should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. The Exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. An early public version of the software should be available before February. Sloncek said that currently only a Windows version of the software was in development. There were no plans for a Linux or Mac version. He said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. Despite Suprnova administrator Sloncek's involvement with Exeem, the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called Swarm Systems that is based on Caribbean island Saint Kitts and Nevis...Users of the Exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files, Sloncek told Novastream...Dr Johan Pouwelse, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology who studies peer-to-peer networks, said Exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. But, he said, it would struggle to be as popular as BitTorrent and Suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. ""Exeem cannot prevent pollution,"" he said. ""The rating system in Exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings,"" he said. Studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine Kazaa by putting in fakes. By contrast moderators on Suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. ""The moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that's full of crap like Kazaa,"" he said. ""There is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity,"" he said. Mr Pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. When big files were being shared moderation systems were key, said Mr Pouwelse. He added that the legal attacks on BitTorrent had driven people away from sites such as Suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. ""It's hard to compete with free,"" he said. No-one from the Motion Picture Association of America was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development.",tech
"Online games play with politics..After bubbling under for some time, online games broke through onto the political arena in 2004...The US presidential election provided a showcase for many, aimed at talking directly to a generation that has grown up with joysticks and gamepads. Experts say this reflects how video games are becoming a mainstream part of culture and society. The first official political campaign game was technically launched during the last week of 2003: the Iowa Game, commissioned by the Democrat hopeful Howard Dean. More than 20 followed suit, including Frontrunner, eLections, President Forever and The Political Machine, which allowed players to run an entire presidential campaign, including having to cope with the media. Others helped raise the stakes during the Bush/Kerry contest by highlighting a candidate's virtues or his vices...The phenomenon has astonished the forefathers of political games, a handful of multi-discipline games enthusiasts keen to push frontiers...""When I started researching political games at the university, about five years ago, I thought it was going to be something that would take decades to happen,"" said Gonzalo Frasca, computer games specialist at the Information Technology University of Copenhagen. ""I must admit that I was the first person to be surprised at seeing how fast they have evolved,"" added the Uruguayan-born researcher, who has so far created games for two political campaigns. Many artists and designers are experimenting with this form of gaming with an agenda in projects such as newsgaming.com. The aim is to comment on international news events via games...The ability of games to simulate reality makes them a powerful modelling tool to interact with actual situations in an original way...""Video games generate strong reactions mainly because they are new, but also because our culture needs to learn how to deal with simulation,"" Mr Frasca told the BBC News website. This was the case with the one he created for a political party in Uruguay, Cambiemos, an online puzzle game that offered a view on how the country's problems could be solved by working together. ""It's up to us to explore what we can learn from ourselves through play and video games."" Ultimately, Dr Frasca sees games as a small laboratory where we can play with our hopes, fears and beliefs. ""Children learn a lot about the world through play. There is no reason why we adults should stop doing it as we grow up.""..But experts estimate it will still take at least about a decade until this new breed of video gaming communication become a common tool for political campaigns...This is hardly surprising, compared to other forms of mass media like the worldwide web. Only a few years ago, most politicians did not have a webpage, while now it is almost a must-have. Dr Frasca said: ""Political campaigns will continue to experiment with video games. They represent a new tool of communication that can reach a younger audience in a language that can clearly speak to them."" ""It will not replace other forms of political propaganda, but it will integrate itself on to the media ecology of political campaigns.""",tech
"Broadband challenges TV viewing..The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests...Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings. The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark. The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research. It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net..The report by Nielsen/NetRatings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year...The biggest jump was in Italy, where it rose by 120%. Britain was close behind, with broadband users almost doubling in a year. The growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on, fast-net subscription plans. ""Twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in Europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing,"" said Gabrielle Prior, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst. ""As the number of high-speed surfers grows, websites will need to adapt, update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones."" The total number of Europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year, the report showed, with the biggest rise in France, Italy, Britain and Germany...The ability to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time...A study by analysts Jupiter Research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. In homes with broadband, 40% said they were spending less time watching TV. The threat to TV was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up, in particular the UK, France and Spain, said the report. It said TV companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years, with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. ""Year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where, when and how Europe's population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for TV, newspaper and radio,"" said Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillian.",tech
"Freeze on anti-spam campaign..A campaign by Lycos Europe to target spam-related websites appears to have been put on hold...Earlier this week the company released a screensaver that bombarded the sites with data to try to bump up the running costs of the websites. But the site hosting the screensaver now displays a pink graphic and the words ""Stay tuned"". No one at Lycos was available for comment on latest developments in its controversial anti-spam campaign...Lycos Europe's ""Make love not spam"" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the mountain of junk mail flooding inboxes. People were encouraged to download the screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data to sites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages. Lycos said the idea was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills for the spammers behind the sites. But the plan has proved controversial...Monitoring firm Netcraft analysed response times for some of the sites targeted by the screensaver and found that a number were completely knocked offline...The downing of the sites could dent Lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount to a distributed denial of service attack. In such attacks thousands of computers bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them. Laws in many countries do not explicitly outlaw such attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use laws to make them specific offences. Lycos Europe now appears to have put the plan on hold. The site hosting the screensaver currently shows a holding page, with the words, ""Stay tuned"". The numerical internet address of the site has also changed. This is likely to be in response to spammers who have reportedly redirected traffic from their sites back to the Lycos screensaver site. The campaign has come under fire from some corners of the web. Many discussion groups have said that it set a dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism. ""Attacking a spammer's website is like poking a grizzly bear sleeping in your back garden with a pointy stick,"" said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. ""Not only is this screensaver similar in its approach to a potentially illegal distributed denial of service attack, but it also is in danger of turning innocent computer users into vigilantes, who may not be prepared for whatever retaliation the spammers care to dream up.""",tech
"Halo 2 sells five million copies..Microsoft is celebrating bumper sales of its Xbox sci-fi shooter, Halo 2...The game has sold more than five million copies worldwide since it went on sale in mid-November, the company said. Halo 2 has proved popular online, with gamers notching up a record 28 million hours playing the game on Xbox Live. According to Microsoft, nine out of 10 Xbox Live members have played the game for an average of 91 minutes per session...The sequel to the best-selling Need for Speed: Underground has inched ahead of the competition to take the top slot in the official UK games charts. The racing game moved up one spot to first place, nudging GTA: San Andreas down to second place. Halo 2 dropped one place to five, while Half-Life 2 fell to number nine. Last week's new releases, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent and Killzone, both failed to make it into the top 10, debuting at number 11 and 12 respectively...Record numbers of Warcraft fans are settling in the games online world. On the opening day of the World of Warcraft massive multi-player online game more than 200,000 players signed up to play. On the evening of the first day more than 100,000 players were in the world, forcing Blizzard to add another 34 servers to cope with the influx. The online game turns the stand alone Warcraft games into a persistent world that players can inhabit not just visit..Europe's gamers could be waiting until January to hear when they can get their mitts on Nintendo's handheld device, Nintendo DS, says gamesindustry.biz. David Yarnton, Nintendo UK general manager, told a press conference to look out for details in the New Year. Its US launch was on Sunday and it goes on sale in Japan on 2 December. Nintendo has a 95% share of the handheld gaming market and said it expected to sell around five million of the DS by March 2005.",tech
"When technology gets personal..In 2020, whipping out your mobile phone to make a call will be quaintly passé. By then phones will be printed directly on to wrists, or other parts of the body, says Ian Pearson, BT's resident futurologist...It's all part of what's known as a ""pervasive ambient world"", where ""chips are everywhere"". Mr Pearson does not have a crystal ball. His job is to formulate ideas based on what science and technology are doing now, to guide industries into the future. Inanimate objects will start to interact with us: we will be surrounded - on streets, in homes, in appliances, on our bodies and possibly in our heads - by things that ""think"". Forget local area networks - these will be body area networks. Ideas about just how smart, small, or even invisible, technology will get are always floating around. Images of devices clumsily bolted on to heads or wrists have pervaded thinking about future technology. But now a new vision is surfacing, where smart fabrics and textiles will be exploited to enhance functionality, form, or aesthetics. Such materials are already starting to change how gadgets and electronics are used and designed...So MP3 players - the mass gadget of the moment - will disappear and instead become integrated into one's clothing, says Mr Pearson. ""So the gadgets that fill up your handbag, when we integrate those into fabric, we can actually get rid of all that stuff. You won't necessarily see the electronics."" Wearable technology could exploit body heat to charge it up, while ""video tattoos"", or intelligent electronic contact lenses, might function as TV screens for those on the move. However, this future of highly personal devices, where technology is worn, or even fuses with the body itself, raises ethical questions. If technology is going to be increasingly part of clothing, jewellery, and skin, there needs to be some serious thinking about what it means for us as humans, says Baroness Susan Greenfield. At a recent conference for technology, engineering, academic and fashion industry experts, at the Royal Society in London, neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield cautioned we ""can't just sleepwalk into the future""...Yet this technology is already upon us. Researchers have developed computers and sensors worn in clothing. MP3 jackets, based on the idea that electrically conductive fabric can connect to keyboard sewn into sleeves, have already appeared in shops...These ""smart fabrics"" have come about through advances in nano- and micro-engineering - the ability to manipulate and exploit materials at micro or molecular scale. At the nanoscale, materials can be ""tuned"" to display unusual properties that can be exploited to build faster, lighter, stronger and more efficient devices and systems. The textile and clothing industry has been one of the first to exploit nanotechnology in quite straightforward ways. Many developments are appearing in real products in the fields of medicine, defence, healthcare, sports, and communications. Professional swimming suits reduce drag by incorporating tiny structures similar to shark skin. Nanoscale titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings give fabrics antibacterial and anti-odour properties. These have special properties which can be activated in contact with the air or UV light. Such coatings have already been used to stop socks smelling for instance, to turn airline seats into super stain-resistant surfaces, and applied to windows so they clean themselves. Dressings for wounds can now incorporate nanoparticles with biocidal properties and smart patches are being developed to deliver drugs through the skin. But Baroness Greenfield is concerned about how far this more personal contact with technology might affect our very being. If our clothing, skin, and ""personal body networks"" do the talking and the monitoring, everywhere we go, we have to think about what that means for our concept of privacy. Mr Pearson picks up the theme, pointing out there are a lot of issues humans have to iron out before we become ""cyborgian"". His main concern is ""privacy"". ""We are looking at electronics which are really in deep contact with your body and a lot of that information you really don't want every passer-by to know. ""So we have to make sure we build security in this. If you are wearing smart make-up, where electronics are controlling the appearance, you don't want people hacking in and writing messages on your forehead."" As technology infiltrates our biology, how will our brains function differently? ""We cannot arrogantly assume that the human brain will not change with this,"" warns Baroness Greenfield. There have already been successful experiments to grow human nerve cells on circuit boards. This paves the way for brain implants to help paralysed people interface directly with computers. Clearly, the organic, carbon of our bodies and silicon is increasingly merging. The cyborg - a very familiar part-human, part-inorganic science fiction and academic idea - is on its way.",tech
"Microsoft gets the blogging bug..Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging...It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces. Microsoft is trailing behind competitors like Google and AOL, which already offer services which make it easy for people to set up web journals. Blogs, short for web logs, have become a popular way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online...MSN Spaces is free to anyone with a Hotmail or MSN Messenger account. People will be able to choose a layout for the page, upload images and share photo albums and music playlists. The service will be supported by banner ads. ""This is a simple tool for people to express themselves,"" said MSN's Blake Irving. This is Microsoft's first foray into blogging, which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year. Competitors like Google already offer free services through its Blogger site, while AOL provides its members with journals. Accurate figures for the number of blogs in existence are hard to come by. According to blog analysis firm Technorati, the so-called blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. It now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million, although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained.",tech
"Doors open at biggest gadget fair..Thousands of technology lovers and industry experts have gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES)...The fair showcases the latest technologies and gadgets that will hit the shops in the next year. About 50,000 new products will be unveiled as the show unfolds. Microsoft chief Bill Gates is to make a pre-show keynote speech on Wednesday when he is expected to announce details of the next generation Xbox...The thrust of this year's show will be on technologies which put people in charge of multimedia content so they can store, listen to, and watch what they want on devices any time, anywhere. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet. Highlights will include the latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies. The show also includes several speeches from key technology companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard among others. ""The story this year remains all about digital and how that is completely transforming and revolutionising products and the way people interact with them,"" Jeff Joseph, from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) told the BBC News website. ""It is about personalisation - taking your MP3 player and creating your own playlist, taking your digital video recorder and watch what you want to watch when - you are no longer at the whim of the broadcasters.""..Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers, the CEA, on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. Shipments of consumer electronics rose by almost 11% between 2003 and 2004. That trend is predicted to continue, according to CEA analysts, with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005. The fastest-growing technologies in 2004 included blank DVD media, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs, digital video recorders (DVRs), and portable music players. ""This year we will really begin to see that come to life in what we call place shifting - so if you have your PVR [personal video recorder] in your living room, you can move that content around the house. ""Some exhibitors will be showcasing how you can take that content anywhere,"" said Mr Joseph. He said the products which will be making waves in the next year will be about the ""democratisation"" of content - devices and technologies that will give people the freedom to do more with music, video, and images. There will also be more focus on the design of technologies, following the lead that Apple's iPod made, with ease of use and good looks which appeal to a wider range of people a key concern...The CEA predicted that there would be several key technology trends to watch in the coming year. Gaming would continue to thrive, especially on mobile devices, and would reach out to more diverse gamers such as women. Games consoles sales have been declining, but the launch of next generation consoles, such as Microsoft's Xbox and PlayStation, could buoy up sales. Although it has been widely predicted that Mr Gates would be showcasing the new Xbox, some media reports have cast doubt on what he would be talking about in the keynote. Some have suggested the announcement may take place at the Games Developers Conference in the summer instead. With more than 52% of US homes expected to have home networks, the CEA suggested hard drive boxes - or media servers - capable of storing thousands of images, video and audio files to be accessed through other devices around the home, will be more commonplace. Portable devices that combine mobile telephony, digital music and video players, will also be more popular in 2005. Their popularity will be driven by more multimedia content and services which will let people watch and listen to films, TV, and audio wherever they are. This means more storage technologies will be in demand, such as external hard drives, and flash memory like SD cards. CES runs officially from 6 to 9 January.",tech
"Who do you think you are?..The real danger is not what happens to your data as it crosses the net, argues analyst Bill Thompson. It is what happens when it arrives at the other end...The Financial Services Authority has warned banks and other financial institutions that members of criminal gangs may be applying for jobs which give them access to confidential customer data. The fear is not that they will steal money from our bank accounts but that they will instead steal something far more valuable in our digital society - our identities. Armed with the personal details that a bank holds, plus a fake letter or two, it is apparently easy to get a loan, open a bank account with an overdraft or get a credit card in someone else's name. And it is then a simple matter to move the money into another account and leave the unwitting victim to sort out the mess when statements and demands for payment start arriving. Identity theft is an increasingly significant economic crime, and we are all becoming more aware of the dangers of leaving bills, receipts and bank statements unshredded in our rubbish...But, however careful you may be, if the organisations you trust with your personal data, bank accounts and credit cards are not able to look after their databases properly then you are in trouble. It is surprising that it has taken the gangs so long to realise that a well-placed insider is by far the simplest way to break the security of a computer system. In fact, I suspect that the FSA is probably very late to this particular party and that this sort of thing has been going on for rather a long time. Has anyone checked Bob Cratchit's family links to the criminal underworld, I wonder? And it is hardly likely to be only banks that are being targeted. Health authorities, government agencies and of course the big e-commerce sites like Amazon must also offer rich pickings for the fraudsters. The good news is that better auditing is likely to catch out those who access account details that they are not supposed to. And as we all become aware of the danger of identity theft and look more carefully for unexpected transactions on our statements, banks should have good enough records and logs to trace the people who might have accessed the account details. Fortunately there are now ways to keep bank systems more secure from the sort of data theft that involves taking a portable hard drive or flash memory card into the office, plugging it into a USB slot and sucking down customer files...Companies like SecureWave, for example, can restrict the use of USB ports just to authorised devices or even to an individual's personal memory card. These solutions are not perfect, but it does not feel like a wave of fraud is about to wash away the entire financial system. However the warning does highlight one of the major issues with e-commerce and online trading - the security or otherwise of the servers and other systems that make up the 'back office'. It has been clear for years that the real danger in paying for goods online with a credit card is not that the number will be intercepted in transit but that the shop you are dealing with will be hacked...In fact I do not know of a single case where an e-mail containing payment details has led to card fraud...There are simply too many e-mails passing over the net for interception to be a sensible tool for anyone out to commit fraud. CD Universe, Powergen and many other companies have left their databases open and suffered the consequences. And just last week the online bank Cahoot admitted that its customer account details could be read by anyone who could guess a login name. Whether it is external hackers breaking in because of poor system security or internal staff abusing the access they get as part of their job, the issue is the same: how do we make sure that our personal data is not abused? Any organisation that processes personal data is, of course, bound by the Data Protection Act and must take proper care of it. Unauthorised disclosure is not allowed, but the penalties are small and the process of prosecuting under the Act so convoluted as to be worthless in practice. This is not something we can just leave it to the market. The consequences of having one's identity stolen are too serious, and markets respond too slowly. After all, I bank with Cahoot but it would be so much hassle to move my accounts that I did not even consider it when I heard about their security problems. I doubt many others have closed their accounts, especially when there is little guarantee that other banks are not going to make the same sort of mistake in future. The two options would seem to be more stringent data protection law, so that companies really feel the pressure to improve their internal processes, or a wave of civil lawsuits against financial institutions with sloppy practices whose customers suffer from identity theft. I have never felt comfortable with the US practice of suing everything that moves, partly because it seems to make lawyers richer than their clients, so I know which I'd prefer...Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital.",tech
"'Brainwave' cap controls computer..A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer...Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ""The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions,"" said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought...The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which, meant no surgery or implantation was needed...Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves of muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. ""The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis,"" said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried. Although the two partially-paralysed people performed better overall, the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to adapting or that they were simply more motivated. It is not the first time researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. Some teams have used eye motion and other recording techniques. Earlier this year, a team at the MIT Media Labs Europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to control a computer character.",tech
"'Brainwave' cap controls computer..A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer...Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ""The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions,"" said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought...The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which, meant no surgery or implantation was needed...Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves of muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. ""The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis,"" said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried. Although the two partially-paralysed people performed better overall, the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to adapting or that they were simply more motivated. It is not the first time researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. Some teams have used eye motion and other recording techniques. Earlier this year, a team at the MIT Media Labs Europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to control a computer character.",tech
"Europe backs digital TV lifestyle..How people receive their digital entertainment in the future could change, following the launch of an ambitious European project...In Nice last week, the European Commission announced its Networked & Electronic Media (NEM) initiative. Its broad scope stretches from the way media is created, through each of the stages of its distribution, to its playback. The Commission wants people to be able to locate the content they desire and have it delivered seamlessly, when on the move, at home or at work, no matter who supplies the devices, network, content, or content protection scheme. More than 120 experts were in Nice to share the vision of interconnected future and hear pledges of support from companies such as Nokia, Intel, Philips, Alcatel, France Telecom, Thomson and Telefonica. It might initially appear to be surprising that companies in direct competition are keen to work together. But again and again, speakers stated they could not see incompatible, stand-alone solutions working. A long-term strategy for the evolution and convergence of technologies and services would be required...The European Commission is being pragmatic in its approach. They have identified that many groups have defined the forms of digital media in the areas that NEM encompasses. The NEM approach is to take a serious look at what is available and what is in the pipeline, pick out the best, bring them together and identify where the gaps are. Where it finds holes, it will develop standards to fill them. What is significant is that such a large and powerful organisation has stated its desire for digital formats to be open to all and work on any gadget. This is bound to please, if not surprise, many individuals and user organisations who feel that the wishes of the holder of rights to content are normally considered over and above those of the consumer. Many feel that the most difficult and challenging area for the Commission will be to identify a solution for different Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes. Currently DRM solutions are incompatible, locking certain types of purchased content, making them unplayable on all platforms. With the potential of having a percentage of every media transaction that takes place globally, the prize for being the supplier of the world's dominant DRM scheme is huge. Although entertainment is an obvious first step, it will encompass the remote provisions of healthcare, energy efficiency and control of the smart home. The 10-year plan brings together the work of many currently running research projects that the EC has been funding for a number of years...Simon Perry is the editor of the Digital Lifestyles website, which covers the impact of technology on media",tech
"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",tech
"2D Metal Slug offers retro fun..Like some drill sergeant from the past, Metal Slug 3 is a wake-up call to today's gamers molly-coddled with slick visuals and fancy trimmings...With its hand-animated sprites and 2D side-scrolling, this was even considered retro when released in arcades four years ago. But a more frantic shooter you will not find at the end of your joypad this year. And yes, that includes Halo 2. Simply choose your grunt and wade through five 2D side-scrolling levels of the most hectic video game blasting you will ever encounter. It is also the toughest game you are likely to play, as hordes of enemies and few lives pile the pressure on...Players must battle soldiers, snowmen, zombies, giant crabs and aliens, not to mention the huge, screen-filling bosses that guard each of the five levels...The shoot-anything-that-moves gameplay is peppered with moments of old-school genius. Fans of robotic gastropods should note the title refers, instead, to the vast array of vehicles on offer in a game stuffed with bizarre hardware. Tanks, jets and submarines can be commandeered, as well as cannon-toting camels, elephants and ostriches - more weaponry on offer than in an acre of Iraq. Doling out justice is a joy thanks to ultra responsive controls, and while this is a tough nut to crack, it is addictive enough to have you gagging for that one last go. And at a mere £20, Metal Slug 3 is as cheap as sliced, fried spuds, as the man says. Of course, most of you will ignore this, lacking as it does the visual fireworks of modern blasters. But at a time when blockbuster titles offer only a fresh lick of paint in favour of real innovation, Metal Slug 3 is a fresh gasp of air from an era when the Xbox was not even a twinkle in Bill Gates' eye.",tech
"Casual gaming to 'take off'..Games aimed at ""casual players"" are set to be even bigger in 2005, according to industry experts...Easy-to-play titles that do not require too much time and that are playable online or downloadable to mobile devices will see real growth in the coming year. The trend shows that gaming is not just about big-hitting, games console titles, which appeal more to ""hardcore"" gamers, said a panel of experts. They were speaking before the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas which showcases the latest trends in gadgets and technologies for 2005. The panel also insisted that casual gamers were not just women, a common misconception which pervades current thinking about gamer demographics...Casual games like poker, pool, bridge, bingo and puzzle-based titles, which can be played online or downloaded onto mobile devices, were ""gender neutral"" and different genres attracted different players...Greg Mills, program director at AOL, said its figures suggested that sports-based games attracted 90% of 18 to 24-year-old males, while puzzle games were played by 80% of females. Games like bridge tended to attract the over-50 demographic of gamers...But hardcore gamers who are more attracted to blockbuster gamers which usually require hi-spec PCs, like Half-Life 2, or Halo 2 on Xbox, also liked to have a different type of gaming experience. ""When hardcore gamers are not playing Halo, they are playing poker and pool, based on our research,"" said Geoff Graber, director of Yahoo Games, which attracts about 12 million gamers a month...With the growth of powerful PC technology and ownership, broadband take-up, portable players and mobile devices, as well as interactive TV, casual gaming is shaping up to be big business in 2005, according to the panel. The focus for the coming year should be about attracting third-party developers into the field to offer more innovative and multiplayer titles, they agreed. ""We are at a time where we are on the verge of something much bigger,"" said Mr Graber. ""Casual games will get into their stride in 2005, will be really big in 2006 and will be about community."" With more people finding more to do with their gadgets and high-speed connections, casual games would start to open up the world of gaming as a form of mass-market entertainment to more people. Key to these types of titles is the chance they give people who may not see themselves as gamers to dip in and out of games when they liked...Portal sites which offer casual games, like AOL, Yahoo, and RealArcade, as well as other games-on-demand services, allow people to build up buddy lists so they can return and play against the same people. This aspect of ""community"" is crucial for gamers who just want to have quick access to free or cheap games without committing long periods of time immersed in £30 to £40 console or PC titles, said the panel. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the CES trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and which officially runs from 6 to 9 January. The main theme is how new devices are getting better at talking to each other, allowing people to enjoy digital content, like audio, video and images, when they want, and where they want.",tech
"'Ultimate game' award for Doom 3..Sci-fi shooter Doom 3 has blasted away the competition at a major games ceremony, the Golden Joystick awards...It was the only title to win twice, winning Ultimate Game of the year and best PC game at the awards, presented by Little Britain star Matt Lucas. The much-anticipated sci-fi horror Doom 3 shot straight to the top of the UK games charts on its release in August. Other winners included Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which took the Most Wanted for Christmas prize. Only released last week, it was closely followed by Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed later this month...But they missed out on the prize for the Most Wanted game of 2005, which went to the Nintendo title, The Legend of Zelda. The original Doom, released in 1994, heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3D graphics. It helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. Doom 3 was developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). The top honour for the best online game of the year went to Battlefield Vietnam. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was handed the Unsung Hero Game of 2004. Its release was somewhat eclipsed by Doom 3, which was released on the same week. It was, however, very well received by gamers and was praised for its storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. Electronic Arts was named top publisher of the year, taking the crown from Nintendo which won in 2003. The annual awards are voted for by more than 200,000 readers of computer and video games magazines. Games awards like this have grown in importance. Over the last six years, the UK market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1,152m in 2003, according to a recent report by analysts Screen Digest.",tech
"Gadget show heralds MP3 Christmas..Partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this Christmas...With Apple's iPod topping wish lists again, there may not be enough iPod minis to go round, predicts Oliver Irish, editor of gadget magazine Stuff. ""The iPod mini is likely to be this year's Tracey Island,"" said Mr Irish. Stuff has compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the iPod is at number one...For anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market, Stuff and What Hi-Fi? are hosting a best-of gadget show in London this weekend. Star of the show will be Sony's Qrio Robot, an all-singing, all-dancing, football-playing man-machine who can even hold intelligent conversations...But he is not for sale and Sony has no commercial plans for the robot. ""He will greet visitors and is flying in from Japan. He probably has his own airplane seat, that is how highly Sony prize him,"" said Mr Irish. Also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself onto any flat surface. The event will play host to a large collection of digital music players, from companies such as Creative, Sony and Philips as well as the ubiquitously fashionable iPod from Apple. Suggestions that it could be a gaming or wireless Christmas are unlikely to come true as MP3 players remain the most popular stocking filler, said Mr Irish. ""Demand is huge and Apple has promised that it can supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on iPod minis,"" said Mr Irish...For those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented, the Gizmondo, a powerful gaming console with GPS and GPRS, that also doubles up as an MP3 player, movie player and camera, could be a must-have. ""What is impressive is how much it can do and how well it can do them,"" said Mr Irish. This Christmas, gadgets will not be an all-male preserve. ""Women will be getting gadgets from husbands and boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves,"" said Mr Irish. ""Gadgets nowadays are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks.""",tech
"Supercomputer breaks speed record..The US is poised to push Japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with IBM's prototype Blue Gene/L machine...It is being assembled for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy (DOE) lab. DOE test results show that Blue Gene/L has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. The current top machine, Japan's NEC Earth Simulator, clocks up 35.86. Due next week, the Top 500 list officially charts the fastest computers in the world. It is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially recognised mathematical speed test called Linpack which measures calculations per second. The speeds will most likely make it the fastest computer system on the planet, yet the chip technology powering the machine is the kind which can be found in familiar devices such as games consoles...The US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham confirmed that the machine had reached the breakneck speed, according to the Linpack benchmark. Until the official list is published, however, Blue Gene/L's position will not be confirmed, and there are expected to be some other new entries. But the test results raise the bar of supercomputing enormously and signal a remarkable achievement. Surpassing the 40 trillion calculations per second (teraflop) mark has been considered a landmark for some time...The IBM Blue Gene/L is only a prototype and is one 5th the speed of the full version, due to be completed for the Livermore labs in 2005. Its peak theoretical performance is expected to be 360 teraflops, and will fit into 64 full racks. It will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power, a big problem for supercomputers. The final machine will help scientists work out the safety, security and reliability requirements for the US's nuclear weapons stockpile, without the need for underground nuclear testing. The Earth Simulator has held on to the top spot since June 2002. It is dedicated to climate modelling and simulating seismic activity. But in September, IBM said that another Blue Gene/L machine clocked up 36.01 teraflops, marginally surpassing the Earth Simulator's performance. This was achieved during internal testing at IBM's production facility in Rochester, Minnesota, though, so was not an official record. Another giant to enter the fray is Silicon Graphics' Columbia supercomputer based at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California. It would be used to model flight missions, climate research, and aerospace engineering. The Linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of 42.7 teraflops in October...Supercomputers are hugely important for working out very complex problems across science and society. Their massive simulation and processing power means they can improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, help design better cars, and improve disease diagnosis. IBM's senior vice president of technology and manufacturing, Nick Donofrio, believes that by 2006, Blue Gene will be capable of petaflop computing. This means it would be capable of doing 1,000 trillion operations a second. ""When you get a computer as large as a petaflop, you can start to think of simulations that might complement the physical world,"" Mr Donofrio recently told the BBC News website...""You can start to be more proactive, more interactive and more innovative."" One area where Mr Donofrio sees supercomputing - and Blue Gene machines in particular - as crucial is health. He believes the machines can help scientists understand one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century: protein folding. ""Health is one of the most important problems, not just mapping the human genome, but also protein structures. ""We are a great believer in simulation. It gives you another tool,"" he said. Once the structures of proteins are understood fully, then drugs can be tailor-made to fight diseases more effectively. Compared with the current fastest supercomputers, Blue Gene is designed to consume one 15th the power and be 10 times more compact. Since the first supercomputer, the Cray-1, was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, computational speed has leaped 500,000 times. The Cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). The Blue Gene/L machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster. Started in 1993, the Top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science academics from around the world. It is presented at the International Supercomputer Conference in Pittsburgh.",tech
"Gadgets galore on show at fair..The 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a geek's paradise with more than 50,000 new gadgets and technologies launched during the four-day event...Top gadgets at the show are highlighted in the Innovations Showcase, which recognises some of the hottest developments in consumer electronics. The BBC News website took an early pre-show look at some of those technologies that will be making their debut in 2005.....One of the key issues for keen gadget users is how to store all their digital images, audio and video files. The 2.5GB and 5GB circular pocket hard drive from Seagate might help. The external USB drive won a CES best innovations design and engineering award and is small enough to slip into a pocket. ""It is the kind of storage that appeals to people who want their PCs to look cool,"" said Seagate. ""It is all about style but it also has lots of functionality."" ""It is the first time you can say a hard drive is sexy,"" it said. In the centre of the device is a blue light that flashes while data is being written to ensure users do not unplug it when it is busy saving those precious pictures.....Universal Electronics' NevoSL is a universal controller that lets people use one device to get at their multimedia content, such as photos, no matter where it is in their house. It can also act as a remote for home theatre and stereo systems. Working with home broadband networks and PCs, the gadget has built-in wireless and a colourful, simple interface. Paul Arling, UEI chief, said consumers face real problems when trying to get at all the files they own that are typically spread across several different devices. He said the Nevo gave people a simple, single way to regain some control over digital media in the home. The Nevo won two awards at CES, one as a Girl's Best Friend award and another for innovation, design and engineering. The gadget is expected to go on sale before the summer and will cost about $799 (£425).....Hotseat is targeting keen gamers with money to spend with its Solo Chassis gaming chair. The specially-designed chair lets gamers play in surround-sound while stretching out in their own ""space"". It is compatible with all the major games consoles, DVD players and PCs. ""We found that kids love playing in surround sound,"" said Jay LeBoff from Hotseat. ""We are looking at offering different types of seats, depending on the market success of this one."" The chair also lets people experience surround sound while watching videos, with wireless control for six surround sound speakers. And a drinks holder. The chair, which looks like a car seat on a skeletal frame, should go on sale in April and is expected to cost $399 (£211).....Satellite radio is big business in the US. In the UK, the digital radio technology is known as DAB and works on slightly different technology. Eton Corporation's Porsche designed P7131 digital radio set will be launched both as a DAB radio in the UK as well as a satellite radio set in the US. DAB sets have been slow to take-off in the UK, but this one concentrates on sleek looks as much as technology. ""It is for the risqué consumer,"" said an Eton spokesperson. ""We are proud of it because it has the sound quality for the audiophile and the looks for the design-conscious consumer."" The Porsche radio is set to go on sale at the end of January in the US and in the first quarter of 2005 in the UK. In the US is it expected to cost $250 (£133).....The average person has a library of 600 digital images estimates the Consumer Electronics Association, the organisation behind CES. This is expected to grow to a massive 3,420 images - or 7.2GB - in five years' time. One gadget that might help swell that collection is Sanyo's tiny handheld VPC-C4 camcorder which is another innovation in design and engineering award winner. It combines high quality video and stills in a very small device. It takes MPEG4 video quality at 30 frames a second and has a four megapixel still camera. Images and video are stored on SD cards, which have come down in price in recent months. A 512MB card will store about 30 minutes of video and 420 stills. The device is so tiny it can be controlled with one thumb. Because images and video are stored on SD memory, it is portable to other devices and means other data like audio can be stored on the card too.....Wearable technology has always promised much but failed to deliver because of lack of storage capability and poor design. MPIO's tiny digital USB music players come in an array of fashionable colours, taking a leaf out of the Apple iPod mini book of design and reflecting the desire for gadgets that look good. Slung on a cord, the player would not look too geeky dangling discreetly from the neck. Although the pendant design was launched three months ago, the device emphasises large storage as well as good looks for fashion-conscious gadget fiends. An even dinkier model, the FY500, comes out in May and will store about 256MB of music. The range of players recently won an International Forum design award 2005.",tech
"Broadband in the UK growing fast..High-speed net connections in the UK are proving more popular than ever...BT reports that more people signed up for broadband in the last three months than in any other quarter. The 600,000 connections take the total number of people in the UK signing up for broadband from BT to almost 3.3 million. Nationally more than 5 million browse the net via broadband. Britain now has among the highest number of broadband connections throughout the whole of Europe...According to figures gathered by industry watchdog, Ofcom, the growth means that the UK has now surpassed Germany in terms of broadband users per 100 people. The UK total of 5.3 million translates into 7.5 connections per 100 people, compared to 6.7 in Germany and 15.8 in the Netherlands. The numbers of people signing up to broadband include those that get their service direct from BT or via the many companies that re-sell BT lines under their own name. Part of the surge in people signing up was due to BT stretching the reach of ADSL - the UK's most widely used way of getting broadband - beyond 6km...Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line technology lets ordinary copper phone lines support high data speeds. The standard speed is 512kbps, though faster connections are available. ""This breakthrough led to a dramatic increase in orders as we were suddenly able to satisfy the pent-up demand that existed in many areas,"" said Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale which provides phone lines that other firms re-sell. BT Retail, which sells net services under its own name, also had a good quarter and provided about 30% of the new broadband customers. This was a slight increase on the previous three months. Despite the good news about growth in broadband, figures from telecommunications regulator Ofcom show that BT faces increasing competition, and dwindling influence, in other sectors. Local Loop Unbundling, (LLU), in which BT rivals install their hardware in exchanges and take over the line to a customer's home or office, is growing steadily. Cable & Wireless and NTL have announced that they are investing millions to start offering LLU services. By the end of September more than 4.2 million phone lines were using so-called Carrier Pre-Section (CPS) services, such as TalkTalk and One.Tel, which route phone calls across non-BT networks from a local exchange. There are now more than 300 different firms offering CPS services and the percentage of people using BT lines for voice calls has shrunk to 55.4%.",tech
"US duo in first spam conviction..A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers...It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses...They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was ""a snake oil salesman in a new format"", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A ""Fed-Ex refund processor"" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an ""internet history eraser"". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. ""He's been successful ripping people off all these years,"" AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. Jaynes was also found guilty of breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100,000 e-mails in 30 days, Virginia State Attorney General Jerry Kilgore reportedly said. Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term ""outrageous"" and said his client believed he was innocent. He pointed out that all three of the accused lived in North Carolina and were unaware of the Virginia state law. Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent.",tech
"Microsoft debuts security tools..Microsoft is releasing tools that clean up PCs harbouring viruses and spyware...The virus-fighting program will be updated monthly and is a precursor to Microsoft releasing dedicated anti-virus software. Also being released is a software utility that will help users find and remove any spyware on their home computer. Although initially free it is thought that soon Microsoft will be charging users for the anti-spyware tool...The anti-spyware tool is available now and the anti-virus utility is expected to be available later this month. Microsoft's Windows operating system has long been a favourite of people who write computer viruses because it is so ubiquitous and has many loopholes that can be exploited. It has proved such a tempting target that there are now thought to be more than 100,000 viruses and other malicious programs in existence. Latest research suggests that new variants of viruses are being cranked out at a rate of up to 200 per week. Spyware is surreptitious software that sneaks on to home computers, often without users' knowledge. In its most benign form it just bombards users with pop-up adverts or hijacks web browser settings. The most malicious forms steal confidential information or log every keystroke that users make. Surveys have shown that most PCs are infested with spyware. Research by technology firms Earthlink and Webroot revealed that 90% of Windows machine have the malicious software on board and, on average, each one harbours 28 separate spyware programs. Before now Microsoft has left the market for PC security software to specialist firms such as Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro and many others. It said that its virus cleaning program would not stop machines being infected nor remove the need for other anti-virus programs. On spyware freely available programs such as Ad-Aware and Spybot have become widely used by people keen to keep the latest variants at bay. Microsoft's two security tools have emerged as a result of acquisitions the company has made over the last two years. In 2003 it bought Romanian firm GeCAD Software to get hold of its anti-virus technology. In December 2004 it bought New York-based anti-spyware firm Giant Company Software. Last year Microsoft also released the SP2 upgrade for Windows XP that closed many security loopholes in the software and made it easier for people to manage their anti-virus and firewall programs.",tech
"Slimmer PlayStation triple sales..Sony PlayStation 2's slimmer shape has proved popular with UK gamers, with 50,000 sold in its first week on sale...Sales have tripled since launch, outstripping Microsoft's Xbox, said market analysts Chart-Track. The numbers were also boosted by the release of the PS2-only game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The title broke the UK sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. Latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677,000 copies...""It is obviously very, very encouraging for Sony because Microsoft briefly outsold them last week,"" John Houlihan, editor of Computerandvideogames.com told BBC News. ""And with Halo 2 [for Xbox] out next week, it really is a head-to-head contest between them and Xbox.""..Although Xbox sales over the last week also climbed, PS2 sales were more than double that. The figures mean Sony is reaching the seven million barrier for UK sales of the console. Edinburgh-based developer, Rockstar, which is behind the GTA titles, has seen San Andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. In comparison, blockbuster films like Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the UK box office. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took nearly £10m over its opening weekend, although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets...Gangster-themed GTA San Andreas is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto Vice City which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. The Xbox game Halo 2, released on 11 November in the UK, is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. The original title won universal acclaim in 2001, and sold more than four million copies...Mr Houlihan added that Sony had done well with the PS2, but it definitely helped that the release of San Andreas coincided with the slimline PS2 hitting the shelves. The run-up to Christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. Microsoft's Xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. The sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand, since GTA San Andreas has an 18 certificate. Sony and Microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. ""Both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience, plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales,"" said Mr Houlihan.",tech
"Seamen sail into biometric future..The luxury cruise liner Crystal Harmony, currently in the Gulf of Mexico, is the unlikely setting for tests of biometric technology...As holidaymakers enjoy balmy breezes, their ship's crew is testing prototype versions of the world's first internationally issued biometric ID cards, the seafarer's equivalent of a passport. Along with the owner's picture, name and personal details, the new Seafarers' Identity Document incorporates a barcode representing unique features of its holder's fingerprints. The cards are due to be issued in February next year, in line with the revised UN Convention on Seafarers' Identity Documents of June 2003. Tests currently under way in the Caribbean are designed to ensure that new cards and their machine readers, produced by different companies in different countries, are working to interoperable standards. Results of the current tests, which involve seafarers from a wide range of occupations and nationalities, will be published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by the end of November. Crystal Cruises, which operates the Crystal Harmony, is exploring the use of biometrics but has not yet committed to the technology...Authenti-corp, the US technology consultancy, has been working with the ILO on its technical specifications for the cards...""If you're issued a seafarer's ID in your country, you want to be sure that when the ship lands in a port in, say, my country you can validate yourself using whatever equipment we have installed,"" Authenti-corp's CEO, Cynthia Musselman, told the BBC's Go Digital programme. She said French, Jordanian and Nigerian nationals would be the first seafarers to get the new ID cards since their countries have already ratified the convention. It aims to combat international terrorism whilst guaranteeing the welfare the one million seafarers estimated to be at sea. The convention highlights the importance of access to shore facilities and shore leave as vital elements to a sailor's wellbeing and, therefore, it says, to safer shipping and cleaner oceans. ""By increasing security on the seas as well as border control and protection, the cards will hopefully reduce the number of piracy problems around the world,"" said Ms Musselman. ""It should be a safer environment for seafarers to work in, and will allow people protecting their borders to have confidence that the people getting off the ship are, in fact, seafarers.""",tech
"US blogger fired by her airline..A US airline attendant suspended over ""inappropriate images"" on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired...Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life in the sky. She was suspended by Delta in September. In a statement, she said she was initiating legal action against the airline for ""wrongful termination"". A Delta spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Ms Simonetti was no longer an employee. Delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls ""internal employee matters"". A spokesperson reiterated this position on Wednesday, confirming only that Ms Simonetti was no longer with the company. The spokesperson also confirmed that there were ""very clear rules"" attached to the unauthorised use of Delta branding, including uniforms. Ms Simonetti announced on her blog she had been fired on 1 November...She said in an official statement: ""As a result of my suspension and subsequent termination without cause by Delta Airlines I am moving forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the Federal Government EEOC [US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]."" She added she had also hired a Texas-based law firm to initiate legal action for ""wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages."" Ms Simonetti told the BBC News website she had received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 September. Queen of the Sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the BBC News website and others...Her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. The blog, which she started in January as a way of getting over her mother's death, contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. In the postings, she made up fictional names for cities and other companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. But some postings contained images of herself in uniform. Of the 10 or so images only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight ""wings"". She removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. ""I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them,"" Ms Simonetti said. A legal expert in the US speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images were posted...Delta has been hit recently by pressures of rising fuel costs and fierce competition. It has said it needs to cut between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. Analysts had warned recently that the airline might have to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. Last week, it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from bankruptcy. The deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right to buy 30 million Delta shares, unions said. And on Monday, it negotiated a deal to defer about $135m in debt which was due next year, until 2007. The airline also said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from American Express.",tech
"Mobiles double up as bus tickets..Mobiles could soon double up as travel cards, with Nokia planning to try out a wireless ticket system on German buses...Early next year travellers in the city of Hanau, near Frankfurt, will be able to pay for tickets by passing their phone over a smart-card reader already installed on the buses. Passengers will need to own a Nokia 3220 handset which will have a special shell attached to it. The system would reduce queues and make travelling easier, said Nokia...Transport systems around the world are seeing the advantage of using ticketless smartcards. Using a mobile phone is the next step, said Gerhard Romen, head of market development at Nokia...The ticketless trial will start early in 2005 and people will also be able to access transport information and timetables via their phones. Nokia has worked with electronics giant Philips to develop a shell for the mobile phone that will be compatible with Hanau's existing ticketing system. The system opens up possibilities for mobile devices to be interact with everyday environments, said Mr Romen. ""It could be used in shops to get product information, at bus-stops to get information about the next bus or, for example, by being passed over an advert of a rock star to find out details of concerts or get ringtones,"" he told the BBC News website. He is confident that the trial being run in Germany could be extended to transport systems in other countries. ""The technology offers access to a lot of services and makes it easy to get the information you want,"" he said.",tech
"Mobile gig aims to rock 3G..Forget about going to a crowded bar to enjoy a gig by the latest darlings of the music press...Now you could also be at a live gig on your mobile, via the latest third generation (3G) video phones. Rock outfit Rooster are playing what has been billed as the first ever concert broadcast by phone on Tuesday evening from a London venue. The 45-minute gig is due to be ""phone cast"" by the 3G mobile phone operator, 3. 3G technology lets people take, watch and send video clips on their phones, as well as swap data much faster than with 2G networks like GSM. People with 3G phones in the UK can already download football and music clips on their handsets...Some 1,000 fans of the London-based band will have to pay five pounds for a ticket and need a 3G handset...""Once you have paid, you can come and go as much as you like, because we expect the customers to be mobile,"" said 3 spokesperson Belinda Henderson. ""It's like going to a concert hall, except that you are virtually there."" The company behind the trial hopes to learn more about how people use their video phones. ""We are looking on how long people will stay on average on the streams. Some people may stay the whole time, some may dip in and out,"" said Ms Henderson. ""We actually expect people to dip in and out because they are mobile and they will be doing other things."" 3 is looking to music as a way of persuading more people to take up the latest video phones. It is already planning regular gigs throughout 2005. And during the intermission, of course, you would still be able to make a phone call.",tech
"Consumers 'snub portable video'..Consumers want music rather than movies while on the move, says a report...Produced by Jupiter Research the analysis of the portable media player market found only 13% of Europeans want to watch video while out and about. By contrast, almost a third are interested in listening to music on a portable player such as an iPod. The firm said gadget makers should avoid hybrid devices and instead make sure music reproduction was as good as possible...The report concluded that the driving force behind the growth of Europe's portable player market was likely to be music, rather than films or any combination of the two. Barely 5% of those questioned said they wanted a player that could play back both music and movies. Only 7% wanted a player that could handle games and video...""Dedicated music players are the only established digital media players in Europe today despite their high prices,"" said Ian Fogg, Jupiter analyst. Mr Fogg said although video players and smartphones were trying to cash in on this success they faced a tough job because of the compromises that had to be made when creating a dual-purpose device. ""Europeans care most about music playback,"" he said. The report showed that 27% of consumers asked are interested in portable music players. The research revealed that French, 39%, and British, 31%, consumers were most interested in music players. Mr Fogg said portable video players were likely to remain a niche product that would not be able to compete with devices dedicated to music playback...A separate report by Jupiter forecasts that the European digital music market will grow to 836m euros (£581m) by 2009. At the end of 2003, the market was worth 10.6m euros (£7.36m). Digital music players will be behind this market growth said Jupiter . Apple's iPod was launched in October 2001, but the portable music player market has been growing steadily since the launch of the Creative Nomad Jukebox in mid-2000. Now consumers face an almost overwhelming choice of high-capacity portable music players that let them store every track on every CD that they own.",tech
"Learning to love broadband..We are reaching the point where broadband is a central part of daily life, at least for some, argues technology analyst Bill Thompson...One of the nice things about being a writer is that I rarely have to go to an office to work. I can sit in a café or a library, with or without a wi-fi connection, and research and write articles. If I am passing through Kings Cross station on my way to a meeting then I can log on from the platform. And I can spend the day working with my girlfriend Anne, a children's writer, at her house in Cambridge, sharing her wireless network. But just over a week ago I arrived at her house to find that there was no network connection...We checked the cable modem and noticed that it had no power, and when she changed the power lead it sparked at her in a way which made it abundantly clear that it was never going to talk to the internet again. She called her service provider, and they told her it would be five days before an engineer would show up with a new cable modem. This did not seem too bad, but in fact she really suffered until her connection was restored on Wednesday. With no modem installed in her computer, she had to borrow internet access from friends or use the dial-up connection on her daughter's laptop, so she had to choose between copying her files onto her USB memory card or accepting a slower and flakier net connection. As a result she did not submit the pictures she wanted to use for a book on earthquakes because they were too big to send over dial-up...She could not research other material because she is used to having easy access to a fast link that lets her search quickly and effectively. But the impact spread into her personal life too. She did not take her children to the cinema during half-term because she could not find out which films were showing at the local cinemas. She planned a trip to Norfolk but did not check the weather because the only place she knows to look for weather information is the BBC website. And she did not know where to go fossil-hunting on the trip because she could not type ""fossils Norfolk"" into Google. Of course, she readily admits, she could have answered these questions if she had looked in the local paper, listened to the radio or found a book on fossils. But she did not, because having fast, always on, and easy access to the net has become part of the routine of her daily life, and when it was taken away it was too much effort to go back to the old ways of doing things. She may be unusual, but I do not think Anne is alone...According to Ofcom there were almost four million broadband users in the UK in April 2004, and numbers are climbing fast. There will certainly be five million by the end of the year. Dial-up users are switching to broadband. My dad finally made the change earlier this month and new net users are selecting broadband from the start. More and more of these broadband users are beginning to mould their daily lives around the availability of broadband internet connections, and they too will find it difficult to cope if they cannot get online for any reason...It is part of the process of adaptation, and it is a vital step in the growth of broadband in the UK and elsewhere. People who have integrated net access into their daily lives tell their friends about it, and show off the cool stuff they can do. They encourage other people to get broadband so that they can share digital photos and do all of the other things that need fast and reliable connectivity. Of course, broadband in the UK is laughably slow compared to other parts of the world. In South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong normal connection speeds are measured in megabits, or millions of bits, a second rather than the thousands that we are supposed to be happy with. But speed is only a small part of the attraction of broadband, and when it comes to checking websites for film times, looking at weather forecasts, or all of the other small things that make a real difference to the routines and habits of our daily lives, even UK speeds are sufficient. It may not be the brave new world of streaming full-screen video and superfast file downloads, but it will do for now. And it is certainly better than slow access or no access. Just ask Anne...Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital.",tech
"Nintendo DS aims to touch gamers..The mobile gaming industry is set to explode in 2005 with a number of high-profile devices offering a range of gaming and other features such as movie and music playback. Market leader Nintendo, however, is releasing a handheld console that it says will revolutionise the way games are played...The first striking thing about the DS is how retro it looks. Far from looking like a mould-breaking handheld, it looks more like Nintendo dug out a mould from a 1980s handheld prototype. The lightweight clam shell device opens up to reveal two screens, and when switched on it instantly reveals its pedigree. Both screens are crisp and clear while the bottom of the two is touch sensitive. Nintendo has given developers free rein to utilise the dual screens and ability to control the action by simply touching the screen...The Japanese gaming giant hopes the DS will maintain the firm's pre-eminence in an increasingly-competitive mobile gaming market...Nintendo first launched its GameBoy console in 1989 and has dominated the market ever since. But its lead can no longer be taken for granted. Sony will enter the market later this year with its PlayStation Portable, while start-up companies Gizmondo and Tapwave Zodiac are also offering hybrid devices. ""We believe the DS will appeal to all ages, both genders and gamers of any skill,"" said David Yarnton, Nintendo Europe's general manager said at the recent press launch for the handheld. With its two screens, wireless connectivity and backwards compatibility with the GameBoy Advance, the DS certainly has a number of unique selling points. It went on sale in the US in mid-November priced $150 and Nintendo says sales have exceeded expectations, without giving detailed figures. Japan and Europe will have to wait until the first quarter of 2005 to get the device. With more than two million pre-orders for the device in Japan, Nintendo is confident it will keep its number one spot. But will the device prove to be as revolutionary as claimed? The game ships with a demo of Metroid Hunters - a 3D action title which can be played alone or with a group of friends using the machine's wireless capabilities. It certainly looks impressive on the small machine and plays smoothly even with a group of people...The game can be controlled by using the supplied stylus to aim. The top screen is used to navigate the action while the bottom screen offers a top-down map and the ability to switch weapons. It is certainly a unique control method and while it makes aiming more controlled it can be a little disorientating. Super Mario 64 DS is a faithful re-creation of the Nintendo 64 classic with a host of new mini-games and new levels. The game looks stunning on the portable machine and the sound too is impressive for such a small machine. One thing is for certain. Hardened gamers will have to learn to adapt to a new way of playing while it could prove to be an accessible way in to gaming for novices, Ultimately the success or failure of the device lies in the hands of developers. If they manage to create titles which use the Nintendo DS's key features then a whole new market of gamers could open up. The fear is that the touch screen and voice recognition are treated as little more than gimmicks.",tech
"China 'blocks Google news site'..China has been accused of blocking access to Google News by the media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders...The Paris-based pressure group said the English-language news site had been unavailable for the past 10 days. It said the aim was to force people to use a Chinese edition of the site which, according to the watchdog, does not include critical reports. Google told the BBC News website it was aware of the problems and was investigating the causes...China is believed to extend greater censorship over the net than any other country in the world...A net police force monitors websites and e-mails, and controls on gateways connecting the country to the global internet are designed to prevent access to critical information. Popular Chinese portals such as Sina.com and Sohu.com maintain a close eye on content and delete politically sensitive comments. And all 110,000 net cafes in the country have to use software to control access to websites considered harmful or subversive...""China is censoring Google News to force internet users to use the Chinese version of the site which has been purged of the most critical news reports,"" said the group in a statement. ""By agreeing to launch a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government, Google has let itself be used by Beijing,"" it said. For its part, the search giant said it was looking into the issue. ""It appears that many users in China are having difficulty accessing Google News sites in China and we are working to understand and resolve the issue,"" said a Google spokesperson. Google News gathers information from some 4,500 news sources. Headlines are selected for display entirely by a computer algorithm, with no human editorial intervention. It offers 15 editions of the service, including one tailored for China and one for Hong Kong. Google launched a version in simplified Chinese in September. The site does not filter news results to remove politically sensitive information. But Google does not link to news sources which are inaccessible from within China as this would result in broken links.",tech
"A question of trust and technology..A major government department is without e-mail for a week, and technology analyst Bill Thompson wants to know what happened...A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how my girlfriend had suffered when her cable modem blew up and she was offline for several days. It seems that thousands of civil servants at the UK's Department of Work and Pensions went through the same thing last week. It has emerged that the internal network crashed in a particularly horrible way, depriving staff of e-mail and access to the application software they use to calculate people's benefit and pension entitlement or note changes in personal circumstances. Senior consultants from EDS, the computer firm which manage the system, and Microsoft, which supplied the software, were running around trying to figure out what had to be done to fix it all, while staff resorted to phone, fax and probably carrier pigeon to get work done. Fortunately the back-office systems which actually pay people their money were still working, so only new claims and updates were affected done properly. This is bad enough for those affected, but it does mean that the impact is not devastating for millions of pensioners. I am sure regular readers will be expecting one of my usual diatribes against poor software, badly specified systems and inadequate disaster recovery plans...Although the full story has not yet been told, it seems that the problem started when a plan to upgrade some of the computers from Windows 2000 to Windows XP went wrong, and XP code was inadvertently copied to thousands of machines across the network...This is certainly unfortunate, but I have a lot of sympathy for the network managers and technology staff involved. Today's computer networks are large, complex and occasionally fragile. The interconnectedness that we all value also gives us a degree of instability and unpredictability that we cannot design out of the systems. It is the network equivalent of Godel's Theorem - any system sufficiently complex to be useful is also able to collapse catastrophically. So I will reserve judgment on the technology aspects until we all know what actually happened and whether it was a consequence of software failure or just bad luck. What is really disturbing, and cannot be excused, is the fact that it took four days for news of this systems failure to leak out into the technical press...It is, without a doubt, a major story and was the second or third lead item on BBC Radio 4's Today programme throughout Friday morning...So why did not the prime minister's official spokesman mention it at any lobby briefings before Friday? Why was not the pensions minister in Parliament to make an emergency statement on Tuesday, when it was clear that there was a serious problem? If there had been an outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in the air conditioning system we would have been told, but it seems that major technology problems do not merit the same treatment. While EDS and Microsoft will no doubt be looking for technical lessons to learn from their week of pain, we can learn some political lessons too. And the most important is that in this digital world, technology failures are matters of public interest, not something that can be ignored in the hope that nobody will notice, care or understand. That means we need a full report on what went wrong and what was done to fix it. It would be unacceptable for any of the parties involved to hide behind commercial confidentiality or even parliamentary privilege. A major system has evidently collapsed and we need to know what went wrong and what is being done differently. Anything less is a betrayal of public trust...Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital.",tech
"Call for action on internet scam..Phone companies are not doing enough to warn customers about internet ""rogue-dialling"" scams, according to premium phone line regulator Icstis...It has received 45,000 complaints in recent months about dial-up internet connections diverting to premium rate numbers without users' knowledge. Phone companies refuse to pay compensation because they say calls must be paid for. They must warn people earlier about possible fraud, Icstis said...People who use dial-up connections can be affected by the scams. Without realising, a program can be downloaded which diverts internet calls via a premium phone line. Victims often fail to notice until they receive an unusually high bill. Icstis spokesman Rob Dwight said: ""Phone companies should get in touch with their customers sooner. ""If my bill goes over the usual £50 a month I want to know about it straight away - I don't want to be told when it's hit £750.""..Phone companies had the systems in place to spot fraudulent activity and artificially-inflated traffic, he said. ""We alert them to the numbers that we have under investigation and they should be looking out for these numbers,"" he added...Telecoms ombudsman Elizabeth France said: ""Certainly I would not be surprised to find my credit card company phoning me if I do something out of the ordinary. ""So I would expect phone companies to be looking to see if they can have a similar approach."" The biggest phone company BT says it is doing what it can to monitor fraud and warn people about rogue dialling. Its advice to customers is to use call barring if they want to prevent calls to premium lines because, under the current system, once the call has been made there's little that can be done...Gavin Patterson, group managing director for BT Consumer, said ""We do look at customer's calling patterns and we do make interventions when they are out of the ordinary. ""We're looking at the moment at whether we can improve this."" But as BT handled 180 million calls a day monitoring was ""quite a task in itself"", he added. The government has ordered a review of premium line services and is likely to say Icstis should have more power to deal with rogue diallers in future. At the moment, it cannot demand pay-outs on the behalf of customer - it can only close illegal services down...I use free anti-virus software (AVG) and free firewall protection (ZoneAlarm). Both of these tools have prevented unauthorised access and outgoing calls inadvertently and innocently caused by my daughter's love of music sites. How about ISPs informing all customers of such facilities? The responsibility clearly falls with the customer but many fall prey through simply not knowing how to avoid these issues...Ignorance is and always has been an expensive business...Does any one know what happens once this fraud has been committed and recognised? The phone companies pay the people who obtaining money fraudulently, so are these people followed up and prosecuted ?..These diallers are mainly downloaded from sites offering illegal MP3s, porn and pirated software. If people didn't visit such sites they'd be considerably less at risk. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? It seems everyone has to be a 'victim' these days!..Part of the blame has to rest with the manufacturers of home computer operating systems. A secure system should not allow a web page or email to download and install anything without the user's knowledge...These scams are illegal and telephone companies should have nothing to do with them. They should refuse to pay money over to the perpetrators. Or are they themselves receiving such good returns that it is in their interest to keep the scam going?..Why don't BT et al block all premium numbers by default and only turn it off at the customer's request? To anyone who falls foul of this scam - refuse to pay your telephone provider for these calls. After you notify your telephone provider of these fraudulent transactions, they cannot insist on you paying the bill. To do so would be to knowingly assist the fraudsters to commit the fraud. No customers have yet been taken to court for refusing to pay these bills...Disable or remove your modem and use broadband instead - then you have nothing to worry about. Or buy some decent firewall software and anti-virus. You would not walk out in the freezing cold without a coat - you would not drive your car without any insurance - so why not protect your PC? Stop blaming the phone companies - it's not their fault!..I was very impressed with our phone company recently. I had kept ringing a hotline number for Kylie tickets and next day they rang back to ask if I was aware there were 40-odd calls to the same number. Great service. And I got the tickets as well!..I have a colleague who has fallen victim to this kind of scam. He informed the phone company about it, they subsequently put a block on premium rate numbers. Three months later another huge bill of over £1,000 came in - the block apparently didn't work and he still has to pay for it, even though a block was in place. Phone companies are probably quite happy for their customers to be hit with a huge bill, otherwise they'd be taking extra steps to prevent this kind of problem...I have been scammed of £139. The operator will do nothing about this and, to add insult to injury, I was charged VAT by the government...Premium rate numbers have been subject to various scams ever since they were invented. One example was where thieves would set up a premium rate number and then dial it day and night from phones whose quarterly bills were never paid. The telephone company was the victim here and you can bet that loophole was blocked very quickly...I know people who have run up large bills, despite being IT-literate. From talking to BT in Belfast, I believe that they will shortly be giving out a free application that can stop you dialling expensive numbers without knowing. It's not the fault of phone companies, and at last they are doing something about it...It's about time that the profiteering by the 'legitimate' phone companies came to an end, mainly by doing away with dial-up altogether and bring broadband down to the same price as dial-up! Not only will this ruin things for the dialler scammers but also allow people to update and upgrade their security more easily and quickly...I haven't ""fallen victim to a rogue-dialling scam"" but I think you're seriously remiss in not pointing out that the vast majority of these scams arise from people trying to access services purporting to provide free pornography. In most cases the user is entirely at fault, which is probably why the telephone companies are rightly unwilling to refund them...My telephone supplier did not inform me that my monthly bill had risen from its normal £3 to £5, to £320. This was because of the scam. They simply billed me. What particularly galls me, over and above having over £300 stolen, is that the supplier and the government (through VAT) are profiting from this crime and will not reimburse me their portion of my losses...How about an automatic monthly cap of say £20 on premium rate calls that you would have to contact your provider to have lifted? That way you could use legitimate premium rate numbers while limiting fraudulent usage. At least any disputed amount would be limited, far easier for a telecoms operator to write off £20 than it is £750...A few years back I was also the target of such scams but thank God I have already upgraded to broadband and nothing was connected to my modem so all I heard was the sound of an attempted connection...How about home users take some responsibility and ensure their anti-virus and firewall software is up to date? That should prevent the vast majority of these scams.",tech
"Screensaver tackles spam websites..Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites..Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail. Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out. The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data...""We've never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do,"" said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe. ""In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users,"" he said, ""but now we are going to go one step further.""..""We've found a way to make it much higher cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers."" By getting thousands of people to download and use the screensaver, Lycos hopes to get spamming websites constantly running at almost full capacity. Mr Pollmann said there was no intention to stop the spam websites working by subjecting them with too much data to cope with. He said the screensaver had been carefully written to ensure that the amount of traffic it generated from each user did not overload the web. ""Every single user will contribute three to four megabytes per day,"" he said, ""about one MP3 file."" But, he said, if enough people sign up spamming websites could be force to pay for gigabytes of traffic every single day. Lycos did not want to use e-mail to fight back, said Mr Pollmann. ""That would be fighting one bad thing with another bad thing,"" he said...The sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail messages and which sell the goods and services on offer...Typically these sites are different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a few thousand visitors per day. The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods. As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Mr Pollmann. Sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests. Early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to 85%. Users do not have to be registered users of Lycos to download and use the screensaver. While working, the screensaver shows the websites that are being bothered with requests for data. The screensaver is due to be launched across Europe on 1 December and before now has only been trialled in Sweden. Despite the soft launch, Mr Pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the last four days. ""There's a huge user demand to not only filter spam day-by-day but to do something more,"" he said ""Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive.""",tech
"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.""",tech
"Online commons to spark debate..Online communities set up by the UK government could encourage public debate and build trust, says the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR)...Existing services such as eBay could provide a good blueprint for such services, says the think-tank. Although the net is becoming part of local and central government, its potential has not yet been fully exploited to create an online ""commons"" for public debate. In its report, Is Online Community A Policy Tool?, the IPPR also asks if ID cards could help create safer online communities. Adopting an eBay-type model would let communities create their own markets for skills and services and help foster a sense of local identity and connection. ""What we are proposing is a civic commons,"" Will Davies, senior research fellow at the IPPR told the BBC News website. ""A single publicly funded and run online community in which citizens can have a single place to go where you can go to engage in diversity and in a way that might have a policy implication - like a pre-legislation discussion.""..The idea of a ""civic commons"" was originally proposed by Stephen Coleman, professor of e-democracy at the Oxford Internet Institute. The IPPR report points to informal, small scale examples of such commons that already exist. It mentions good-practice public initiatives like the BBC's iCan project which connects people locally and nationally who want to take action around important issues...But he adds, government could play a bigger role in setting up systems of trust for online communities too. Proposals for ID cards, for instance, could also be widened to see if they could be used online. They could provide the basis for a secure authentication system which could have value for peer-to-peer interaction online. ""At the moment they have been presented as a way for government to keep tabs on people and ensuring access to public services,"" said Mr Davies. ""But what has not been explored is how authentication technology may potentially play a role in decentralised online communities."" The key idea to take from systems such as eBay and other online communities is letting members rate each other's reputation by how they treat other members. Using a similar mechanism, trust and cooperation between members of virtual and physical communities could be built. This could mean a civic commons would work within a non-market system which lets people who may disagree with one another interact within publicly-recognised rules...E-government initiatives over the last decade have very much been about putting basic information and service guides online as well as letting people interact with government via the web. Many online communities, such as chatrooms, mailing lists, community portals, message boards and weblogs often form around common interests or issues...With 53% of UK households now with access to the net, the government, suggests Mr Davies, could act as an intermediary or ""middleman"" to set up public online places of debate and exchange to encourage more ""cosmopolitan politics"" and public trust in policy. ""Government already plays a critical role in helping citizens trade with each other online. ""But it should also play a role in helping citizens connect to one another in civic, non-market interactions,"" said Mr Davies. There is a role for public bodies like the BBC, libraries, and government to bring people back into public debate again instead of millions of ""cliques"" talking to each other, he added. The paper is part of the IPPR's Digital Society initiative which is producing a number of conferences and research papers leading up to the publication of A Manifesto For A Digital Britain.",tech
"Mobile gaming takes off in India..Gaming on the move is one of the fastest-growing activities among the tech-savvy in India, says a report...The Indian mobile gaming market is expected to generate about $26m (£13.8m) by the end of 2004, according to market analysts In-Stat/MDR. In October, mobile phone users grew by 1.4 million to 44.9 million, overtaking the number of landlines, said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Analysts say cheap rates and a huge youth market is driving the market. India has a large population of under-25s, and many in urban areas are fast adopting mobiles as must-have gadgets...India's mobile gaming market will bring in about $336m (£178m) by 2009, according to the report. Mobile gaming is expected to explode globally over the next few years. Analysts predict that 220 million people will be playing games on phones by 2009, generating billions for mobile companies...Services other than just voice calls which are offered by mobile operators in India have, as a result of the huge rise in subscribers, grown significantly and rapidly. ""The growth of this market sector has attracted publishers, developers, animators, musicians, and content providers, and is also stimulating the development of innovative business models,"" said Clint Wheelock, director of In-Stat/MDR's wireless research group...""Mobile gaming is not just about fun; it also represents one key element of a rich mobile entertainment experience for consumers, and a lucrative market opportunity for industry players."" Currently, India has six big games developers and four mobile operators that offer games to their subscribers, said the report. According to In-Stat/MDR, it is tipped to make up one of the most important markets in the next wave of mobile multimedia growth...In January 2003, there were only 10 million mobile subscribers in India. Many choose mobiles in rural areas in order to bypass poorer telecoms infrastructure. Despite this, the penetration rate is still much lower that other countries. Less than 20% of India's total population own a mobile in India, compared to well over 50% in most European countries. The trend echoes the uptake of mobiles in many developing economies, which continues to grow as people opt to leapfrog slower and more expensive state-run fixed-line operators.",tech
"Gadget market 'to grow in 2005'..The explosion in consumer technology is to continue into 2005, delegates at the world's largest gadget show, in Las Vegas, have been told...The number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11%, while devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. ""Everything is going digital,"" Kirsten Pfeifer from the Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC News website. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured the pick of 2005's products. ""Consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like HDTVs [high-definition TVs], digital radio, and digital cameras will remain strong in 2005. ""All the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the industry."" Despite showing diversity, some delegates attending complained that the showcase lacked as much ""wow factor"" as in previous years...The portable technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of CES, which was the ""time and place shifting"" of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to video and music anywhere, at any time. At the start of last year's CES, the CEA predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. That figure was surpassed with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players, personal video recorders and digital cameras. It was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot more about lifestyle choice, with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly key to the way gadgets are designed. Part of this has been the rise in spending power of the ""generation X-ers"" who have grown up with technology and who now have the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. More than 57% of the consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers, according to CEA research. Hybrid devices, which combine a number of multimedia functions, were also in evidence on the show floor. ""A lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it,"" said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm NPD Group. ""Some of these functions cost next to nothing to add.""..As well as the show floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable MP3 players to giant high-definition TVs, several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders, such as Microsoft chief Bill Gates. Despite several embarrassing technical glitches during Mr Gate's pre-show speech, he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the US market. He unveiled new ways of letting people take TV shows recorded on personal video recorders and watch them back on portable devices. He disappointed some, however, by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the Xbox games console. Another disappointment was the lack of exposure Sony's new portable games device, the PSP, had at the show. Sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most likely start shipping in March for the US and Europe. It went on sale in Japan before Christmas. There were only two PSPs embedded in glass cabinets at the show though and no representatives to discuss further details. A Sony representative told the BBC News website this was because Sony did not consider it to be part of their ""consumer technology"" offering...Elsewhere at the show, there was a plethora of colour and plasma screens, including Samsung's 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the largest in the world. Industry experts were also excited about high-definition technologies coming to the fore in 2005, with new formats for DVDs coming out which will hold six times as much data as conventional DVDs. With so many devices on the move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage, like Seagate's 5GB pocket sized external hard drive, which won an innovation for engineering and design prize. More than 120,000 trade professionals attended CES in Las Vegas, which officially ran from 6 to 9 January.",tech
"Swap offer for pirated Windows XP..Computer giant Microsoft has launched a pilot scheme to replace counterfeit versions of Windows XP with legal ones...The first-time initiative is restricted to the UK and to users with pre-installed copies of the operating system in PCs bought before November. Until December Microsoft said software can be sent to it for analysis if there are doubts about its legitimacy. The company aims to detect illegal traders and turn users of fake versions of Windows into legitimate ones...The Windows XP Counterfeit Project will mean that software that is found to be counterfeit will be replaced for free, subject to certain conditions, until the end of the year. It is the first time Microsoft has launched a counterfeit product replacement scheme in the world, the company told the BBC News website. In June, the software giant said that the major security update to Windows XP, Service Pack 2, would not work with the most widely pirated versions of its operating system. The upgrade closed security loopholes in XP and added features that made it easier to keep machines safe from viruses and other types of malicious computer code...The US company invited anyone who had suspicions about their version of Windows XP to submit it for testing as soon as possible. The procedure consists of a series of computer checks, collating documents, and filling out a witness statement. ""This is a great opportunity for users to confirm the authenticity of Windows XP software whilst helping gather vital information about illegal traders"", said Alex Hilton, licence compliance manager at Microsoft. The scheme has also been welcomed by the technology and commerce industry. ""It is important that users ensure that they are legally licensed to avoid the risks of purchasing and using counterfeit products"", said David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce. The plan would enable Microsoft to gather intelligence about illegal traders in a prompt way, which would allow it to take action against software pirates. Microsoft said it would evaluate the results of the UK programme before setting up similar schemes in other countries.",tech
"Ban hits Half-Life 2 pirates hard..About 20,000 people have been banned from playing the Half-Life 2 game...Game maker Valve shut down the online accounts of the players because it had evidence that their copy of the game had been obtained illegally. Copies of Half-Life 2 had been circulating on file-sharing systems soon after it was officially released. Experts said the success of the Half-Life 2 anti-piracy system might tempt other game makers into creating their own version...Half-Life 2 was officially released on 16 November but before gamers could get to grips with the long-awaited title they were forced to authenticate their copy of the game online. Authentication involved setting up an account with Valve's gaming community system called Steam and letting that check which copy of the game was being run...In a statement detailing the banning of the accounts Valve said this system helped identify who had got hold of pirated copies. ""The method used was extremely easy for Valve to trace and confirm, and so there is no question that the accounts disabled were used to try and illegally obtain Half-Life 2,"" read the statement. Valve spokesman Doug Lombardi said that the company had not yet released sales figures for the game and would not say what proportion of all Steam players the 20,000 represented. One effect of Steam's popularity has been to limit the copies of the game sold in shops and artificially depress the game's ranking in the top ten. Even so the title debuted at No 3 in the UK charts. Valve also said that a small number of accounts were closed because people were using stolen credit cards to buy copies of the game or were using stolen Steam accounts. Some of those who have been banned by the move protested their innocence in the online forums on the main Steam site and said they were being punished for what other people did with their account...Some contributors to the forums wondered if the action might force more piracy as people tried to get hold of successive copies of the game to keep ahead of Valve's anti-piracy actions...In its statement Valve also said that rumours that it distributed fake Half-Life 2 keys, copies of the game or instructions on how to hack the game, just to catch pirates and cheats were false. The company said: ""The hack came from the 'community' as do they all."" It added that most of those banned simply tried to use copies of Half-Life 2 circulating on file-swapping systems such as Bit Torrent rather than use hacks to get around the need for CD keys. Rob Fahey, editor of online news site gamesindustry.biz, said the mass banning showed off the power of the Steam system. Before now, he said, it has been hard for game makers to do anything about piracy once the game was being played. ""But with this, Valve is taking really effective steps against people using illegitimate copies of Half-Life 2,"" he said. If Steam proves effective at cutting the piracy of games to a minimum, said Mr Fahey, other game makers may be tempted to set up copycat systems. ""It's not hard to see a point in the near future when every publisher wants you to run an application on your system purely to allow you to play their games,"" he said. This could mean that computers get cluttered with poorly written Steam-type systems that are used to batter people with adverts. Unless game firms were careful, he said, they could face a backlash from consumers who soon get tired of maintaining different accounts for every game they play.",tech
"New browser wins over net surfers..The proportion of surfers using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) has dropped to below 90%, say web analysts...Net traffic monitor, OneStat.com, has reported that the open-source browser Firefox 1.0, released on 9 November, seems to be drawing users away from IE. While IE's market share has dropped 5% since May to 88.9%, Mozilla browsers - including Firefox - have grown by 5%. Firefox is made by the Mozilla Foundation which was set up by former browser maker Netscape in 1998. Although there have been other preview versions of Firefox, version 1.0 was the first complete official program. ""It seems that people are switching from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla's new Firefox browser,"" said Niels Brinkman, co-founder of Amsterdam-based OneStat.com...Mozilla browsers - including Firefox 1.0 - now have 7.4% of the market share, the figures suggest. Mozilla said that more than five million have downloaded the free software since its official release. Supporters of the open-source software in the US managed to raise $250,000 (£133,000) to advertise the release of Firefox 1.0 in The New York Times, and support the Mozilla Foundation. There was a flurry of downloads on its first day of release...The figures echo similar research from net analyst WebSideStory which suggested that IE had 92.9% of users in October compared to 95.5% in June. Microsoft IE has dominated the browser market for some time after taking the crown from Netscape, and its share of users has always stayed at around the 95% mark. Firefox is attractive to many because it is open-source. That means people are free to adapt the software's core code to create other innovative features, like add-ons or extensions to the program. Fewer security holes have also been discovered so far in Firefox than in IE. Paul Randle, Microsoft Windows Client product manager, responded to the figures: ""We certainly respect that some customers will choose alternative browsers and that choosing a browser is about more than a handful of features. ""Microsoft continues to make significant investments in IE, including Service Pack 2 with advanced security technologies, and continues to encourage a vibrant ecosystem of third party add-ons for Internet Explorer."" Firefox wants to capture 10% of the market by the end of 2005. Other browser software, like Opera and Apple's Safari, are also challenging Microsoft's grip on the browser market. Opera is set to release its version 7.60 by the end of the year. OneStat.com compiled the statistical measurements from two million net users in 100 countries.",tech
"Smartphones suffer Skulls attack..Owners of some Nokia smartphones are being warned to watch out for malicious wallpaper...Those downloading the software could find all the icons on their 7610 phone swapped for images of skulls. When installed the malicious program also locks many of the 7610's functions making it hard to use and harder to repair. The program is only the latest in a series of viruses produced to attack mobile phones...The file, nicknamed Skulls, is thought to have surfaced on shareware sites where people can pick up free add-ons, such as wallpaper, games and ringtones, for their phones Symbian said that it was not sure if the damage Skulls does was intentional or simply a result of bad programming. Soon after being discovered the file is thought to have been removed from the sites that were unwittingly harbouring it. The program is masquerading as software that creates new background images and themes for the main screen of the 7610 phone. The Skulls program is labelled as a file called: 7610.extended.theme.manager.zip...Once installed the program replaces all the icons on the main page with skulls and replaces all the working applications, such as contacts, calendar, notebook etc with non-working versions so the phone becomes almost useless. The only thing the phone can do is make and take calls. A statement by Symbian played down the significance of the malicious program and said few people would fall victim to it as users have to go through several steps to install it, one of which includes ignoring a security warning. Symbian said that the spread of the Skulls program was likely to be limited as the program cannot travel from one phone to another by itself. Despite this Finnish anti-virus lab F-Secure said it had sporadic reports of 7610 owners being caught out by it. The firm has produced guidance for users caught out to help them remove the program and get their phone working again. The Skulls program is thought to have been written by a malicious hacker using the alias Tee-222. Symbian phones produced by Sony Ericsson, Motorola, BenQ, Arima and Fujitsu are unaffected by the Skulls program.",tech
"Musical future for phones..Analyst Bill Thompson has seen the future and it is in his son's hands...I bought my son Max a 3G phone, partly because they are so cheap and he needed a phone, and partly because I am supposed to know about the latest technology and thought I should see how they work in real life. After using it for a while I am not at all tempted to get rid of my SonyEricsson P800 smart phone. That has a relatively large screen, even if it does only have slower GPRS access to the network. I can read my e-mail, surf the web using a proper browser and write stuff using the stylus on its touch screen. Last week someone e-mailed me a document that had been compressed into a ZIP file, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my phone even knew how to decompress it for me. By contrast the confusing menus, complicated keyboard and truly irritating user interface of Max's 3G phone simply get in the way, and I did not see much value in the paid-for services, especially the limited web access. The videos of entertainment news, horoscopes and the latest celebrity gossip did not appeal, and I did not see how the small screen could be useful for any sort of image, never mind micro-TV...But then Max started playing, and I realised I was missing the point entirely...It is certainly not a great overall experience, but that is largely due to the poor menu system and the phone layout: the video content itself is compelling. The quality was at least as good as the video streaming from the BBC website, and the image is about the same size. Max was completely captivated, and I was intrigued to discover that I had nearly missed the next stage of the network revolution. It is easy to be dismissive of small screens, and indeed anyone of my generation, with failing eyesight and the view that 'there's never anything worth watching on TV', is hardly going to embrace these phones. But just as the World Wide Web was the ""killer application"" that drove internet adoption, music videos are going to drive 3G adoption. With Vodafone now pushing its own 3G service, and 3 already established in the UK, video on the phone is clearly going to become a must-have for kids sitting on the school bus, adults waiting outside clubs and anyone who has time to kill and a group of friends to impress...This will please the network operators, who are looking for some revenue from their expensively acquired 3G licences. But it goes deeper than that: playing music videos on a phone marks the beginning of a move away from the 'download and play' model we have all accepted for our iPods and MP3 players. After all, why should I want to carry 60GB of music and pictures around with me in my pocket when I can simply listen to anything I want, whenever I want, streamed to my phone? Oh - and of course you can always use the phone to make voice calls and send texts, something which ensures that it is always in someone's pocket or handbag, available for other uses too. I have never really approved of using the Internet Protocol (IP), to do either audio or video streaming, and I think that technically it is a disaster to make phone calls over the net using ""voice over IP""...But I have to acknowledge that the net, at least here in the developed Western countries, is fast and reliable enough to do both...I stream radio to my computer while I work, and enjoy hearing the bizarre stations from around the world that I can find online but nowhere else. I am even playing with internet telephony, despite my reservations, and I appear on Go Digital on the World Service, streamed over the web each week. But 3G networks have been designed to do this sort of streaming, both for voice and video, which gives them an edge over net-based IP services. The 3G services aren't quite there yet, and there is a lot to be sorted out when it comes to web access and data charges. Vodafone will let you access its services on Vodafone Live! as part of your subscription cost but it makes you pay by the megabyte to download from other sites - this one, for example. This will not matter to business users, but will distort the consumer market and keep people within the phone company's collection of partner sites, something that should perhaps be worrying telecoms regulator Ofcom. But we should not see these new phones simply as cut-down network terminals. If I want fast access to my e-mail I can get a 3G card for my laptop or hook up to a wireless network. The phone is a lot more, and it is as a combination of mini-TV, personal communications device and music/video player that it really works. There is certainly room in the technology ecosystem for many different sorts of devices, accessing a wide range of services over different networks. 3G phones and iPods can co-exist, at least for a while, but if I had to bet on the long term I would go for content on demand over carrying gigabytes in my pocket. Or perhaps some enterprising manufacturer will offer me both. An MP3G player, anyone?..Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital.",tech
"Multi-purpose TV aids India..Two-thirds of the world's population, 4 billion people, live on $2,000 a year or less...You might think that the last thing on their minds would be getting a television set or a computer. But that's not the case. Many people in the developing world give up one of their daily meals so they can afford to buy a TV. And now, an Indian-born computer engineer thinks he's come up with a way to give them cheap access to the internet. Carnegie Mellon Professor Raj Reddy has spent the bulk of his professional career trying to find ways to make technology accessible to poor people. The first step is to figure out why poor people would want a personal computer and Professor Reddy thinks he has a pretty good idea of why they might. ""I come from a village,"" says Prof Reddy, ""I know what the population is like, many of them are illiterate, and many of them have other concerns."" ""There, nobody will use it for the conventional uses of a PC, word processing and Powerpoint,"" he said. ""So it's clear to me that if people wanted to use PCs in a village - it has to usable by illiterate people and it must be primarily for entertainment, education, telemedicine, and access to expert advice.""..Prof Reddy also thinks that tying it into some kind of aid package was the wrong approach. After all, he asked -- what aid group could possibly give expensive computers to 250 million less fortunate Indians, let alone the billions of poor people around the world?..Instead, Prof Reddy decided to think of those 250 million Indians as a potential market. The problem then becomes one of making the product compelling enough. ""It must be so compelling that you would give up your third meal in order to have this,"" Prof Reddy says. ""People do this today with television sets. If you go to India, and many other countries, they will first go get a television set before they worry about one more meal. Why? Because personalized entertainment has become very important."" This hatched a completely new idea. He calls it a PCtvt - A personal computer, television and telephone all in one that runs on a normal desktop machine. Literate users can surf through the applications with a keyboard and mouse but illiterate users can use what looks like a television remote control...On the screen, pictures - not words - designate applications like TV, voice mail, and video e-mail. This dependence on graphics, video and audio means that a computer for an illiterate person needs 100 times more power and more memory than one for a PhD. Prassana Rambathla, one of Prof Reddy's graduate students, says that ""when you're talking illiterate you're talking audio and video, and that demands exponentially high bandwidth.' ""It can't choke at any point in time, and it has to withstand anything no matter what you're pressing."" ""The major part is making it foolproof, very tough, so that it never breaks,"" he says. The Carnegie Mellon team says this project is only possible because PCs are now so much cheaper and have built-in audio and video hardware and software. Limited trials of the PCtvt are due to start this month in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh...Although Andhra Pradesh has a fairly good infrastructure but work has to be done to ensure reliable connections to the net. Prof Reddy has teamed up with Eric Brewer at the University of California at Berkeley. The answer, says Prof Brewer, is wi-fi...""We're looking at the thing you'll see in Starbuck's or many other hotspots,"" he says. ""We're doing a lot of work on long-distance wireless and how to make the network work better in the presence of intermittency, when the power goes up and down, and the links go up and down, and the computers you're connected to just get turned off for no reason."" Prof Reddy says he hopes to lease the PCtvts for about $10 a month, and thinks Indians will rent the units for the television and DVD capabilities. Reddy says he can then introduce the PCtvt's other technologies - such as video mail. For example, a farmer could use the PCtvt's webcam to send a picture of a harmful insect to a local official who could send back a proposed course of action to the farmer. Prof Reddy thinks this kind of communication is the real pay-off. ""The underlying problem,"" he says, ""is how you can increase their wealth and reduce their poverty and reduce their illiteracy, and improve their health care.' ""And what I'm postulating is that this is the technology that will enable them. If I didn't have it, it would be an uphill battle. Even with the technology it's an uphill battle. But I have a tool. There is hope. I can reach them in ways that have not been possible before.""..Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production",tech
"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.",tech