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european losses hit gm s profits general motors (gm) saw its net profits fall 37% in the last quarter of 2004 as it continued to be hit by losses at its european operations. the us giant earned $630m (£481.5m) in the october-to-december period down from $1bn in the fourth quarter of 2003. gm s revenues rose 4.7% to $51.2bn from $48.8bn a year earlier. the fourth-quarter losses at general motors europe totalled $345m up from $66m during the same period in 2003. gm s main european brands are opel and vauxhall. excluding special items gm s global income from continuing operations totalled $569m during the quarter down from $838m a year earlier. the results were in line with wall street expectations and shares in gm rose by about 1% in pre-market trade. for the whole of 2004 gm earned $3.7bn down from $3.8bn in 2003 while its annual revenue rose 4.5% to $193bn. gm said its profits were also hit by higher healthcare costs in the us. gm reported solid overall results in 2004 despite challenging competitive conditions in many markets around the globe gm chairman and chief executive rick wagoner said in a statement. the company recently announced that it expected profits in 2005 to be lower than in 2004.

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.

solskjaer raises hopes of return manchester united striker ole gunnar solskjaer said he hoped to return next season following a career-threatening injury to his right knee. the 31-year-old norway international had surgery in sweden in august to transplant cartilage into the joint. i m in no doubt that i ll play again solskjaer told aftenposten daily. the problem will be the speed but we re talking about eight months time. it s going as it should with the knee. i m slavishly following a programme. solskjaer last played for united as a late substitute in may s fa cup final win over millwall. his contract with united runs out in 2006 by which time he will have been at the premier league club for 10 years.

french suitor holds lse meeting european stock market euronext has met with the london stock exchange (lse) amid speculation that it may be ready to launch a cash bid. euronext chief jean-francois theodore held talks with lse boss clara furse the day after rival deutsche boerse put forward its own bid case. the german exchange said it had held constructive professional and friendly talks with the lse. but euronext declined to comment after the talks ended on friday. speculation is mounting that the germans may raise their bid to £1.5bn. deutsche boerse previously offered £1.3bn which was rejected by the lse while euronext is rumoured to have facilities in place to fund a £1.4bn cash bid. so far however neither have tabled a formal bid. but a deal with either bidder would create the biggest stock market operator in europe and the second biggest in the world after the new york stock exchange. there was speculation euronext would use friday s meeting as an opportunity to take advantage of growing disquiet over deutsche boerse s own plans for dominance over the london market. unions for deutsche boerse staff in frankfurt has reportedly expressed fears that up to 300 jobs would be moved to london if the takeover is successful. the works council has expressed concerns that the equities and derivatives trade could be managed from london in the future reuters news agency reports a union source as saying. german politicians are also said to be angry over the market operator s promise to move its headquarters to london if a bid were successful. meanwhile lse shareholders fear that deutsche boerse s control over its clearstream unit - the clearing house that processes securities transactions - would create a monopoly situation. this would weaken the position of shareholders when negotiating lower transaction fees for share dealings. lse and euronext do not have control over their clearing and settlement operations a situation which critics say is more transparent and competitive. the german group s ownership of clearstream has been seen as the main stumbling block to a london-frankfurt merger. commentators believe deutsche boerse which has now formally asked german authorities to approve its plan to buy the lse may offer to sell clearstream to gain shareholder approval. euronext so far has given little away as to what sweeteners it will offer the lse - europe s biggest equity market - into a deal.

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.

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.

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.

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.

beckham virus spotted on the net virus writers are trading on interest in david beckham to distribute their malicious wares. messages are circulating widely that purport to have evidence of the england captain in a compromising position. but anyone visiting the website mentioned in the message will not see pictures of mr beckham but will have their computer infected by a virus. the pernicious program opens a backdoor on a computer so it can be controlled remotely by malicious hackers. the appearance of the beckham windows trojan is just another example in a long line of viruses that trade on interest in celebrities in an attempt to fuel their spread. tennis player anna kournikova popstars britney spears and avril lavigne as well as arnold schwarzenegger have all been used in the past to try to con people into opening infected files. the huge amount of interest in mr beckham and his private life and the large number of messages posted to discussion groups on the net might mean that the malicious program catches a lot of people out. the public s appetite for salacious gossip about the private life of the beckhams might lead some into an unpleasant computer infection said graham cluley from anti-virus firm sophos. simply opening the message will not infect a user s pc. but anyone visiting the website it mentions who then downloads and opens the fake image file stored on that site will be infected. the program that installs itself is called the hackarmy trojan and it tries to recruit pcs into so-called bot networks that are often used to distribute spam mail messages or to launch attacks across the web. computers running microsoft windows 95 98 2000 nt and xp are vulnerable to this trojan. many anti-virus programs have been able to detect this trojan since it first appeared early this year and have regularly been updated to catch new variants.

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.

gizmondo gadget hits the shelves the gizmondo combined media player phone and gaming gadget goes on sale on saturday. priced at £229 the handheld device is debuting in the uk and goes on sale in the us and mainland europe in the next few weeks. a catalogue of about 20 games is being prepared for the gadget including the great escape and conflict vietnam. the british-backed gadget faces stiff competition from handheld gaming devices made by nintendo and sony. the gizmondo device packs a lot of functions inside its black cover and is aimed at gamers and those that want more from their game-playing gadgets. it can be used to play games music tracks and movies. it can take and store digital photos and be used like a mobile phone to send text multimedia and e-mail messages. the phone service to enable people to send messages is being provided by pre-pay vodafone accounts bundled in with the device. it also works with gps (global position system) so can also be used as a navigation aid or to support a variety of location-based services. the gprs and bluetooth wireless data systems onboard mean that it can be used for multi-player gaming. the gadget will be available from the gizmondo store on london s regent street and from several other retail partners. although the device rolls together an impressive list of functions it will face serious competition from three established names in mobile gaming: nintendo nokia and sony. the main competition is likely to come from nintendo and sony. nintendo s ds handheld went on sale on 11 march and priced at £99 costs far less than the gizmondo. it also has a ready pool of fans of earlier nintendo handhelds to draw on. in the first two days it was on sale in europe the 87 000 ds handhelds were sold - a better debut than the gamecube enjoyed. sony s psp was due to make its european debut in march but now this is likely to be delayed by a few months. the psp is due to go on sale in the us later this month and a bundle including the player accessories and a copy of spiderman 2 is expected to cost about $250 (£129). the psp can also play music and movies and supports wireless multiplayer gaming. nokia s n-gage could also be a competitor on the telecommunications side. this too crams a fully functional phone into a gadget that also plays games.

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.

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.

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.

could rivalry overshadow election tony blair and gordon brown are desperately trying to stuff the genie of their rivalry back into the bottle. along with any number of senior cabinet colleagues they are insisting their only job is to win the next election and govern in the best interests of britain. it is a message they are aiming directly at their backbenchers who are becoming irritated and even unnerved by the continuing claims and counter claims surrounding this alleged rift. ian gibson for example urged the two men to stop squabbling declaring: for goodness sake sometimes you have to rise above petulance and make sure that you do your job as effectively as you can. those with slim majorities are particularly fearful that the rift could hit their own hopes of re-election. tony blair will seek to reassure labour mps on monday evening at their first meeting of the new year at westminster - a behind-closed doors meeting which gordon brown is thought likely to also attend to show unity. meanwhile the likes of health secretary john reid and labour peer lord haskins are warning of the electoral dangers of allowing this soap opera to continue. and they have both warned the rival camps to stop spreading the poison. lord haskins even suggested mr blair should reinstate mr brown as the central figure in the election planning. but this particular genie is unusually reluctant to return to captivity and many fear it is simply too late to repair the damage. they believe they will be fighting the next election with the sounds of open warfare between the two men ringing in their ears. and it matters little whether the rift is real or as some try to suggest simply the product of newspaper headlines and westminster gossip. few in westminster actually believe that simply because the evidence appears to contradict it. for example the weekend s attempts by both men to play down the divisions failed to do the trick. even as they were both insisting on their unity of purpose and claiming they would not be swayed by newspaper stories they still managed to stir the speculation with their comments. mr blair talked about the new labour manifesto - a move which seemed calculated to irritate the chancellor who has long rejected the label. and mr brown pointedly refused to deny claims the prime minister had reneged on a deal to hand him the premiership last year. that claim was repeated in robert peston s book a book which amply demonstrates this corrosive downing street soap opera is nowhere near its final act. for his part mr brown insists his only motivation was to get labour re-elected. the trouble is both men have fallen short of offering simple straightforward denials of the central claims. so they have both been accused of actually making matters worse by feeding the speculation with their own behaviour. the first thing to be said is that these suggestions have not come from nowhere. they started with and are sustained by friends of the two men. one only had to listen to the chancellor s friend and former spin chief charlie whelan last week to understand that there is a real anger from this camp at the prime minister s apparent attempts to confound mr brown s leadership ambitions. but it is not just public pronouncements from ex-aides. there are whispered briefings to selected journalists from both sides. it is no secret in westminster for example that downing street believes the chancellor is indulging in a mammoth sulk and acting in a petty and deliberately provocative manner. then there are the actions of the men themselves. gordon brown sets out what is seen as a rival manifesto then appears to embark on his own personal campaign. the prime minister responds by scheduling his monthly press conference to clash with a keynote speech by the chancellor. meanwhile large numbers of backbench mps insist voters are either entirely uninterested in the chatter which they believe is a media-only obsession or that they fear for the efficient running of a government beset by such rivalry. either way there is universal agreement that if this goes on through the general election it can only do the labour party serious damage. there are signs that the two men appreciate the dangers and both want to put a lid on all the speculation. but with probably only four months to the next election that looks like being a particularly difficult trick to pull off.

uk youth interested in politics the majority of young people are interested in politics holding strong opinions on policies and have a keen appetite for direct action. research undertaken for voting watchdog the electoral commission suggests 81% of 16 to 20-year-olds feel strongly about issues like crime and education. the survey findings are being released to coincide with the launch of the y vote mock elections 2005 initiative. mock elections are planned to take place in schools across the uk. electoral commission boss sam younger said: we know that young people often feel disengaged from democratic life and we believe in working creatively to encourage their interest and participation. mock elections can play an extremely valuable role in helping young people understand how the democratic process works and why it matters he said. the survey of a sample of 500 british 16 to 20-year-olds and 500 21 to 25-year olds showed britain s young people are far from apathetic about issues that matter to most of their lives . the y vote initiative is being run jointly by the electoral commission the hansard society and the department for education and skills in the run-up to local elections and the general election possibly on 5 may. michael rafferty who is mock elections project manager at the hansard society said he looked forward to seeing schools and colleges across the uk participating in the mock votes.

help for indies in download sales a campaign has been launched to help independent labels get their music online and benefit from the growing trend for downloading music. the british phonographic industry has identified a lack of independent music available for download. we want to ensure that independent repertoire is as successful in the download world as it is in the physical world said bpi chief peter jamieson. downloaded singles have now overtaken physical singles in the uk. mr jamieson said his organisation was lobbying music service providers which include itunes and napster to urge them to promote independent releases. download sales are due to be incorporated into the uk singles chart later this year. with downloads shortly to be eligible for the singles chart this is a key commercial issue on which the bpi committed to assisting its members added mr jamieson. as part of the campaign the bpi is running a series of seminars entitled getting your music online focusing on how independent labels can embrace digital music. the us has already begun incorporating download sales in the billboard s hot 100 chart.

poll explains free-kick decision referee graham poll said he applied the laws of the game in allowing arsenal striker thierry henry s free-kick in sunday s 2-2 draw with chelsea. keeper petr cech was organising his defensive wall when henry s quick free-kick flew in which angered chelsea. the whistle doesn t need to be blown. i asked henry do you want a wall . he said can i take it please he was very polite. i said yes said poll. i deal with the laws of the game. i deal with fact. poll added: i gave the signal for him to take it. that s what he did. the same thing happened when i refereed chelsea against west ham in an fa cup replay two years ago - when jimmy floyd hasselbaink scored - and i don t remember them complaining about that. henry explained why he paused before striking the ball for the goal which put arsenal 2-1 ahead. henry told bbc radio five live: the ref asked me if i wanted 10 yards or if i wanted to take it straight away and i said that i wanted to take it straight away. he said to me go . it looks a bit strange because i took my time. i was waiting for eidur gudjohnsen to move and give me some space. at one point he turned and that s when i tried it. former referees chief philip don backed poll s decision to allow the strike. the advantage should go to the non-offending team. on this occasion it was arsenal don told bbc radio five live. referees have been told to ask the player do you want to take the quick free-kick or do you want me to get the wall back 9.15 metres if they say quick the referee tends to move away and allow the kick. don was head of the referees for the premier league and revealed all clubs were informed of free-kick options. we spoke to all the premier league clubs as well as all the football league clubs in the summer of 2003 explaining what the situation was he added we gave them the option of either the quick free-kick or the ceremonial free-kick. players and clubs were aware of what referees were doing.

celtic unhappy over bulgaria date martin o neill hopes to block stilian petrov s call-up by bulgaria during celtic s busy festive programme. the celtic manager does not view the friendly against valenciana - a region of spain - on 28 december as important. i can t say i was overly pleased at the fixture being played just after christmas said o neill. we will have to speak with the bulgarian fa. it s their prerogative for them to arrange a fixture and our prerogative how we handle it. bulgaria s game comes between celtic s boxing day meeting with hearts and their 2 january fixture against livingston. o neill believes the extra game will not help a midfielder whose season has already been affected by injury. they have organised a game at a rather awkward time he added. when we were out playing barcelona i spoke with the bulgarian manager hristo stoichkov and he mentioned this game to me. we pay his wages we are the ones that if an awkward fixture is going to be played at some stage or another it should be to our benefit rather than anyone else. i have said this before but bulgaria are the one nation who seem to organise a lot of friendly games.

parmalat founder offers apology the founder and former boss of parmalat has apologised to investors who lost money as a result of the italian dairy firm s collapse. calisto tanzi said he would co-operate fully with prosecutors investigating the background to one of europe s largest financial scandals. parmalat was placed into bankruptcy protection in 2003 after a 14bn euro black hole was found in its accounts. more than 130 000 people lost money following the firm s collapse. mr tanzi 66 issued a statement through his lawyer after five hours of questioning by prosecutors in parma on 15 january. prosecutors are seeking indictments against mr tanzi and 28 others - including several members of his family and former parmalat chief financial officer fausto tonna - for alleged manipulation of stock market prices and making misleading statements to accountants and italy s financial watchdog. two former parmalat auditors will stand trial later this month for their role in the firm s collapse. i apologise to all who have suffered so much damage as a result of my schemes to make my dream of an industrial project come true mr tanzi s statement said. it is my duty to collaborate fully with prosecutors to reconstruct the causes of parmalat s sudden default and who is responsible. mr tanzi spent several months in jail in the wake of parmalat s collapse and was kept under house arrest until last september. parmalat is now being run by a state appointed administrator enrico bondi who has launched lawsuits against 80 banks in an effort to recover money for the bankrupt company and its shareholders. he has alleged that these companies were aware of the true state of parmalat s finances but continued to lend money to the company. the companies insist they were the victims of fraudulent book-keeping. parmalat was declared insolvent after it emerged that 4 billion euros (£2.8bn; $4.8bn) it supposedly held in an offshore account did not in fact exist. the firm s demise sent shock waves through italy where its portfolio of top-selling food brands and its position as the owner of leading football club parma had turned it into a household name.

clarke defends terror detentions the home secretary has defended his decision not to release foreign terror suspects despite a legal ruling their detention breached human rights laws. house of lords law lords ruled against the detention measures last week. they said it was wrong to have one set of laws for foreign suspects and another for british suspects. new home secretary charles clarke said he would carefully consider the ruling and would return to parliament early in the new year with proposals. he insisted that he would not be rushed into judgement but would examine the law lords findings in detail. my duty is to look at first of all the security of this country and in so doing to consider very carefully the precise legal measures that there are. mr clarke s comments came in response to an emergency question from liberal democrat constitutional affairs spokesman david heath. mr heath said the judgement contained unprecedented condemnation and could not have been more unequivocal . he said he accepted the difficult balance between the nation s security and human rights but questioned why the home office had made no contingency plans for the present circumstances . these detainees should be prosecuted and tried. simply renewing the present deeply unsatisfactory legislation is not an option. shadow home secretary david davis said it was not possible to overstate the importance of the judgment and urged the government to move as fast as competently possible to sort the problem out in the interests of natural justice. if you do we will give you every support. the law lords ruling came on charles clarke s first day as home secretary last thursday following david blunkett s resignation. in a statement on the same day mr clarke said: i will be asking parliament to renew this legislation in the new year. in the meantime we will be studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the house of lords. but the government was widely criticised for insisting the detentions would continue following the ruling last week. lord bingham - a senior law lord - said the rules were incompatible with the european convention on human rights as they allowed detentions in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status by justifying detention without trial for foreign suspects but not britons. lord nicholls of birkenhead in his ruling said: indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law. the detainees took their case to the house of lords after the court of appeal backed the home office s powers to hold them without limit or charge. the government opted out of part of the european convention on human rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 september attacks in the us.

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.

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%.

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.

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.

more women turn to net security older people and women are increasingly taking charge of protecting home computers against malicious net attacks according to a two-year study. the number of women buying programs to protect pcs from virus spam and spyware attacks rose by 11.2% each year between 2002 and 2004. the study for net security firm preventon shows that security messages are reaching a diversity of surfers. it is thought that 40% of those buying home net security programs are retired. for the last three years that has gone up by an average of 13.2%. but more retired women (53%) were buying security software than retired men. the research reflects the changing stereotype and demographics of web users as well as growing awareness of the greater risks that high-speed broadband net connections can pose to surfers. the study predicts that 40% of all home pc net security buyers will be women in 2005. they could even overtake men as the main buyers by 2007 if current rates persist according to the research. i think older people have become more vigilant about protecting their pcs as we tend to be more cautious and want an insurance policy in case something does go wrong said one over-60 woman who took part in the research. you started off with young male stereotype computer users for last 10 years paul goosens head of preventon told the bbc news website. now we are seeing real people - both sexes and very often it is women who have more access at home. but net service providers still need to take more responsibility in making sure people are educated about net threats before they go online particuarly if they are new to broadband he said. programs also need to be tailored so that they can be installed by dial-up users with a slower connection too said mr goosens. security software should be easy to use with simple interfaces and instructions written in non-technical language he added. the nature of the security threats are also becoming more than just about e-mail viruses. high-profile complaints about rogue diallers and spyware or other programs that surreptitiously install themselves on computers have also raised awareness about the need to have a combination of anti-virus firewall and spyware-removal programs too. without protection these kinds of programs can be picked up just through surfing the web normally. more than 30 000 pcs a day globally are being recruited into networks that spread spam and viruses a study from security from symantec showed last year. viruses written to make headlines by infecting millions are also getting rarer according to net security experts. programs are being unleashed to directly profit criminal gangs many based in eastern europe over those which are designed to show off technical skills or cause nuisance. the research shows that more people are taking these criminal net threats more seriously because said mr goosens they are reported in the press much more. you are seeing older users being educated by the media and are seeing them picking up on this threat. they are asking the right questions he explained. it is more likely the younger users who naively assume that because they are using a reputable service provider that they are safe to connect to the net. an unprotected computer on a broadband connection can be breached and infected with viruses or spyware within minutes. by the end of the year it is thought that more than 30% of uk homes will have broadband net access. in july last year the number of uk households accessing the net via broadband surpassed those using dial-up for the first time according to the office of national statistics.

umaga ready for fearsome lions all blacks captain tama umaga has warned the british and irish lions will be his most fearsome opponents yet ahead of their summer tour. but umaga in england for saturday s irb rugby aid match also backed new zealand to win the three-test series against the lions. he told bbc sport: it s potentially the most fearsome line-up i ve ever come up against. they re awesome. but i d back us all the way to beat them when they come over. lions boss sir clive woodward is set to announce his squad for the june-july tour next month. when woodward was appointed last year it was widely believed he would rely heavily on his former england players. but umaga said: he d be hard pushed to do that now considering the shape of the six nations. don t get me wrong england have got a lot of talented guys and i m sure there are some of them who ll make the lions test xv. but you can t disguise wales and ireland in particular. some of the tries they ve scored have been great. i ll admit it ll be fairly awesome lining up against the likes of brian o driscoll. umaga will meet o driscoll in saturday s rugby aid match at twickenham with the irish captain leading the northern hemisphere side. o driscoll is among a host of players in the northern hemisphere squad coached by woodward that are tipped for lions call-ups. it ll be good for us to get an early idea of some of these guys although a lot can change between now and june umaga said. the 31-year-old admitted interest in the lions tour was immense calling it the biggest thing to hit new zealand since lord of the rings . he added: as players it s enough for us to be driven by the rarity of playing the lions. in fact it s not just us all blacks - it s the talk of the country. umaga admitted the fear of injury weighed on his mind ahead of saturday s charity game which features a host of big names including george gregan andrew mehrtens and chris latham. but he admitted the value of the cause - proceeds of the match will go to aiding victims of the tsunami - easily won him over. the second [southern hemisphere coach] rod macqueen made the approach i didn t hesitate. it was great when new zealand rugby then gave me the all clear. thankfully i didn t know anyone that was involved in the tragedy of the tsunami but you couldn t miss all the horrific reports on the news. there are so many people that were affected are still affected and will be affected for a long time. it s just good to know we can do something minor to help out. - the match will be televised on bbc one at 1400 gmt on saturday.

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.

hunt ban support is in decline support for a ban on hunting has fallen in the past six years a poll suggests. less than half the uk wants a ban compared to almost two-thirds in 1999 the mori survey of 2 000 adults for bbc one s countryfile programme suggests. the number opposed to a ban remains constant but those neither supporting nor opposing has increased by 11%. most city-dwellers support the ban but rural people were evenly split between supporters opponents and undecided. polling company mori carried out both surveys. in july 1999 they asked 801 adults if they supported the ban for the mail on sunday. for countryfile they asked 2 234 adults across the country the same question. the mail on sunday survey found that 63% supported a hunting ban compared with 24% against. in the countryfile survey 47% said they supported the legislation with 26% against. but the programme makers suggest the british public are becoming increasingly neutral to the issue because around one quarter said they neither support nor oppose a ban.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

how to make a gigapixel picture the largest digital panoramic photo in the world has been created by researchers in the netherlands. the finished image is 2.5 billion pixels in size - making it about 500 times the resolution of images produced by good consumer digital cameras. the huge image of delft was created by stitching together 600 single snaps of the dutch city taken at a fixed spot. if printed out in standard 300 dots per inch resolution the picture would be 2.5m high and 6m long. the researchers have put the image on a website which lets viewers explore the wealth of detail that it captures. tools on the page let viewers zoom in on the city and its surroundings in great detail. the website is already proving popular and currently has more than 200 000 visitors every day. the image was created by imaging experts from the dutch research and technology laboratory tno which created the 2.5 gigapixel photo as a summer time challenge. the goal of the project was to be one of the first groups to make gigapixel images. the first image of such a size was manually constructed by us photographer max lyons in november 2003. that image portrayed bryce canyon national park in utah and was made up of 196 separate photographs. the panorama of delft is a little staid in contrast to the dramatic rockscape captured in mr lyons image. he did it all by hand which was an enormous effort and we got the idea that if you use automatic techniques it would be feasible to build a larger image said jurgen den hartog one of the tno researchers behind the project. we were not competing with mr lyons but it started as a lunchtime bet. the dutch team used already available technologies although it had to upgrade them to be able to handle the high-resolution image. we had to rewrite almost all the tools me den hartog told the bbc news website. all standard windows viewers available would not be able to load such a large image so we had to develop one ourselves. the 600 component pictures were taken on july 2004 by a computer-controlled camera with a 400 mm lens. each image was made to slightly overlap so they could be accurately arranged into a composite. the stitching process was also done automatically using five powerful pcs over three days. following the success of this project and with promises of help from others the tno team is considering creating a full 360-degree panoramic view of another dutch city with even higher resolution.

watchdog probes vivendi bond sale french stock market regulator amf has filed complaints against media giant vivendi universal its boss and another top executive. it believes the prospectus for a bond issue was unclear and that executives may have had privileged information. amf has begun proceedings against vivendi its chief executive jean-rene fourtou and chief operating officer jean-bernard levy. vivendi advisor deutsche bank was also the subject of a complaint filing. deutsche bank which was responsible for selling the convertible bonds to investors could face penalties if the complaint is upheld. vivendi has said it believes there is no legal basis for the complaints. the watchdog is said to believe the executive pair were party to privileged information surrounding the issue of the bonds. both men bought some of the bonds the associated press news agency reported. amf is investigating claims that the duo were aware of an interest in vivendi s us assets from investor marvin davis at the time of the bond sale. vivendi however has said that the information was public knowledge as mr davis offer for the us assets had already been rejected by vivendi s board. amf is also looking into whether the executives knew that vivendi was considering exercising its right to buy british telecom s shares in cegetel. vivendi has rejected the charge saying the decision to buy the cegetel shares was no more than a possibility of which the public was perfectly aware at the time of the bond issue. back in december vivendi and its former chief executive jean-marie messier were each fined 1m euros ($1.3m; £690 000) by amf. the fines came after a 15-month probe into allegations that the media giant misled investors after a costly acquisition programme went wrong.

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.

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.

lib dems new election pr chief the lib dems have appointed a senior figure from bt to be the party s new communications chief for their next general election effort. sandy walkington will now work with senior figures such as matthew taylor on completing the party manifesto. party chief executive lord rennard said the appointment was a significant strengthening of the lib dem team . mr walkington said he wanted the party to be ready for any mischief rivals or the media tried to throw at it. my role will be to ensure this new public profile is effectively communicated at all levels he said. i also know the party will be put under scrutiny in the media and from the other parties as never before - and we will need to show ourselves ready and prepared to counter the mischief and misrepresentation that all too often comes from the party s opponents. the party is already demonstrating on every issue that it is the effective opposition. mr walkington s new job title is director of general election communications.

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

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).

european losses hit gm s profits general motors (gm) saw its net profits fall 37% in the last quarter of 2004 as it continued to be hit by losses at its european operations. the us giant earned $630m (£481.5m) in the october-to-december period down from $1bn in the fourth quarter of 2003. gm s revenues rose 4.7% to $51.2bn from $48.8bn a year earlier. the fourth-quarter losses at general motors europe totalled $345m up from $66m during the same period in 2003. gm s main european brands are opel and vauxhall. excluding special items gm s global income from continuing operations totalled $569m during the quarter down from $838m a year earlier. the results were in line with wall street expectations and shares in gm rose by about 1% in pre-market trade. for the whole of 2004 gm earned $3.7bn down from $3.8bn in 2003 while its annual revenue rose 4.5% to $193bn. gm said its profits were also hit by higher healthcare costs in the us. gm reported solid overall results in 2004 despite challenging competitive conditions in many markets around the globe gm chairman and chief executive rick wagoner said in a statement. the company recently announced that it expected profits in 2005 to be lower than in 2004.

enron bosses in $168m payout eighteen former enron directors have agreed a $168m (£89m) settlement deal in a shareholder lawsuit over the collapse of the energy firm. leading plaintiff the university of california announced the news adding that 10 of the former directors will pay $13m from their own pockets. the settlement will be put to the courts for approval next week. enron went bankrupt in 2001 after it emerged it had hidden hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. before its collapse the firm was the seventh biggest public us company by revenue. its demise sent shockwaves through financial markets and dented investor confidence in corporate america. the settlement is very significant in holding these outside directors at least partially personally responsible william lerach the lawyer leading the class action suit against enron said. hopefully this will help send a message to corporate boardrooms of the importance of directors performing their legal duties he added. under the terms of the $168m settlement - $155m of which will be covered by insurance - none of the 18 former directors will admit any wrongdoing. the deal is the fourth major settlement negotiated by lawyers who filed a class action on behalf of enron s shareholders almost three years ago. so far including the latest deal just under $500m (£378.8m) has been retrieved for investors. however the latest deal does not include former enron chief executives ken lay and jeff skilling. both men are facing criminal charges for their alleged misconduct in the run up to the firm s collapse. neither does it cover andrew fastow who has pleaded guilty to taking part in an illegal conspiracy while he was chief financial officer at the group. enron s shareholders are still seeking damages from a long list of other big name defendants including the financial institutions jp morgan chase citigroup merrill lynch and credit suisse first boston. the university of california said the trial in the case is scheduled to begin in october 2006. it joined the lawsuit in december 2001alleging massive insider trading and fraud claiming it had lost $145m on its investments in the company.

csa chief who quit still in job the head of the failing child support agency widely reported to have resigned three months ago is still at the helm of the troubled organisation. doug smith s departure was announced by work secretary alan johnson on 17 november as mps grilled him over the agency s poor performance. his resignation was referred to by both tory and lib dem leaders during that day s prime ministers questions. officials now say he did not resign but will move on under civil service rules. mr smith s departure was reported widely at the time as his shouldering the blame for the failings of the child support agency. in january the mps who make up the commons work and pensions committee published a highly critical report into the failing agency noting the chief executive has now left and hoping the new leadership will bring a fresh approach to what is a failing organisation . on that day s today programme mr johnson was asked why mr smith had been allowed to resign rather than be sacked. he replied: the chief executive decided it was time to move on there is a new chief executive coming in. it now emerges that the widespread belief mr smith made commander of the order of the bath in the new year honours had left was wrong. a department for work and pensions spokeswoman confirmed mr smith was still in post and that he would continue in the job until a replacement was found. no date was ever given for doug smith s departure she said adding that the post had been advertised. tory work and pensions spokesman david willetts said families affected by csa failings would wonder why mr smith was still in his job three months after his departure was announced. the csa has been surrounded by controversy since its introduction in 1993 to assess and enforce child support payments by absent parents. the work and pensions committee launched their inquiry into the csa s performance after it became clear that despite the introduction of a simpler system of calculating maintenance payments for new cases in 2003 a backlog of claims was still building up. it is currently chasing outstanding payments of more than £720m while a further £947m has been designated as unrecoverable . the mps found american it giant eds £456m system was nowhere near being fully functional and the number of dissatisfied disenchanted and angry customers continues to escalate . in november when he surprised mps and the watching media by announcing mr smith s departure mr johnson said: i should tell you that doug has decided that now is the time to stand aside and to allow a new chief executive to tackle the challenges ahead. doug has exceeded the four years that senior civil servants are now expected to remain in a particular post. so doug believes that we have reached the natural breakpoint at which he can hand over the reins. lib dem sir archy kirkwood who chairs the commons work and pensions committee said that when mr johnson had announced mr smith was going he got the clear impression the csa chief was retiring though it had since emerged that was not the case and he may be seeking new employment opportunities. he added his committee was duty bound to allow the work and pensions secretary to get new management into place in the csa and it would be premature to say anything further on the issue at the moment. but committee member and tory mp nigel waterson said he was amazed mr smith was still in his job. when mr smith and the secretary of state came to give evidence we were led to believe he was going shortly he said. even if he was working out three months notice he should have been clearing his desk by now. asked on thursday about mr smith s position mr johnson told bbc radio 4 s world at one he thought it was a non-story . he added that he had been absolutely open when he announced mr smith s departure to the select committee and how people chose to interpret it was a different thing . the major issue is have we got a new chief executive coming into this very important agency as quickly as possible and have we gone through the right selection process to make sure we ve got the right people he added.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

plan to give elderly care control elderly and disabled people would choose how their own budget for personal care was spent and organised under government plans. ministers say elderly and disabled people themselves not social workers should be able to decide on their care and stay in their own homes. they also plan a supremo for adult services in each english area to get different agencies working together. but the government shunned opponents calls for free long-term care. there are 1.7m people needing care in england and ministers suggest the number could quadruple by 2050. monday s consultation paper on social care for adults in england is aimed at ending a system which generates dependency. health minister stephen ladyman said: this document is the antithesis of the nanny state. it s about taking power away from the state and giving it to individuals and saying that we will help you make these decisions but we are not going to make them for you any more. the government has already allowed local councils to give people money so they can pay for their services directly but take-up of the scheme has been disappointing . ministers say the new plans would make direct payments simpler and try to counter reluctance in some local councils to use the payments. they also want to set up a new half-way house where social workers tell people how much money is available for their care and help them choose how to spend that individual budget . the scheme will be funded on existing budgets set until 2008. but mr ladyman said the plans could deliver savings in some areas such as freeing up nhs beds and preventing illnesses. he ruled out free personal care in england - which is on offer in scotland and wales saying it was unsustainable . david rogers from the local government association said agencies were working together on the kind of innovation proposed by the government. and tony hunter president of the association of directors of social services said the plans could improve dignity and well-being for thousands of people. but age concern argued social care was chronically under-funded and older people were being offered choice in principle but not in practice. its director general gordon lishman said: direct payments will not work if there are no services for people to choose from locally. the tories say people who pay for three years long-term care directly or through insurance should be guaranteed free care for the rest of their lives. tory spokesman simon burns said more than 80 000 long term care places had been lost since 1997. after eight years of persistent change dogmatic enforcement of regulation and overbearing government initiatives - we need action not a vision said mr burns. the lib dems say they would fund free personal care by a new 50% tax rate on incomes over £100 000. health spokesman paul burstow said: promoting independence sounds good and helping people to live in their own homes is a goal we share. but the risk is that independence can turn into isolation if the right support and care is not available.

ministers naive over phone-taps the government is being naive by refusing to allow phone-tap evidence in court a senior eu politician says. javier solana eu foreign policy chief says phone-tap evidence works in the courts of other european countries. human rights groups top police officers and many mps say allowing the evidence would remove the need to detain terror suspects without charge. but home secretary charles clarke says the evidence would not make much difference to these cases. mr solana told itv1 s jonathan dimbleby programme: [phone-tap evidence in court] works it is normal that it is done it would be naive not to do it. it would be naive not to use this technological thing that we have at our disposal. mr solana s comments come the day after sir ian blair the newly-appointed metropolitan police commissioner said he was in favour of phone-tap evidence. under the anti-terrorism crimes and security act 2001 foreign terror suspects can be detained in british jails without trial or charge. several suspects have been detained under these powers because evidence against them was deemed too sensitive to be heard in court. some of this evidence is believed to be telephone intercepts. human rights group liberty has argued that if intercept evidence could be heard these detainees could be brought to trial. but critics of phone-tap trials say the evidence is often weak and can expose the methods of the security services. the home secretary says intercepts would not make much difference because cases against terror suspects frequently rely on other kinds of surveillance. but mr clarke has been forced to change the regime of detention without trial after law lords ruled it illegal. he has opted for a system of control orders whereby suspects both british and foreign can be held under house arrest or surveillance. these orders will again involve a uk opt-out of parts of the european convention on human rights. while accepting that people have to be prepared for a possible terrorist attack mr solana said he had qualms about the home secretary s new plans. we have to fight terrorism with all our means but not so far as to change our way of life he said.

rocker doherty in on-stage fight rock singer pete doherty has been involved in a fight with his band s guitarist at their biggest gig to date. babyshambles played for 5 000 fans at london s brixton academy on tuesday. the former libertines singer traded blows with guitarist patrick walden. they were separated and bundled off stage before returning to end the set. the show was earlier held up due to audience overcrowding. on monday doherty faced blackmail and robbery charges in court which he denies. he is out on £50 000 bail and the judge agreed to extend his 2200 gmt curfew deadline by two hours so he could play the brixton gig. babyshambles which he formed after his acrimonious departure from the libertines played a warm-up show at the garage north london on monday. on tuesday doherty and his three bandmates were introduced to the crowd by mick jones the former clash guitarist who produced the libertines second album. babyshambles took the stage to a frenzied reception at 2200 gmt launching into their last single killamangiro which reached number eight in december. but the group had to stop during the next song to persuade fans not to push forward and allow security guards to pull people out of the crush. doherty appealed to fans to calm down saying: there s a few people getting hurt down the front you ve got to move back. the music resumed minutes later but after several more songs the singer appeared to accidentally disconnect walden s guitar leading the pair to trade kicks and punches. bouncers stepped in and the band left the stage but returned after five minutes and finished their 50-minute performance with no further trouble. doherty 25 had to be home by midnight to observe the curfew which is one of the conditions of his bail. on monday the judge agreed to allow him to perform on condition that requests for changes to his bail terms were not too regular an occurrence . the singer was arrested with fellow musician alan wass on 2 february after an alleged dispute with documentary-maker max carlish at a london hotel. they are next due in court on 18 april.

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.

taylor poised for scotland return simon taylor has been named in the scotland squad for saturday s six nations clash with italy. the 25-year-old number eight made a scoring return for edinburgh at the weekend - his first game in a year for the capital side. taylor suffered knee ligament damage playing against ireland in dublin in the 2004 six nations championship. simon is one of scotland s truly world class players so it is a huge bonus said team-mate chris paterson. he brings a whole new dimension to us especially in defence and his ability to slow the opposition ball down could be key against italy if he is involved. taylor has turned out for english side saracens in recent weeks during a short-term loan to improve his fitness. edinburgh were not in action during the first two weeks of this season s six nations. so taylor played the last 20 minutes of saracens win over northampton and then 40 minutes in a friendly against south african super 12 side the cats. scotland coach matt williams is due to name his match-day 22 on thursday. both scotland and italy have lost their opening two six nations games and just like last season s encounter which italy won this weekend s game could turn out to be a battle to avoid the wooden spoon. - m blair (edinburgh) a craig (glasgow) c cusiter (borders) s danielli (borders) m di rollo (edinburgh) a henderson (glasgow) b hinshelwood (worcester) r lamont (glasgow) s lamont (glasgow) d parks (glasgow) c paterson (edinburgh) g ross (leeds) h southwell (edinburgh) s webster (edinburgh) - r beattie (northampton) g bulloch (glasgow capt) b douglas (borders) j dunbar (leeds) i fullarton (saracens) s grimes (newcastle) n hines (edinburgh) a hogg (edinburgh) g kerr (leeds) n lloyd (saracens) s murray (edinburgh) j petrie (glasgow) r russell (london irish) c smith (edinburgh) t smith (northampton) s taylor (edinburgh) j white (sale).

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.

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)

henman hopes ended in dubai third seed tim henman slumped to a straight sets defeat in his rain-interrupted dubai open quarter-final against ivan ljubicic. the croatian eighth seed booked his place in the last four with a 7-5 6-4 victory over the british number one. henman had looked on course to level the match after going 2-0 up in the second set but his progress was halted as the rain intervened again. ljubicic hit back after the break to seal a fourth straight win over henman. earlier in the day spanish fifth seed tommy robredo secured his semi-final place when he beat nicolas kiefer of germany 6-4 6-4. afterwards henman was left cursing the weather and the umpire after seven breaks for rain during the match. it was incredibly frustrating henman said. it s raining and the umpire doesn t take control. he kept telling us to play till the end of the game. but if it s raining you come off - the score s irrelevant. it couldn t be more frustrating as i was very happy with my form until now. you don t expect this in the desert.

tough schedule delays elliot show preview performances of the £3m musical billy elliot have been delayed to give the child actors a less arduous rehearsal schedule. director stephen daldry made the decision to re-schedule the previews to protect the young stars. three boys will rotate the demanding role of ballet dancer billy which requires them to sing dance and act. the show s opening night on 12 may at the victoria palace theatre in london remains unaffected by the changes. preview performances will now be held on 14 20 and 27 april. this is one of the most ambitious projects i have been involved with said daldry. the decision has been made to push back our preview performances in order to give our company with a cast including 45 children a little extra time so they are as fully prepared as possible. he added: the young billy elliots in particular making their professional stage debuts in the west end will benefit from a little extra time to familiarise themselves with all aspects of the production. the three boys playing billy are james lomas 15 george maguire 14 and liam mower 12. the other major child parts will also be rotated between young actors. such are the demands of the show that producers set up a stage school in newcastle to train potential stars for the show. child labour laws also mean the young actors can only work for a limited period each week. adult actors in the show include tim healy as billy s father and haydn gwnne as his dance teacher mrs wilkinson. sir elton john has composed the music. daldry directed the successful film version of billy elliot adapted from lee hall s script. both were nominated for oscars alongside julie walters who played billy s teacher.

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 .

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)

sec to rethink post-enron rules the us stock market watchdog s chairman has said he is willing to soften tough new us corporate governance rules to ease the burden on foreign firms. in a speech at the london school of economics william donaldson promised several initiatives . european firms have protested that us laws introduced after the enron scandal make wall street listings too costly. the us regulator said foreign firms may get extra time to comply with a key clause in the sarbanes-oxley act. the act comes into force in mid-2005. it obliges all firms with us stock market listings to make declarations which critics say will add substantially to the cost of preparing their annual accounts. firms that break the new law could face huge fines while senior executives risk jail terms of up to 20 years. mr donaldson said that although the act does not provide exemptions for foreign firms the securities and exchange commission (sec) would continue to be sensitive to the need to accomodate foreign structures and requirements . there are few if any who disagree with the intentions of the act which obliges chief executives to sign a statement taking responsibility for the accuracy of the accounts. but european firms with secondary listings in new york have objected - arguing that the compliance costs outweigh the benefits of a dual listing. the act also applies to firms with more than 300 us shareholders a situation many firms without us listings could find themselves in. the 300-shareholder threshold has drawn anger as it effectively blocks the most obvious remedy a delisting. mr donaldson said the sec would consider whether there should be a new approach to the deregistration process for foreign firms unwilling to meet us requirements. we should seek a solution that will preserve investor protections without turning the us market into one with no exit he said. he revealed that his staff were already weighing up the merits of delaying the implementation of the act s least popular measure - section 404 - for foreign firms. seen as particularly costly to implement section 404 obliges chief executives to take responsibility for the firm s internal controls by signing a compliance statement in the annual accounts. the sec has already delayed implementation of this clause for smaller firms - including us ones - with market capitalisations below $700m (£374m). a delegation of european firms visited the sec in december to press for change the financial times reported. it was led by digby jones director general of the uk s confederation of british industry (cbi) and included representatives of basf siemens and cadbury schweppes. compliance costs are already believed to be making firms wary of us listings. air china picked the london stock exchange for its secondary listing in its $1.07bn (£558m) stock market debut last month. there are also rumours that two chinese state-run banks - china construction bank and bank of china - have abandoned plans for multi-billion dollar listings in new york later this year. instead the cost of sarbanes-oxley has persuaded them to stick to a single listing in hong kong according to press reports in china.

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.

charvis set to lose fitness bid flanker colin charvis is unlikely to play any part in wales final two games of the six nations. charvis has missed all three of wales victories with an ankle injury and his recovery has been slower than expected. he will not figure in the scotland game and is now thought unlikely to be ready for the final game said wales physio mark davies. sonny parker is continuing to struggle with a neck injury but hal luscombe should be fit for the murrayfield trip. centre parker has only a slim chance of being involved against the scots on 13 march so luscombe s return to fitness after missing the france match with hamstring trouble is a timely boost. said wales assistant coach scott johnson: we re positive about hal and hope he ll be raring to go. he comes back into the mix again adds to the depth and gives us other options. replacement hooker robin mcbryde remains a doubt after picking up knee ligament damage in paris last saturday. we re getting that reviewed and we should know more by the end of the week how robin s looking added johnson. we re hopeful but it s too early to say at this stage. steve jones from the dragons is likely to be drafted in if mcbryde fails to recover.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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%.

ferguson hails man utd s resolve manchester united s alex ferguson has praised his players gutsy performance in the 1-0 win at aston villa. that was our hardest away game of the season and it was a fantastic game of football end-to-end with lots of good passing said the old trafford boss. we showed lots of character and guts and we weren t going to lose. i look at that fixture and think we ve been there and won while arsenal and chelsea have yet to come and villa may have some players back when they do. ferguson also hailed senior stars ryan giggs and roy keane who came off the bench for the injured john o shea. roy came on and brought a bit of composure to the midfield which we needed and which no other player has got. giggs was a tremendous threat and he brings tremendous penetration. all we can do is maintain our form play as we are and we ll get our rewards.

standard life cuts policy bonuses standard life europe s largest mutual life insurer has cut bonuses for with-profit policyholders. annual bonus rates on its with-profits life policies were cut from 2.5% to 2% while bonuses on pension policies were reduced from 3.25% to 2.5%. it is the sixth time in three years standard life has made cuts to bonus rates despite an 8.7% rise in the value of the with-profits fund in 2004. the insurer blamed the cuts on poor share returns and low interest rates. with-profits policies are designed to smooth out the peaks and troughs of stock market volatility. profits made in good years are kept in reserve to pay investors an annual bonus even when the stock market performs badly. slumping share prices throughout 2001 and 2002 forced most firms to trim bonus rates on their policies. standard life came in for criticism for sticking with stock market investments during 2001 and 2002. the insurer argued that shares outperformed other investments over the long term and that policyholders would feel the benefit when the stock market recovered. recently norwich union and axa sun life both cut their with-profit bonus rates. john gill managing director of the insurer s life and pensions division said that a strong stock market recovery in the past two years had only partly compensated for losses during 2001 and 2002 . in addition low interest rates meant that long-term investment returns are well below historic levels mr gill added. however mr gill maintained that with-profits continued to perform well over the long term. our payouts continue to stand up well against other types of long-term investments over similar periods he said. standard life has an estimated 2.4 million with-profits policyholders. last year the company announced that it was looking to float on the stock market in 2006.

will tory tax cuts lift spirits michael howard has finally revealed the full scale of his planned tory tax cuts. should he win the next general election he has earmarked £4 billion that will be used to reduce taxes - although he still will not say which or how. this was the pre-election message many in his party have been pressing for and voters he believes will warm to. at its simplest it is saying: vote tory and you can have it both ways . not only would his government stick to labour spending plans on core public services including health and education it would increase spending on defence police and pensions. and even after that was done it would still have enough left over for a tax cut equivalent to about a penny off the basic rate of income tax. all the money would come from its £35 billion efficiency savings which would see the axe taken to bureaucracy waste and the civil service. of that £23 billion would go on spending plans with £8 billion to fill the black hole left they claim by gordon brown and the rest going in tax cuts. neither mr howard nor mr letwin would say exactly how they would use that cash although a cut in the basic rate seems unlikely. ideas already floated include raising tax thresholds and abolishing or reducing inheritance tax although some in the tory party are urging mr howard to announce something more eye-catching before the election. as the tory leader declared the aim of the exercise is to open up a real economic policy divide between labour and the tories. at this election people will have a clear choice between mr blair who will waste more and tax more and the conservative party which will give value for money and tax less he said. it is a move back towards an almost traditional tory message which previously suggested labour was the party of tax rises and the conservatives the party of tax cuts. the extension of that however was that labour was also seen as the party of big spending on the public services while the tories were the cutters. and that is where one of the problems lies for mr howard - can he persuade sceptical voters that they really can have it both ways with bigger spending on public services and lower taxes he insists he will not promise anything before the election that he cannot deliver if put into downing street. labour needless to say claim his planned £35bn efficiency savings simply don t add up and that those sorts of figures are fantasy. one of new labour s greatest successes before the historic 1997 election was to persuade voters business and the city that it could be trusted to run the economy. so far that has not faced any real challenge but independent analysts now claim a third new labour government would be forced to either increase taxation or taxes to plug a black hole it has at the centre of its finances. meanwhile the liberal democrats are committed to increasing taxes for the most well off to finance their spending proposals launched earlier in the day. so mr howard hopes his message will start to hit home during this unofficial election campaign and that his poll ratings might finally lift off the floor. and while other issues like the iraq war and trust will play a major part in that campaign it is likely - and the prime minister probably hopes - that the economy will be the deciding factor.

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.

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.

howard taunts blair over splits tony blair s feud with gordon brown is damaging the way the uk is governed tory leader michael howard has claimed in a heated prime minister s questions. mr howard asked: how can they fight crime when they are fighting each other that question was later unveiled as the headline for new tory campaign posters. but mr blair dismissed the talk of splits and said people s priorities at the next elections would be on the economic successes achieved by labour. he can stick up whatever he likes on billboards about something in a book but what the public will concentrate on are the low mortgages low inflation low unemployment that we delivered and that he failed to he said. the chancellor is currently on a high-profile tour of africa to highlight new anti-poverty plans. but before doing so he insisted he still trusted mr blair despite claims to the contrary in a new book. brown s britain by robert peston says there is mutual animosity between the two men. it claims mr blair said in november 2003 he would stand down as prime minister before the next election. but he went back on his pledge after support from cabinet allies and suspicion that mr brown was manoeuvring against him it says. mr peston s book claimed that mr brown told mr blair: there is nothing you could ever say to me now that i could ever believe. mr blair directly denied that quote on wednesday. he again insisted there could be no deals about the premiership but twice declined directly to say whether or not he had offered to quit. the tory leader countered that such agreements had been struck twice at dinners with the chancellor. he declared: he is the deals on meals prime minister. no wonder the chancellor is not a happy eater. he continued: how can there be discipline in schools when there is no discipline in government how can they clean up our hospitals when they don t clean up their act mr blair said he would not respond to tittle tattle in books and promised to hail labour s record on the economy waiting lists and law and order from now until polling day . later at their poster launch tory co-chairman liam fox said his party would exploit opportunities to show how juvenile the prime minister and chancellor were. labour staged a show of unity at its own poster launch on tuesday where mr brown was joined by alan milburn who mr blair controversially put in charge of election planning in place of the chancellor. but liberal democrat leader charles kennedy told bbc news: the government is clearly split at the top. this kind of cosmetic exercise does not persuade anybody. later this week mr blair is expected to outline the direction of his party s next election manifesto. the prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at monday s meeting of the parliamentary labour party over claims made mr peston s book.

lomu relishing return to action former all black star jonah lomu says he cannot wait to run out on the pitch for former england rugby union captain martin johnson s testimonial on 4 june. the 29-year-old had a kidney transplant in july 2004 but will play his first full match for three years leading a southern hemisphere side at twickenham. i actually started training three weeks after my operation but i was very limited until a few months ago. now it s basically bring it on! said the giant winger. the match on 4 june will be my first 15-man game but i have a training schedule which is quite testing and combines with sevens and a whole lot of things said lomu. i have got so much energy since my operation that i train three times a day six days a week. mohammed ali has always been my ideal. coming back to rugby people said you are dreaming but it always starts off with a dream. it s up to you whether you want to make it a reality. opinion has been divided on whether lomu should attempt to return to the game after such a major operation. but when lomu was asked whether he was taking a risk he replied: as much as someone going down the road being hit by a bus. there are a lot of people in the world with one kidney who just don t know it. i have talked this over had a chat with the donor and this is to set my soul at peace and finish something i started in 1994 [when he made his all blacks debut]. at his lowest ebb lomu was so ill he could barely walk but he says he is now getting stronger every day and his long-term target is to play for new zealand again. the only person who saw me at my worst was my wife he added. i used to take two steps and fall over but now i can run and it is all coming back and a lot more quickly than i ever thought it would. to play for the all blacks would be the highest honour i could get. that is the long-term goal and you have to start somewhere.

aaliyah claim dismissed by court late r&b star aaliyah s record company has failed in an attempt to sue the video producer who booked the ill-fated flight on which she died in 2001. a new york appeals court has told blackground records that only the singer s parents had the right to launch a claim for wrongful death. the 22-year-old singer s family came to an undisclosed settlement over a negligence claim in 2003. aaliyah had completed a music video when the plane crashed in the bahamas. she and eight others were killed on the plane which crashed as if left for florida. blackground records lawyer frank penski said he had yet to examine the decision and did not know whether they would pursue the case. an investigation into the crash revealed the twin-engined cessna was overloaded by 700 pounds (320kg). a post-mortem carried out on the remains of the pilot showed there was cocaine and alcohol in his body. aaliyah was a rising star in music and film before she was killed. she was honoured with a string of posthumous awards and her single more than a woman went to number one in the uk.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

moya emotional after davis cup win carlos moya described spain s davis cup victory as the highlight of his career after he beat andy roddick to end the usa s challenge in seville. moya made up for missing spain s 2000 victory through injury by beating roddick 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead. i have woken up so many nights dreaming of this day said moya. all my energy has been focused on today. what i have lived today i do not think i will live again. spain s only other davis cup title came two years ago in valencia when they beat australia. and moya nicknamed charly admitted: the davis cup is my dream and i was a bit nervous at the outset. some people have said that i am obsessed but i think that it is better this way. it helps me reach my goals if i am obsessed. it s really incredible - to get the winning point is really something. spanish captain jordi arrese said: charly played a great game. it was his opportunity and he hasn t let us down. he had lost three times to roddick and this was his day to beat him. he had been waiting years to be in this position. spain s victory was also remarkable for the performance of rafael nadal who beat roddick in the opening singles. aged 18 years and 185 days the mallorcan became the youngest player to win the davis cup. what a great way to finish the year said nadal afterwards. us coach patrick mcenroe wants roddick and the rest of his team to play more tennis on clay and hone their skills on the surface. i think it will help these guys even on slow hard courts to learn how to mix things up a little bit and to play a little bit smarter and tactically better. obviously it s unrealistic to say that we re going to just start playing constantly on clay with the schedule. but certainly i think we can put the work in at the appropriate time and play a couple more events and play against these guys who are the best on this stuff said mcenroe. roddick was left frustrated after losing both his singles on the slow clay of seville s olympic stadium. it s just tough because i felt like i was in it the whole time against one of the top three clay-courters in the world said the american. i had my chances and just didn t convert them. the bottom line is they were just better than us this weekend. they came out took care of business and they beat us. it s as simple as that.

church urges nelly show boycott church ministers are trying to prevent rapper nelly performing in arkansas saying they do not want his vile and filthy lyrics in their town. more than 20 jonesboro ministers urged music fans to boycott nelly s 12 march concert at arkansas state university in a bid to have it cancelled. jonesboro is a wonderful city because of what does not come here said the reverend adrian rodgers. but a venue spokesman said more than 5 500 tickets had been sold so far. mr rodgers of the fullness of joy church said he was concerned about the rapper s lyrics that include references to drugs sex and violence and songs that the minister said were demeaning to women. ministers were worried that bringing such acts to jonesboro would lead to problems. tear the tickets up mr rodgers said. do not go and do not allow your children to go. tim dean director of the arkansas state university venue said ticket sales had been brisk. it would appear that with ticket sales over 5 000 many others have expressed their right to find nelly s music entertaining and worth spending their time and money on he said. nelly has sold more than 30 million singles and albums worldwide and in september 2004 simultaneously occupied the number one and two positions in the us albums chart. he has had 12 uk hit singles including hot in herre dilemma and recent number one over and over.

lacroix label bought by us firm luxury goods group lvmh has sold its loss-making christian lacroix clothing label to a us investment group. the paris-based firm has been shedding non-core businesses and focusing on its most profitable brands including moet & chandon champagne and louis vuitton. lvmh said the french designer s haute couture and ready-to-wear labels had been purchased by the falic group for an unspecified sum. the falic group bought two cosmetics labels from lvmh in 2003. the sale of the lacroix label comes as many fashion houses are struggling to make money from their expensive haute couture ranges. the florida-based falic group which also runs a chain of 90 duty free stores in the us said it planned to expand the brand by opening new stores. mr lacroix said he planned to stay at the label he founded in 1987 although exact details are still to be confirmed.

reliance unit loses anil ambani anil ambani the younger of the two brothers in charge of india s largest private company has resigned from running its petrochemicals subsidiary. the move is likely to be seen as the latest twist in a feud between mr ambani and his brother mukesh. anil 45 has stepped down as director and vice-chairman of indian petrochemicals corporation (ipc). the company was not available for comment. ipc is 46%-owned by reliance industries which in turn is run by mukesh. mukesh has spoken of ownership issues between the two brothers who took over control of the reliance empire following the death of their father in july 2002. reliance s operations have massive reach covering textiles telecommunications petrochemicals petroleum refining and marketing as well as oil and gas exploration insurance and financial services. the brothers spat has hogged headlines in india during recent weeks despite a denial from the family that there was anything wrong. speculation has been rife about what has triggered the stand-off with some observers blaming anil s political ambitions others the heavy investment by mukesh and reliance in a mobile phone venture. shares of ipc dipped on the news in mumbai but recovered to trade almost 6% higher. reliance shares added 1.7% while reliance energy headed by anil jumped 7%.

anti-tremor mouse stops pc shakes a special adaptor that helps people with hand tremors control a computer mouse more easily has been developed. the device uses similar steady cam technology found in camcorders to filter out shaking hand movements. people with hand tremors find it hard to use conventional mice for simple computer tasks because of the erratic movements of the cursor on the screen. about three million britons have some sort of hand tremor condition said the uk national tremor foundation. using a computer mouse is well known for being extremely hard for people with tremors so we re delighted to hear that a technology has been developed to address this problem said karen walsh from the uk national tremor foundation. most commonly associated with tremors is parkinson s disease but they can also be caused by other conditions like essential tremor (et). tremors more often affect older people but can hit all ages. et for example is genetic and can afflict people throughout their lives. the assistive mouse adapter (ama) is the brainchild of ibm researcher jim levine who developed the prototype after seeing his uncle who has parkinson s disease struggle with mouse control. i knew that there must be way to improve the situation for him and the millions of other tremor sufferers around the world including the elderly. the number of elderly computer users will increase as the population ages and at the same time the need for computer access grows he said. computer users plug the device into a pc and it can be adjusted depending on how severe the tremor is. it is also able to recognise multiple clicking on a mouse button caused by shaky digits. ibm said it would partner up with a small uk-based electronics firm montrose secam to produce the devices which will cost about £70. james cosgrave one of the company s directors said it would make a big difference to those with tremors. i m a pilot and my tremor condition has not limited my ability to fly a plane he said. but using a pc has proven almost impossible simply because everything revolves around using the mouse to accurately manipulate the tiny cursor on the screen. he said a prototype of the gadget had transformed his life. the device could help open up computing to millions more people who have found shaking to be a barrier. last year the office for national statistics reported that for the first time more than half of all households in britain had a home computer. with prices getting cheaper to get online too computer ownership is increasing. but although 62% of british people have tried the internet only 15% of britons aged 65 or over have been online. more than six million uk households now have a broadband net. by the middle of 2005 it is estimated that 50% of all uk net users will be on broadband. there are still millions using the net through dial-up connections too.

s&n extends indian beer venture the uk s biggest brewer scottish and newcastle (s&n) is to buy 37.5% of india s united breweries in a deal worth 4.66bn rupees ($106m:£54.6m). s&n will buy a 17.5% equity stake in united maker of the well-known kingfisher lager brand and make a public offer to buy another 20% stake. a similar holding will be controlled by vijay mallya chair of the indian firm. the deal was a natural development of its joint venture with united said tony froggatt s&n s chief executive. its top brands include newcastle brown ale foster s john smith s strongbow and kronenbourg. in 2002 s&n and united agreed to form a strategic partnership one that would include a joint venture business and a uk investment in the indian brewer. the joint venture was established in may 2003. with both parties having a 40% stake in the venture - millennium alcobev. millennium alcobev will now be merged with united which expects post-merger to have about half of india s beer market. india with a population of more than one billion consumes about 1.2 billion bottles of beer every year. kingfisher has market share of about 29%. in addition to the equity stake s&n is to invest 2.47bn rupees in united through non-convertible redeemable preference shares. meanwhile united s budget airline kingfisher airlines is to buy 10 a320 aircraft from airbus and has the option to buy 20 more aircraft in a deal worth up to $1.8bn. the airline the brainchild of mr mallya expects to start its operations by the end of april. the new airline would break even in the very first year of operation mr mallya said.

arsenal may seek full share listing arsenal vice-chairman david dein has said the club may consider seeking a full listing for its shares on the london stock exchange. speaking at the soccerex football business forum in dubai he said a full listing was one of the options for funding after the club moves to its new stadium. the club - which is currently listed on the smaller ofex share exchange - is due to move into its new 60 000-seater emirates stadium at ashburton grove for the start of the 2006/07 season. mr dein also warned the current level of tv coverage of the premiership may be reaching saturation level with signs that match attendances have been dropping off in the first few months of this season. when arsenal moves to its new stadium it will see its proportion of turnover from media earnings drop from 52% this season to 34% in two years time. the club is hoping to increase matchday earnings from 29% to 40% of turnover and has not ruled out other money-earning means including a full share listing. when the new stadium opens we will go through a thorough financial review mr dein said. listing would be one option but we are flexible and no decisions have been made on that issue yet. we want to be in the best financial health - maybe clubs can do it (listing) manchester united have been a success. mr dein said that although television money and coverage had driven the english game forward in the past 10 years he feared there might now be too many games being shown. since the formation of the premier league in season 1992/93 premiership clubs have seen their income from television soar. television has been the driving force over the past 10 years... but we must constantly improve if we want to remain as the world s leading league competition. we must monitor the quality of the product and ensure attendances do not decline and we must balance that with the quantity of exposure on tv too. i think we have practically reached saturation point... sometimes i think less is more. the club is funding its move to ashburton grove through a number of sources including debt from banks from money it already has and will receive in coming years from sponsors and from the sale of surplus property including its highbury stadium. it is also looking to create new revenue streams from overseas markets including asia. we have two executives travelling round japan and china at the moment building relationships with organisations and clubs and we know our supporters clubs are growing there too as they are around the world. we have got a very good product so it is very important we go and look at these markets and make sure we are on the case.

retail sales show festive fervour uk retail sales were better than expected in november as christmas shoppers began their seasonal flock to the high street figures show. the office for national statistics (ons) said retail sales rose 0.6% on the month and 6.1% on the year. but the figures along with this week s inflation report could trigger another interest rate rise in the new year. however recent data from the british retail consortium showed a 0.2% slip in high street sales during november. the ons data confounded analyst expectations. many had expected sales to fall slightly in november as shoppers put off buying christmas presents until december. however retailers attempts to draw in the crowds may be behind november s unexpected rise in sales they say. aggressive tactics such as one-day discount sales adopted by stores such as marks & spencer appear to have paid off. price discounting has certainly accounted for much of this because the value of retail sales hasn t grown as much as volumes said investec economist david page. the figures sparked a rally for sterling as the data supported the view that it is too early to assume that base rates have peaked.

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.

newcastle to join morientes race newcastle have joined the race to sign real madrid striker fernando morientes and scupper liverpool s bid to snap up the player according to reports. liverpool were reported to have bid £3.5m for the 28-year-old spanish international this week. but the liverpool echo newspaper has said anfield boss rafa benitez will avoid a bidding war and instead turn his attentions to nicolas anelka. real are believed to still want £7m before selling morientes. monaco are also in the race for the player they had on loan last season. reports suggest liverpool will lift their offer to £5m - the highest they are willing to go before bowing out of any deal. on tuesday morientes had said: i like liverpool and i am pleased that a club of their stature want to buy me. i have told madrid that i want it to happen. madrid know my situation and they know they must do something about me. they must sort out the situation by being sensible. i am in a position where i want to play and i will have to look elsewhere to do that. if madrid do not want me then it s in the best interests of everyone that they are realistic. i haven t spoken to rafa benitez but i have always appreciated his work and i would like to play for him. but benitez could yet turn his attentions to the younger anelka should morientes be reluctant to pledge his future to liverpool. anelka previously played at anfield under gerard houllier before sealing his permanent switch to manchester city.

philippoussis doubt over open bid mark philippoussis is almost certain to miss the australian open after suffering a groin injury during the hopman cup loss to the netherlands. the 28-year-old suffered two tears to the adductor muscle and was unable to play in the deciding mixed doubles. he is now unlikely to be fit in time for the australian open which begins on 17 january in melbourne. he has to strengthen it enough to cope with repetitive days of tennis said hopman cup doctor hamish osborne. it would be very unlikely in my opinion for him to do a five-setter once let alone two days in a row inside two weeks. the injury is more common in australian rules football and a fit footballer would normally take three to four weeks to recover fully although mark s injury is slightly different. the australian has suffered a host of injury problems throughout his career but is still holding out slim hope that he can make the event. it s something i ll have to go by feel. i ll start treatment as soon as possible and try to strengthen it without tearing it any more he said. what doesn t kill you makes you stronger. i know i can come back from this and that s all that matters. - former world number two tommy haas is also a doubt for the australian open after picking up a thigh injury playing for germany in the hopman cup. the 26-year-old had treatment on his left thigh while leading argentine guillermo coria 7-5 2-2. he played one more game but his movement was hampered and he quit.

brown and blair face new rift claims for the umpteenth time tony blair and gordon brown are said to have declared all out war on each other. this time the alleged rift is over who should take the credit for the government s global aid and debt initiatives particularly in the wake of the tsunami disaster - an issue many hoped and believed was above such things. it dominated the prime minister s monthly news conference which saw mr blair start in full irritation mode as he was forced to bat away question after question about his relationship with his neighbour. as he told journalists: i am not interested in what goes in and out of newspapers. there is a complete unity of purpose. and he again heaped praise on mr brown saying he was doing a great job and would continue doing it - although he would not commit to any job for mr brown after the election. so why did he arrange his press conference at the last moment so it coincided with mr brown s long-arranged keynote speech on aid and debt he was asked by now mr blair had moved from irritation mode to his barely disguised fury setting. he snapped back that the hacks knew very well what the operational reasons were for the timing of his press conference. well not really as it happens. and he repeated what a great man gordon was and how united they were before again sneering that he took absolutely no notice of what went in and out of the newspapers preferring to get on with the job of doing the best for the country and the world. although in the next breath he declared: i get increasingly alarmed by what i read in the newspapers before catching himself on and quickly adding: in so far as i read them of course. he probably had good reason to be alarmed because the newspapers had been full of stories about the claimed open warfare between the two men. as far as the timing of the prime minister s press conference is concerned there are two options. the first is that it was a calculated attempt to upstage the chancellor and seize back the initiative on the big issue of the moment. if that is the case it suggests that even the fear of seriously negative newspaper headlines is not enough to stop the squabbling. the second option is that it was an unavoidable coincidence which would suggest the government has lost its once-famed ability to strictly co-ordinate announcements - through the infamous downing street grid - to avert just such allegations. either way the effect was the same - to overshadow the big announcements of government policy on a hugely pertinent issue. and there had been previous suggestions that the new year had started with a fresh outbreak of the warfare between the two men. firstly the prime minister insisted on wednesday that he had been intimately involved in the development of the proposals to get g8 countries to freeze debt repayments from the tsunami-hit countries. it was claimed he had been embarrassed by the fact that gordon brown appeared to have taken the initiative over the government s response to the disaster while mr blair was still on holiday in egypt. then as if to pour fuel on the flames both men separately spoke about working on tsunami or wider aid and development policy with their cabinet colleagues foreign secretary jack straw aid minister hilary benn and deputy prime minister john prescott - without mentioning the other. all this came amid fresh claims that mr brown was still seething that he had been excluded from a prominent role in general election planning and had as a result started to set out his own platform. the fact that he used an article in the guardian newspaper to set out what he believed should be in the manifesto has embarked on a mini tour of britain to set out his aid plans and will next week visit africa on the same mission - often seen as the prime minister s turf - has only added to the impression of rival camps operating entirely independently of each other. the prime minister denied all that as well repeating his insistence that it was inconceivable the economy and the chancellor would not be at the centre of the election campaign. but the big fear with many on the labour benches now is that unless a lid can be put on the speculation over the rivalry it may even threaten to undermine the election campaign itself.

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.

anelka eyes man city departure striker nicolas anelka reportedly wants to leave manchester city in search of champions league football. anelka 25 is in talks over a contract extension beyond 2007 with city but is believed to fear his career will go stale if he stays at the club. the news of the world reports that anelka told a french magazine: i either decide to win titles or to have an easy life. i think i will always choose football if a great club makes me an offer. he added: to win titles you need players who have the capability of doing so. if we stagnate between eighth and 15th place it s impossible to progress. if i am going to score goals and not win there is a risk it is going to create a feeling of being fed up. anelka has earned a reputation for being a difficult character to handle after spells at arsenal real madrid and paris st germain and he feels that is now coming back to haunt him. i am in talks to sign an extension to my contract he said. i am well here but the sporting aspect also comes into account. playing for eighth place is good but i miss the champions league. i won it with real madrid in 2000 and i need to be playing in it - and i should be playing in it. i m not in it because of things that have happened in the past and had nothing to do with football. but i don t blame anyone. it s a bit my fault.

economy strong in election year uk businesses are set to prosper during the next few months - but this could trigger more interest rate rises according to a report. optimism is at its highest since 1997 and business will reap the benefits of a continuing rise in public spending say researchers at bdo stoy hayward. the bank of england is expected to keep rates on hold this week - but they could go up later in the year. rates are likely to rise after the anticipated general election in may. the bdo optimism index - a leading indicator of gdp growth two quarters ahead edged up in january to 102.5 from 102.2 in october. the rise is due in part to an increase in public spending and increased merger and acquisition activity. the only thing blighting business optimism this year will be uncertainties associated with the general election bdo said. its bdo s output index - which predicts gdp movements a quarter in advance - remained at 100.8 for january implying gdp growth at 2.9% in the second quarter of 2005. however the output index is being held back by recent interest rate rises sterling s strength against the dollar and high oil prices the group noted. its inflation index which has risen continuously over the last 8 months climbed to 110.0 in january from 108.0 in october last year. the uk is looking strong going into the general election but businesses need to prepare themselves for a jolt ahead as the bank of england reacts to growth and inflationary pressures said peter hemington partner at bdo stoy hayward. growth will probably slow by the end of 2005 and it is likely that we will see higher interest rates or a sharp drop in demand for products and services.

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.

internet boom for gift shopping cyberspace is becoming a very popular destination for christmas shoppers. forecasts predict that british people will spend £4bn buying gifts online during the festive season an increase of 64% on 2003. surveys also show that the average amount that people are spending is rising as is the range of goods that they are happy to buy online. savvy shoppers are also using the net to find the hot presents that are all but sold out in high street stores. almost half of the uk population now shop online according to figures collected by the interactive media in retail group which represents web retailers. about 85% of this group 18m people expect to do a lot of their christmas gift buying online this year reports the industry group. on average each shopper will spend £220 and britons lead europe in their affection for online shopping. almost a third of all the money spent online this christmas will come out of british wallets and purses compared to 29% from german shoppers and only 4% from italian gift buyers. james roper director of the imrg said shoppers were now much happier to buy so-called big ticket items such as lcd television sets and digital cameras. mr roper added that many retailers were working hard to reassure consumers that online shopping was safe and that goods ordered as presents would arrive in time for christmas. he advised consumers to give shops a little more time than usual to fulfil orders given that online buying is proving so popular. a survey by hostway suggests that many men prefer to shop online to avoid the embarrassment of buying some types of presents such as lingerie for wives and girlfriends. much of this online shopping is likely to be done during work time according to research carried out by security firm saint bernard software. the research reveals that up to two working days will be lost by staff who do their shopping via their work computer. worst offenders will be those in the 18-35 age bracket suggests the research who will spend up to five hours per week in december browsing and buying at online shops. iggy fanlo chief revenue officer at shopping.com said that the growing numbers of people using broadband was driving interest in online shopping. when you consider narrowband and broadband the conversion to sale is two times higher he said. higher speeds meant that everything happened much faster he said which let people spend time browsing and finding out about products before they buy. the behaviour of online shoppers was also changing he said. the single biggest reason people went online before this year was price he said. the number one reason now is convenience. very few consumers click on the lowest price he said. they are looking for good prices and merchant reliability. consumer comments and reviews were also proving popular with shoppers keen to find out who had the most reliable customer service. data collected by ebay suggests that some smart shoppers are getting round the shortages of hot presents by buying them direct through the auction site. according to ebay uk there are now more than 150 robosapiens remote control robots for sale via the site. the robosapiens toy is almost impossible to find in online and offline stores. similarly many shoppers are turning to ebay to help them get hold of the hard-to-find slimline playstation 2 which many retailers are only selling as part of an expensive bundle. the high demand for the playstation 2 has meant that prices for it are being driven up. in shops the ps2 is supposed to sell for £104.99. in some ebay uk auctions the price has risen to more than double this figure. many people are also using ebay to get hold of gadgets not even released in this country. the portable version of the playstation has only just gone on sale in japan yet some enterprising ebay users are selling the device to uk gadget fans.

london irish 19-33 wasps wasps made light of the absence of several internationals to sink london irish with a trio of second-half tries. rob hoadley returned to haunt his old club at the madejski stadium scoring the opening try in the 43rd minute. tom voyce powered through the irish defence for wasps second try before richard birkett went over unchallenged. mark van gisbergen added 18 points. irish replied with three penalties and a mark mapletoft drop goal before scott staniforth ran in a consolation try. barry everitt who replaced mapletoft late in the game added the conversion to become the fourth premiership player to reach 1 000 points. he joins jonny wilkinson tim stimpson and paul grayson in achieving that target. wasps piled on the pressure in an attempt to grab a fourth try which would have secured them a bonus point but they were denied by some desperate defending from irish. director of rugby warren gatland revealed that harsh words at half-time inspired his wasps side to raise their game after the restart. they got a roasting and it was a good second-half performance when they came out and played to instructions he said. gatland also singled out stand-in flankers tom rees and john hart for special praise. they did very well. the back row played some fantastic rugby he added. london irish coach gary gold felt the result exposed his side s lack of consistency. irish trailed by just two points at the break and gold said: for 55 minutes we lived with the best but we have got to get back for the full 80 minutes. gold will now turn his attention to next week s powergen cup semi-final at struggling leeds. we ve got a good chance but with leeds facing possible relegation they re going to come out firing he added. horak staniforth penney nordt bishop; mapletoft edwards; hatley van der walt hardwick; kennedy casey; gustard dawson murphy. replacements: everitt for mapletoft (53) hodgson for edwards (77) wheatley for hatley (71) paice for van der walt (60) strudwick for kennedy (60) danaher for gustard (66) reid for murphy (47) van gisbergen; voyce erinle hoadley roberts; king richards; payne greening dowd; shaw purdy; hart rees dallaglio. replacements: priscott for roberts (71) green for dowd (71) skivington for shaw (71) birkett for hart (57) gotting for rees (39). not used: fury brooks

tory stalking horse meyer dies sir anthony meyer the tory backbencher who challenged margaret thatcher for the party leadership in 1989 has died. he was 84 had been suffering from cancer for many months and died at his london home. that failed stalking horse leadership challenge made it easier for michael heseltine to mount his own bid. that in turn paved the way for john major to move into 10 downing street after the second ballot. meyer s constituency party clwyd north west which he had represented as an mp for more than 20 years deselected him as a result of that challenge. sir anthony john charles meyer was born on 27 october 1920. educated at eton and at new college oxford he served in the scots guards from 1941 to 1945 and was wounded in tanks in normandy. he worked under edward heath on europe at the foreign office and subsequently won the eton and slough seat for the tories in 1964 - by 11 votes. labour regained the seat two years later and meyer had to wait until 1970 before he could re-enter parliament. his prospects of a front bench slot remained remote because he tended to defy the party line.

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.

deutsche attacks yukos case german investment bank deutsche bank has challenged the right of yukos to claim bankruptcy protection in the us. in a court filing on tuesday it said the russian oil giant has few texas ties beyond bank accounts and a texas-based finance chief. deutsche bank claimed yukos had artificially manufactured a legal case to stop the sale of its main asset. it had wanted to help fund gazprom s plans for a $10bn (£5.18bn) bid for yukos unit yuganskneftegas. deutsche bank would have earned large fees from the deal which could not be carried out because us chapter 11 bankruptcy rules made the kremlin s auction of yuganskneftegas on 19 december illegal under us law. but the us bankruptcy court judge in texas granted yukos an injunction that barred gazprom and its lenders from taking part. yuganskneftegas will ultimately end up with gazprom. the winning bidder at the auction was a previously unknown firm baikal finance group which was snapped up days later by rosneft a russian oil firm that is in the process of merging with gazprom. the effect of these transactions is to renationalise yuganskneftegas. deutsche bank contends yukos filed for bankruptcy earlier this month in texas in a desperate and unsuccessful bid to stave off the 19 december auction of its top unit by the russian government which was in a tax dispute with yukos. this blatant attempt to artificially manufacture a basis for jurisdiction constitutes cause to dismiss this case deutsche bank said in its court filing. mike lake a spokesman for yukos lawyers said on tuesday that the company stands by its legal action. yukos is confident of its right to us bankruptcy protection and we are prepared to be back in court defending that position again he said. yukos has said it intends to seek $20bn in damages from the buyer of yuganskneftegas once the sale finally goes through. in its filing deutsche bank said houston was a jurisdiction in which yukos owns no real or personal property and conducts no business operations. it also said the us bankruptcy court should not become involved in a tax dispute between the federation and one of its corporate citizens . it suggested the european court or an international arbitration tribunal were more appropriate jurisdictions for the legal fight between russia and yukos. the next hearing in the bankruptcy is expected on 6 january. analysts believe the tax dispute between the russian government and yukos is partly driven by russian president vladimir putin s hostility hostility to the political ambitions of ex-yukos boss mikhail khordokovsky. mr khodorkovsky is in jail and on trial for fraud and tax evasion.

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.

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.

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.

wenger rules out new keeper arsenal boss arsene wenger says he has no plans to sign a new goalkeeper during the january transfer window. wenger has brought in manuel almunia for the last three games for the out-of-form jens lehmann - but the spaniard himself has been prone to mistakes. there have been suggestions that wenger will swoop for a high-quality shot-stopper in the new year. but he told the evening standard: i don t feel it will be necessary to bring in a new goalkeeper in january. the gunners manager refused to comment on the difficult start that 27-year-old almunia has made to his career at highbury. and he would not be drawn on whether lehmann would return for the top-of-the table clash with chelsea on sunday. almunia was at fault for rosenborg s goal in arsenal s 5-1 champions league win on tuesday and had some hairy moments in last week s win over birmingham. but wenger said earlier this week that his indifferent form was down to pressure caused by being under scrutiny from the media. the debate has gone on too long. everyone has an opinion and i do not have to add to it wenger added. arsenal have been linked with middlesbrough keeper mark schwarzer fulham s edwin van der sar and parma s sebastien frey. and wenger has no immediate plans to recall former england under-21 international stuart taylor from his loan spell at leicester.

halloween writer debra hill dies screenwriter and producer debra hill best known for her work on the 70s horror classic halloween has died in los angeles aged 54. hill who had been suffering from cancer co-wrote the 1978 film which starred jamie lee curtis as a babysitter terrorised by a psychopath. directed by john carpenter it made over $60m (£31.3m) worldwide - a record for independent film at that time. hill also worked with carpenter on escape from new york and the fog. born in new jersey hill began her career as a production assistant and worked her way through the ranks becoming an assistant director and second-unit director before she began collaborating with carpenter. she was regarded by many as a pioneering woman in film taking on jobs in the 70s that were more commonly taken by men. back when i started in 1974 there were very few women in the industry she said in 2003. i was assumed to be the make-up and hair person or the script person. i was never assumed to be the writer or producer. i took a look around and realised there weren t that many women so i had to carve a niche for myself. carpenter said that working with hill was one of the greatest experiences of my life . the ground that she trailblazed in the beginning can now be followed by anyone. she was incredibly capable and talented he said. carpenter and hill collaborated on a number of halloween sequels including halloween ii halloween: resurrection and halloween: the curse of michael myers. later in her career hill formed a production company with her friend lynda obst making a string of hit films including oscar nominee the fisher king and teen comedy adventures in babysitting. other films included the stephen king adaptation the dead zone in 1983 and 1985 s clue a comedy based on the board game cluedo. in the 90s she pursued work in tv although she was reunited with carpenter in 1996 for escape from la the sequel to escape from new york. at the time of her death she was working on a film about the last two men pulled from the rubble of the twin towers following the 11 september terror attacks in 2001. she was also co-producing the remake of the fog which is due for release early next year.

bad e-mail habits sustains spam the bad behaviour of e-mail users is helping to sustain the spam industry a new study has found. according to a survey conducted by security firm mirapoint and market research company the radicati group nearly a third of e-mail users have clicked on links in spam messages. one in ten users have bought products advertised in junk mail. clicking on a link in a spam message can expose people to viruses and alert spammers to live e-mail accounts. the fact that one in ten e-mail users are buying things advertised in spam continues to make it an attractive business especially given that sending out huge amounts of spam costs very little the report concludes. this preliminary data is surprising and somewhat shocking to us said marcel nienhuis market analyst at the radicati group. it explains why e-mail security threats including spam viruses and phishing scams continue to proliferate he said accusing users of bad e-mail behaviour . spammers are increasingly hooking into whatever happens to be flavour of the month according to security firm clearswift. it has recently seen a rise in the number of spam messages offering phoney sony psp giveaways. and in perhaps a nod to the popularity of the american drama series desperate housewives it has also seen a dramatic rise in junk mails purporting to give details of women looking for casual sex. but rather than finding a companion users who click on such mail will find themselves redirected to porn sites where they run the risk of downloading spyware on to their pc. clearswift has seen a 180% rise in sex-related spam over the course of the last month. without casting aspersions those likely to respond to these kind of adverts will be invariably hoping that one thing leads to another but aside from the fact that these mails are bogus clicking on any link within a spam mail can lead to a whole host of unwanted problems said alyn hockey clearswift s director of research. sexually explicit terms make up 14% of security firm sophos top 50 word that spammers most commonly try to disguise in order to beat anti-spam filters. spammers will deliberately misspell a word or use digits instead of letters in an attempt to by-pass anti-spam software said graham cluley senior technology consultant for security firm sophos. the list of words most commonly hidden by the spammers from anti-spam software reveals that most spam is about the old favourites: money drugs and sex said mr cluley. but anti-spam filters can only be part of the solution to the menace of junk e-mail. people must resist their basic instincts to buy from spam mails. spammers are criminals plain and simple. if no-one responded to junk e-mail and didn t buy products sold in this way then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs he said.

tough schedule delays elliot show preview performances of the £3m musical billy elliot have been delayed to give the child actors a less arduous rehearsal schedule. director stephen daldry made the decision to re-schedule the previews to protect the young stars. three boys will rotate the demanding role of ballet dancer billy which requires them to sing dance and act. the show s opening night on 12 may at the victoria palace theatre in london remains unaffected by the changes. preview performances will now be held on 14 20 and 27 april. this is one of the most ambitious projects i have been involved with said daldry. the decision has been made to push back our preview performances in order to give our company with a cast including 45 children a little extra time so they are as fully prepared as possible. he added: the young billy elliots in particular making their professional stage debuts in the west end will benefit from a little extra time to familiarise themselves with all aspects of the production. the three boys playing billy are james lomas 15 george maguire 14 and liam mower 12. the other major child parts will also be rotated between young actors. such are the demands of the show that producers set up a stage school in newcastle to train potential stars for the show. child labour laws also mean the young actors can only work for a limited period each week. adult actors in the show include tim healy as billy s father and haydn gwnne as his dance teacher mrs wilkinson. sir elton john has composed the music. daldry directed the successful film version of billy elliot adapted from lee hall s script. both were nominated for oscars alongside julie walters who played billy s teacher.

italy aim to rattle england italy coach john kirwan believes his side can upset england as the six nations wooden spoon battle hots up. the two sides both without a win meet on 12 march at twickenham and kirwan says his side will be hoping to make the most of england s current slump. we have to make sure the england and france games are tough for them. england have not been having the best of championships. that is a big one for us and them and i am sure my players will rise to the occasion he said. but kirwan admits that a lot of hard work will be needed with his kickers before the trip to london. roland de marigny and luciano orquera had a miserable time with the boot in the dire defeat to scotland as chris paterson stole the show to give the hosts a much-needed 18-10 victory. kirwan said: the kicking was the decisive factor in scotland which cost us and it could go down to the kicking again next time. but i have a lot of confidence in my players and i am positive we can put everything together against england. england meanwhile are licking their wounds and rueing what might have been had two decisions from referee jonathan kaplan not gone against them in the second half in dublin. first mark cueto was judged offside as he chased fly-half charlie hodgson s kick and then kaplan opted not to call upon video evidence to see if josh lewsey had touched down after being driven over ireland s line. but centre jamie noon believes the side at least showed better form than their previous two defeats. we definitely improved against an in-form irish side he said. we went to dublin quietly confident that we would be able to compete and i think we showed that. we have got to make sure we now take the form and positives into the italy game. we are under no illusions that it is going to be easy but we definitely need a win. england have now equalled an 18-year low of four successive championship defeats including france in paris last season and have lost four in a row under andy robinson. his predecessor sir clive woodward began his seven-year reign with three defeats and two draws.

bbc web search aids odd queries the bbc s online search engine was used a record amount in 2004 helping with enquires both simple and strange. more than 277 million enquiries were made asking for informaton of a wide range of subjects. the most requested search terms of 2004 included games eastenders cbbc john peel harry potter and olympics. but there were many strange enquiries including: what is a dog how do you say basketball and what is the biggest collection of naval fluff the search engine works by matching key words typed in to different web pages but many people still type in natural language questions. here are some of the strangest queries of 2004 - spelling and grammar errors left untouched - and their possible solutions: - how to fold a serviette like an elf s boot - how do i structure a french letter - what is better one long vacation each year or several short vacations throughout the year - what is so special about the swiss - what are the contemporary issue in nurses - what is the number 4 in this number 40052308090 - what is up - what is the name of james martin s dog search engines are key to the way people use the internet. companies such as google have become of paramount importance as they dictate how people travel through websites while online.

lib dems target the student vote students can decide the fate of mps in some seats at the next election liberal democrat leader charles kennedy has claimed. the party says the votes of students can win it 27 new seats at the poll. the figures assume all students will vote in their university town. in fact some may vote where the parents live. the lib dems say scrapping university fees wins them student support. but the tories would also end fees and labour says both would cap people s ambitions. the lib dems have named the 14 seats where there are enough students to take the lib dems from second place to beat labour and the 13 where they could go from second to beat the tories. launching his campaign to win students votes at the london school of economics mr kennedy urged students to make their mark . he underlined lib dem plans to scrap university fees and reintroduce maintenance grants of up to £2 000. he said: top-up fees put students off university especially those from a poorer background. and is it really right that so many young people are starting out in life with mortgage-style debts hanging round their necks mr kennedy also said students want action on the environment and see the iraq war which his party opposed as a defining issue. labour has pushed through plans to let universities charge fees of up to £3 000 a year with the poorest students eligible for non-repayable support of up to £3 000. ahead of mr kennedy s launch a labour spokesperson said: like the tories the liberal democrats would restrict access to higher education and put a cap on aspiration closing the door to students with good grades and restricting their life ambitions. they are committed to abandoning labour s targets of getting 50% of 18 to 30-year-olds going into higher education and under lib dem plans students would even have to study near home. the conservatives say they would abolish university tuition fees and instead offer large student loans at commercial rates of interest. they say the lib dem policy would leave universities wholly dependent for their income on the goodwill of the chancellor. shadow education secretary tim collins is on thursday setting out a new scheme of vocational grants for 14 to 16-year-olds to tackle what he says are crippling skills shortages . the lib dem analysis of the difference students could make to its election chances is based on all students being registered to vote near their university not in their home towns. although the expected 5 may election would be during term time students can vote by post. the electoral commission and national union of students are worried students in halls of residence can find it hard to register to vote. some hall wardens are reluctant to register students because of data protection fears - but students can get themselves registered. if the election is on 5 may voters need to register by 11 march. - the seats where the lib dems say student votes can swing the election for them are: bristol west cardiff central leeds north west cambridge manchester gorton sheffield central oxford east newcastle-upon-tyne central liverpool riverside holborn and st pancras oldham east and saddleworth manchester withington islington south and finsbury birmingham yardley surrey south west taunton orpington haltemprice and howden eastbourne isle of wight dorset west bournemouth east wells canterbury cities of london and westminster bournemouth west westmorland and lonsdale.

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.

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).

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.

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

ireland 21-19 argentina an injury-time dropped goal by ronan o gara stole victory for ireland from underneath the noses of argentina at lansdowne road on saturday. o gara kicked all of ireland s points with two dropped goals and five penalties to give the home side a 100% record in their autumn internationals. an impressive argentina appeared in control until the dying seconds. the pumas shocked the irish early on with a try from federico aramburu and felipe contepomi kicked 14 points. the well-drilled and sharper pumas out-played and out-thought ireland in the early stages. indiscipline allowed argentina s leinster fly-half contepomi to open the scoring in the third minute with a straightforward penalty. he was on the mark again two minutes later when argentina shocked a ragged ireland with the first try of the game. ireland turned the ball over and manuel contepomi broke through an unstructured defence before feeding his midfield partner aramburu to sprint in under the posts. o gara finally got ireland on the board with a dropped goal in the ninth minute only for contepomi to rifle over his second penalty two minutes later. playing into a strong wind and rain ireland continued to come second best in tight situations and turnovers began to mount up against a rugged defence. o gara managed to land his second penalty in the 36th minute but once again contepomi replied in kind four minutes into first-half injury time. the second-half started as the first had ended. o gara rifled over another penalty in the 45th minute but contepomi matched it three minutes later. the upper-body strength of the pumas never allowed ireland to take control up front while the three-quarters had no space to manoeuvre. ireland had to rely on o gara s boot to keep in touch rather than any contrived running plays. the munsterman landed two more penalties - one of them from 48 metres - to bring his team to within four points with 13 minutes on the clock remaining. and ireland s chance came when argentina s number eight gonzalo longo was yellow carded with six minutes to go for an offence in the line-out. o gara made no mistake as he rifled over his fifth penalty to set up a tense final few minutes. but ireland showed great composure to get themselves into a position to allow o gara to thump over a massive drop goal to complete a tremendous if fortuitous comeback.

nasdaq planning $100m-share sale the owner of the technology-dominated nasdaq stock index plans to sell shares to the public and list itself on the market it operates. according to a registration document filed with the securities and exchange commission nasdaq stock market plans to raise $100m (£52m) from the sale. some observers see this as another step closer to a full public listing. however nasdaq an icon of the 1990s technology boom recently poured cold water on those suggestions. the company first sold shares in private placements during 2000 and 2001. it technically went public in 2002 when the stock started trading on the otc bulletin board which lists equities that trade only occasionally. nasdaq will not make money from the sale only investors who bought shares in the private placings the filing documents said. the nasdaq is made up shares in technology firms and other companies with high growth potential. it was the most potent symbol of the 1990s internet and telecoms boom nose-diving after the bubble burst. a recovery in the fortunes of tech giants such as intel and dot.com survivors such as amazon has helped revive its fortunes.

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.

sales fail to boost high street the january sales have failed to help the uk high street recover from a poor christmas season a survey has found. stores received a boost from bargain hunters but trading then reverted to december levels the british retail consortium and accountants kpmg said. sales in what is traditionally a strong month rose by 0.5% on a like-for-like basis compared with a year earlier. consumers remain cautious over buying big-ticket items like furniture said brc director general kevin hawkins. higher interest rates and uncertainty over the housing market continue to take their toll on the retail sector the brc said. but clothing and footwear sales were said to be generally better than december while department stores also had a good month. in the three-months to january like-for-like sales showed a growth rate of -0.1% the same as in the three months to december the brc said. following a relatively strong new year s bank holiday trading then took a downward turn said mr hawkins. even extending some promotions and discounts and the pay-day boost later in the month could not tempt customers. the previous brc survey found christmas 2004 was the worst for 10 years for retailers. and according to office for national statistics data sales in december failed to meet expectations and by some counts were the worst since 1981.

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.

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.

poll idols face first hurdles vote for me - itv1 s pop idol style talent contest for would-be politicians - finally hits our screens this week. over the next four days hundreds of potential candidates will be whittled down by a panel of experts and public vote. the winner will then be encouraged to stand as an independent at the next general election which is expected in the spring. but opinion is divided on whether any of the potential candidates unearthed so far have got what it takes to make it in politics. any of them would make competent mps former independent mp martin bell insisted on bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr bell who will be offering his advice to the contestants on wednesday argues that westminster has its share of odd balls and the show will engage ordinary voters. if it gets more people voting and more people interested in politics there is no harm in that he said. but sir bernard ingham margaret thatcher s former press secretary took a less charitable view accusing the programme of corrupting politics . he said the producers would not achieve their aim of re-engaging voters with that bunch of nutters . to give sir bernard his dues monday evening s opening episode did attract more than a smattering of eccentrics and self-publicists. among those chancing their arm were a druid priest and a former porn star who insisted on removing her top to make her point about the legalisation of brothels. among the more eccentric policy proposals was a public holiday on bruce forsyth s birthday and bill oddie for prime minister. the show follows the time-honoured pop idol format with queues of nervous hopefuls and a panel of three experts judging their performance. the contestants were given 60 seconds to present their manifestos. then the final 25 were tested on their lobbying ability. they were then cross-examined by the panel which was chaired by ex-itn political editor john sergeant with television host lorraine kelly taking the nicki chapman role. but the real star of the show is kelvin mackenzie in the simon cowell mr nasty seat. the former sun editor dispensed a stream of well-crafted insults and one-liners. his advice for one young contestant was to get a haircut and a brain transplant . wheelchair user kevin donnellon was asked: why on earth do you want our elected representatives to be disabled don t you care about the inuit implored guitar-toting environmental campaigner barry lim. i don t care about them. i care about myself and when the sun s shining i think - fantastic replied mr mackenzie. mr lim later reduced the panel to fits of giggles as he outlined his plan to make people do community service instead of paying taxes. when the prime minister turns to the chancellor and says how much have we got in the coffers mr brown he says well prime minister bad news all the houses in britain have been painted but actually nobody has paid any tax observed mr mackenzie. that was an total disaster. i just couldn t seem to think of things to say a crestfallen mr lim confided in the show s presenter jonathan maitland. irfan hanif a 25-year-old doctor from bolton made a good impression even if he was a little thrown by mr mackenzie s suggestion that instead of being treated by the nhs young drunks should given a good beating and left to die. dominic carman - son of late libel lawyer george carman - was voted through to the final 25 on a platform of cutting defence spending to boost education. opinion was more divided over rodney hylton-potts a 59-year-old convicted fraudster. mr mackenzie thought the smooth-talking former solicitor - with a hardline on crime and immigration - deserved a chance to progress. he could join the rest of the crooks in the houses of parliament. but ms kelly said she would not trust him as far as she could throw him . the series continues throughout the week with the public given the chance to evict one prospective mp every night. itv will not fund the election campaign for the eventual winner but the publicity could give the winner a flying start over other candidates.

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.

format wars could confuse users technology firms sony philips matsushita and samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video. the firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. the move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different and conflicting content control systems experts warned. they say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy. currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as digital rights management systems. by setting up the alliance to work on a common control system the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. in a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy appropriately licensed video and music on any device independent of how they originally obtained that content . the firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music movies and other digital content they have bought. called the marlin joint development association the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm intertrust as well as an earlier drm system developed by a group known as the coral consortium. the move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by apple and microsoft. confusingly for consumers the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as microsoft and apple. in many ways the different drm systems are akin to the different physical formats such as betamax and vhs that consumers have seen in the past said ian fogg personal technology and broadband analyst at jupiter research. the difference is that it is very fragmented he said. it s not a two-horse race it s a five six seven or even eight-horse race mr fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. he said currently there were even incompatibilities within drm families. although initiatives such as microsoft s plays for sure program could help remove some of the uncertainty he said life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. shelley taylor analyst and author of a report about online music services said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. apple s itunes service was a perfect example of this she said. although itunes has been hugely successful apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those ipods she said. she said rampant competition between online music services of which there are now 230 according to recent figures could drive more openness and freer file formats. it always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run she said and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest. ms taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. people want portability she said and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability. cory doctorow european co-ordinator for the electronic frontier foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues expressed doubts that the marlin system would achieve its aims. not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying he said. he said many firms readily admit that their drm systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. instead said mr doctorow drm systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. the studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the ipod version the auto version the american and uk version the ringtone version and so on.

man auctions ad space on forehead a 20-year-old us man is selling advertising space on his forehead to the highest bidder on website ebay. andrew fisher from omaha nebraska said he would have a non-permanent logo or brand name tattooed on his head for 30 days. the way i see it i m selling something i already own; after 30 days i get it back he told the bbc today programme. mr fisher has received 39 bids so far with the largest bid currently at more than $322 (£171). the winner will be able to send me a tattoo or have me go to a tattoo parlour and get a temporary ink tattoo on my forehead and this will be something they choose a company name or domain name perhaps their logo he told the radio 4 programme. on the online auction mr fisher describes himself as an average american joe give or take . his sales pitch adds: take advantage of this radical advertising campaign and become a part of history. mr fisher said that while he would accept any brand name or logo i wouldn t go around with a swastika or anything racial . he added: i wouldn t go around with 666 the mark of the beast. other than that i wouldn t promote anything socially unacceptable such as adult websites or stores. he said he would use the money to pay college - he is planning to study graphic design. the entrepreneur said his mother was initially surprised by his decision but following all the media attention she felt he was thinking outside the box .

media gadgets get moving pocket-sized devices that let people carry around video and images are set to have a big year in 2005 according to industry experts. last year saw the emergence of portable media players such as the windows-based creative zen portable media player the samsung yepp the iriver pmc-100 and the archos av400 series among others. but this year they are set to get smarter and more connected to allow people to find more video to watch on them. archos launched its latest range of its linux-based portable media devices at the consumer electronics show in las vegas on friday. dubbed the pocket media assistant pma430 it crucially has wi-fi capability built-in for the first time. consumers are showing a great thirst for devices that store all their media in one place for anywhere access said henri crohas chief of archos. and now those consumers can stay connected and productive at the same time. archos said the focus for the device is to be the second gadget in people s pockets after the mobile. unlike windows-based players the archos av400 series devices have always been able to record from any video source such as tvs as well as playback. the content put onto the devices is copy protected so cannot then be swapped to another device. recording is perhaps a crucial functionality for those who have not seen the point of portable video if there is not a lot of video to watch on it. and wi-fi connectivity opens up the possibility of content delivery via a high-speed wireless link. archos also announced that it would open up the software development kit to linux developers so that more applications could be created for the device. microsoft also made some announcements in the portable media arena at ces primarily for us consumers though. it has agreed a content deal with personal video recorder company tivo which bill gates also showcased in his keynote speech at ces. the tivo to go service means that us consumers will be able to take any programmes they record on their tivos and transfer it for free to watch on any of the windows-based portable media players or smartphones. it also said it had launched a service with mtv to let people watch comedy central vh1 and country music tv on its devices. and a service is launching with msn to provide people with shortened versions of news entertainment and other video on a subscription basis for download via the pc onto the portable devices. but the ability to record directly from tv vcr and digital cable and satellite boxes which windows-based devices do not offer certainly gives people more content to watch on the go too. the increased capability of these devices and the content deals that are being done may go some way to persuading people to use them. recent research by jupiter suggested that people would prefer a device that was dedicated to music. only 13% of europeans wanted to watch video while on the move. more seemed interested in spending their cash on music-only devices. this year we are ready for an explosion of portable media microsoft s mike coleman told the bbc news website. we are very bullish about it. the fact that i can put photos on here too and share them is super-cool to the consumer he added. the fact that europeans are far larger public transport users than americans is one reason why portable media will take off in the coming year too. there is a burgeoning market there for commuters to watch news and other programmes on their way to work. although microsoft s content distribution deals are for the us market at the moment talks were always on-going with european content suppliers to offer similar services. various rights management issues have to be ironed out first however. but that does not prevent people from finding ways to create their own content to share online and swap on portable devices particularly via those which are wi-fi enabled. the possibility is open for non-professional makers of video and audio to take advantage of the growing portable media market to distribute their work. ces which runs from 6 to 9 january showcases more than 50 000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in 2005.

taylor poised for scotland return simon taylor has been named in the scotland squad for saturday s six nations clash with italy. the 25-year-old number eight made a scoring return for edinburgh at the weekend - his first game in a year for the capital side. taylor suffered knee ligament damage playing against ireland in dublin in the 2004 six nations championship. simon is one of scotland s truly world class players so it is a huge bonus said team-mate chris paterson. he brings a whole new dimension to us especially in defence and his ability to slow the opposition ball down could be key against italy if he is involved. taylor has turned out for english side saracens in recent weeks during a short-term loan to improve his fitness. edinburgh were not in action during the first two weeks of this season s six nations. so taylor played the last 20 minutes of saracens win over northampton and then 40 minutes in a friendly against south african super 12 side the cats. scotland coach matt williams is due to name his match-day 22 on thursday. both scotland and italy have lost their opening two six nations games and just like last season s encounter which italy won this weekend s game could turn out to be a battle to avoid the wooden spoon. - m blair (edinburgh) a craig (glasgow) c cusiter (borders) s danielli (borders) m di rollo (edinburgh) a henderson (glasgow) b hinshelwood (worcester) r lamont (glasgow) s lamont (glasgow) d parks (glasgow) c paterson (edinburgh) g ross (leeds) h southwell (edinburgh) s webster (edinburgh) - r beattie (northampton) g bulloch (glasgow capt) b douglas (borders) j dunbar (leeds) i fullarton (saracens) s grimes (newcastle) n hines (edinburgh) a hogg (edinburgh) g kerr (leeds) n lloyd (saracens) s murray (edinburgh) j petrie (glasgow) r russell (london irish) c smith (edinburgh) t smith (northampton) s taylor (edinburgh) j white (sale).

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.

lib dems target first-time buyers the liberal democrats have unveiled plans to build 100 000 new affordable homes on publicly owned land. the party s scheme would allow people to buy a share in a home through a mutual home ownership trust as a way of getting onto the housing ladder. the lib dems would also encourage the conversion of existing buildings in an effort to protect greenfield sites. labour has already announced plans to help first-time buyers and the tories would extend right-to-buy schemes. all the major parties are focusing on the issue in the run-up to the election after a survey suggested first-time buyers could not afford a home in 92% of uk towns. the lib dems say their mutual homes would let people buy a share of a property usually worth about 5% of the building costs. party leader charles kennedy said the homes would be affordable because they would be built on surplus public sector land donated by central or local government. people would also only have to pay for the cost of the building and not the land he added. they would spend about 30% of their monthly salary on rent and buying extra shares in the property. when they moved house they would be able to cash in on any rise in property prices by selling their share. it would also allow councils to vary discounts to tenants given the right to buy their council homes so local needs were taken into account. mr kennedy said: mutual homes will offer people the opportunity to build up an equity stake in a home gradually investing only as much as they can afford. there are also plans to prevent high house prices forcing people out of their local communities. the kind of golden share used by the lib dems in south shropshire could be rolled out more widely. under the plan councils secure deals with developers where they keep a 1% share in a property scheme so properties cannot be sold on the open market. instead they are sold at build cost to people who the local council decides have local needs. the party says its help for first-time buyers can be funded at no extra cost to the taxpayer. but the plans involve changing the vat system which the party says often makes it too expensive to renovate existing buildings. the conservatives claimed the plans would amount to an extra tax of up to £11 000 on every new house. this is typical of lib dem hypocrisy said tory shadow local government secretary caroline spelman. they claim that they want to help people on to the property ladder but the small print of their policies reveal how they intend to price even more people out of the housing market. the flagship tory proposal on housing policy is to give a million more housing association tenants the right to buy their homes. labour has said it will allow 300 000 council and housing association tenants to buy a share in their homes. housing minister keith hill said much of the lib dem plans mimicked the government s strategy. however as usual the lib dems proposals are completely uncosted he said. mr hill said he also asked whether the lib dems would match labour s promise to spend £42bn on making refurbishing and repair council homes by 2010.

eu too slow on economic reforms most eu countries have failed to put in place policies aimed at making europe the world s most competitive economy by the end of the decade a report says. the study undertaken by the european commission sought to assess how far the eu has moved towards meeting its economic targets. in 2000 eu leaders at a summit in lisbon pledged the european economy would outstrip that of the us by 2010. their economic targets became known as the lisbon agenda. but the commission report says that in most eu countries the pace of economic reform has been too slow and fulfilling the lisbon ambitions will be difficult - if not impossible. only the uk finland belgium denmark ireland and the netherlands have actually followed up policy recommendations. among the biggest laggards according to the report are greece and italy. the lisbon agenda set out to increase the number of people employed in europe by encouraging more older people and women to stay in the workforce. it also set out to raise the amount the private sector spends on research and development while bringing about greater discipline over public spending and debt levels. combined with high environmental standards and efforts to level the playing field for businesses throughout the eu the plan was for europe to become the world s most dynamic economy by 2010. next week the commission will present revised proposals to meet the lisbon goals. many people expect the 2010 target to be quietly dropped.

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.

blunkett hints at election call ex-home secretary david blunkett has given fresh clues that the general election will be announced on monday. he told bbc radio five live: i m out in my constituency getting ready for what we presume will be an announcement very shortly at the weekend. he clarified that he meant he would be in his sheffield seat this weekend not that he expected an election call then. tony blair is tipped to ask the queen on monday to dissolve parliament ready for a 5 may poll.

share boost for feud-hit reliance the board of indian conglomerate reliance has agreed a share buy-back to counter the effects of a power struggle in the controlling family. the buy-back is a victory for chairman mukesh ambani whose idea it was. his brother anil the vice-chairman said had not been consulted and that the buy-back was completely inappropriate and unnecessary . the board hopes the move will reverse a 13% fall in reliance s shares since the feud became public last month. the company has been fractious since founder dhirubhai ambani died in 2002 leaving no will. today s round has gone to [mukesh] there is no doubt about it said nanik rupani president of the indian merchants chamber a bombay-based traders body. the company plans to buy back 52 million shares at 570 rupees (£6.80; $13) apiece a premium of more than 10% to its current market price.

mauresmo opens with victory in la amelie mauresmo and maria sharapova won their opening matches at the tour championships in los angeles. france s mauresmo routed vera zvonareva 6-1 6-0 while wimbledon champion sharapova was a 6-1 6-4 winner over fellow russian svetlana kuznetsova. american serena williams also won edging russian elena dementieva 7-6 7-5 for her second victory of the event. the event is split into two groups of four with the top two from each advancing to the semi-finals. mauresmo s win was her ninth in a row as she tries to overtake lindsay davenport for the number one spot. mauresmo spent five weeks at number one after the us open before injury ushered davenport back in front. since then i feel very confident on court and my game is there. i want to get the ranking back but it s very different than before i was number one. it was an obsession but now i take it in a relaxed way. mauresmo completed her first match in the season-ending championship in 54 minutes as russia s zvonareva struggled to return her serve and failed to achieve a single break point. she got mad a little bit and i played some great tennis said mauresmo who was runner-up to kim clijsters in last year s final. zvonareva has lost both her games so far having crashed 6-2 6-4 kuznetsova in the staples centre on wednesday. sometimes not everything works she said. it was lots of pressure. maybe that is why i couldn t do 100%. but i was fighting. sharapova who lost 6-2 6-2 to kuznetsova in beijing in september said: in beijing she was coming off such a big winning streak [14 matches] and she was unstoppable. this time it was important to start off well and put some pressure on her. the tournament debutant added: i love it here. the atmosphere is great. to be here where the lakers play you just feel that excitement. i love basketball. williams admitted she is still some way off her best form but remained positive after two wins in two days. it s hard to go out there and get it right but i m fighting and i m hoping said williams. what makes me happy is the effort. i had a really good effort today. i m trying to add new dimensions to my game.

slovakia seal hopman cup success slovakia clinched the hopman cup for the second time by beating argentina 3-0 in saturday s final in perth. daniela hantuchova put the third seeds ahead recovering from a terrible start to beat gisela dulko 1-6 6-4 6-4. dominik hrbaty who had not lost a set in his three singles matches in the group stages then upset world number seven guillermo coria 6-4 6-1. hantuchova and hrbaty then won the mixed doubles after coria was forced to withdraw because of a sore back. slovakia s win made up for last year s final defeat to the united states. i would like to congratulate daniela hrbaty said. i was so nervous watching her today i almost had a heart attack. i also feel a little sorry for guillermo because i get very excited whenever i play for my country. i show lots of emotions and played such good tennis. world number 31 hantuchova ranked two places above dulko looked nervous as she dropped the first four games of the match. dulko who had lost all three of her singles matches in the group stages grew in confidence and took the opening set in just 27 minutes. but hantuchova hit back to take the next two and the match. i was so nervous because i really wanted to win for the team and for dominik as he played so well all week she said. i didn t think i was playing my best but i just tried to hang in there and fight hard for every point for my country. slovakia won the cup on their first appearance in 1998 when karol kucera and karina habsudova beat france.

ukraine trims privatisation check ukraine is to review dozens of state asset sales as the country s new administration tackles corruption. the figure announced by president viktor yushchenko is less than the 3 000 cases mentioned last week but will cover many of the biggest deals. ukraine recently ousted long-serving leader leonid kuchma and has said it wants closer european union links. in a separate statement the eu said that the us should back ukraine s entry into the world trade organisation. the comments came as viktor yushchenko prepared to head to brussels to meet with us president george w bush and other north atlantic treaty organisation (nato) leaders. he is the only non-nato member leader invited to attend the summit. mr yushchenko recently defeated moscow-backed presidential candidate and prime minister viktor yanukovych at the polls and has made no secret of his wish to fight corruption and make ukraine more transparent. earlier this month new prime minister yulia tymoshenko said as many as 3 000 firms may have their privatisations put under the spotlight. her comments raised concerns among a number of investors and mr yushchenko was seen on monday as trying to soothe their frayed nerves. we acknowledge that business in ukraine is now shaped and 98% of privatisations were carried out according to the law mr yushchenko said on monday. we have trust in this business and want to defend it by law he continued adding that any review would focus on dozens of companies not hundreds or thousands . he cited last year s sale of ukrainian steel producer krivorizhstal as one that had raised concerns. it was sold in june 2004 to a consortium that included viktor pinchuk son-in-law of former-president kuchma and rinat akhmetov the country s richest man for $800m (£424m) - despite other higher offers. vice-prime minister oleg rybachuk called on the eu to recognise the steps that ukraine was taking fearing that should the country not be rewarded for its efforts there may be a backlash against closer relations with brussels. he said that while he understood that ukraine was not ready for eu membership the country needed to see progress on topics such as trade and visa requirements. we deserve an honest response mr rybachuk told the associated press in an interview. we understand the difficulties. we refuse to understand double standards. ukraine may find it has a sympathetic ear in brussels the eu has reiterated that we support (ukraine s) fast accession to the wto and if possible we would like that to happen some time during the year said claude veron-reville a spokesman for eu trade commissioner peter mandelson. we have said as much to the americans. we feel that it is important for us all to pull together for ukraine to be allowed into the wto. mr yushchenko was careful not to turn his back on russia which borders the country to the east saying it was important to maintain pragmatic ties with moscow. russia is ukraine s eternal strategic partner mr yushchenko said.

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 .

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.

jp morgan admits us slavery links thousands of slaves were accepted as collateral for loans by two banks that later became part of jp morgan chase. the admission is part of an apology sent to jp morgan staff after the bank researched its links to slavery in order to meet legislation in chicago. citizens bank and canal bank are the two lenders that were identified. they are now closed but were linked to bank one which jp morgan bought last year. about 13 000 slaves were used as loan collateral between 1831 and 1865. because of defaults by plantation owners citizens and canal ended up owning about 1 250 slaves. we all know slavery existed in our country but it is quite different to see how our history and the institution of slavery were intertwined jp morgan chief executive william harrison and chief operating officer james dimon said in the letter. slavery was tragically ingrained in american society but that is no excuse. we apologise to the african-american community particularly those who are descendants of slaves and to the rest of the american public for the role that citizens bank and canal bank played. the slavery era was a tragic time in us history and in our company s history. jp morgan said that it was setting up a $5m scholarship programme for students living in louisiana the state where the events took place. the bank said that it is a very different company than the citizens and canal banks of the 1800s .

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.

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.

virgin blue shares plummet 20% shares in australian budget airline virgin blue plunged 20% after it warned of a steep fall in full year profits. virgin blue said profits after tax for the year to march would be between 10% to 15% lower than the previous year. sluggish demand reported previously for november and now december 2004 continues said virgin blue chief executive brett godfrey. virgin blue which is 25% owned by richard branson has been struggling to fend off pressure from rival jetstar. it cut its full year passenger number forecast by approximately 2.5% . virgin blue reported a 22% fall in first quarter profits in august 2004 due to tough competition. in november first half profits were down due to slack demand and rising fuel costs. virgin blue was launched four years ago and now has roughly one third of australia s domestic airline market. but the national carrier qantas has fought back with its own budget airline jetstar which took to the skies in may 2004. sydney-listed virgin blue s shares recovered slightly to close 12% down on wednesday. shares in its major shareholder patrick corporation - which owns 46% of virgin blue - had dropped 31% by the close.

man utd to open books to glazer manchester united s board has agreed to give us tycoon malcolm glazer access to its books. earlier this month mr glazer presented the board with detailed proposals on an offer to buy the football club. in a statement the club said it would allow mr glazer limited due diligence to give him the opportunity to take the proposal on to a formal bid. but it said it continued to oppose mr glazer s plans calling his assumptions aggressive and his plan damaging . many of manchester united s supporters own shares in the club and the fan-based group shareholders united is strongly opposed to any takeover by mr glazer. about 300 fans protested outside the old trafford ground two days ago. rival local club manchester city has pleaded with visiting fans not to protest inside its ground when the two teams play a televised match on sunday. manchester united s response comes as little surprise as the board made clear. any board has a responsibility to consider a bona fide offer proposal the club said in its statement. should it become a firm offer it should be at a price that the board is likely to regard as fair and on terms which may be deliverable . but it also stressed that it stayed opposed to mr glazer s proposal. the board continues to believe that mr glazer s business plan assumptions are aggressive the statement said and the direct and indirect financial strain on the business could be damaging. whether or not the bid is attractive in monetary terms in the case of manchester united many investors hold the stock for sentimental rather than financial reasons. at present mr glazer and his family hold a 28.1% stake making them manchester united s second biggest shareholders. they own the successful tampa bay buccaneers american football team based in florida. if the family makes a formal offer they will need the support of the club s biggest shareholders. irish horse racing millionaires jp mcmanus and john magnier own 29% of united through their investment vehicle cubic expression and have yet to express a view on the bid approach. a group of five mps are calling on the department of trade and industry to block any takeover of the club by the us football magnate on public interest grounds. they have signed a house of commons motion and tony lloyd the manchester central mp whose constituency includes the club s old trafford ground has pledged to take the matter to tony blair if necessary . the commons motion says any takeover designed to transform the club into a private company would be against the interests of those supporters and football . however the dti has dismissed the proposal. a spokesman said the department did not believe there was a case for changing the enterprise act so that takeovers of football clubs could be looked at on non-competition grounds. mr glazer s offer values the club at £800m ($1.5bn). pitched at 300p per share it also relies less on debt to finance it than an earlier approach from the us tycoon which was rejected out of hand. manchester united shares closed at 270.25p on friday down 3.75p on the day.

jack cunningham to stand down veteran labour mp and former cabinet minister jack cunningham has said he will stand down at the next election. one of the few blair-era ministers to serve under jim callaghan he was given the agriculture portfolio when labour regained power in 1997. mr cunningham went on to become tony blair s cabinet enforcer . he has represented the constituency now known as copeland since 1970. mr blair said he was a huge figure in labour and a valued personal friend . during labour s long period in opposition mr cunningham held a number of shadow roles including foreign affairs the environment and as trade spokesman. as agriculture minister he caused controversy when he decided to ban beef on the bone in the wake of fears over bse. he quit the government in 1999 and in recent years has served as the chairman of the all-party committee on lords reform and has been a loyal supporter of the government from the backbenches.

singer christina aguilera to wed pop star christina aguilera is to marry music executive jordan bratman the singer s agent has confirmed. bratman 26 proposed to grammy-winning singer aguilera 23 on holiday at an undisclosed location. the pair have been together for more than two years. no wedding plans have been set yet said aguilera s agent meghan prophet. aguilera burst onto the pop scene in 1999 winning a best new artist grammy in 2000. her hits include what a girl wants dirrty and beautiful. bratman presented his fiancee with a diamond ring designed by jeweller stephen webster on friday said ms prophet. new york-born aguilera reached number one in the uk with her debut hit genie in a bottle in october 1999. her early success was cemented by two further grammys in subsequent years. in 2002 aguilera won best pop collaboration for the hit track lady marmalade with lil kim maya and pink and last year she picked up the award for best female pop vocal performance for beautiful. her most recent single car wash featuring missy elliott reached number four in the uk charts last november.

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.

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.

kennedy looks to election gains they may not know quite how to describe their position in british politics - the real opposition the valid opposition the effective opposition or the authentic opposition. but the liberal democrats are entering the expected 2005 election campaign determined to prove it is they not the tories who are now the real threat to labour. as tory leader michael howard kicked off his election campaign the lib dem leader charles kennedy dismissed the conservatives as a fading force. and he insisted there was no limit to his party s ambitions in the coming poll. and he can produce some pretty impressive recent election results to back up his optimism for an election which he believes might just see his party doing big things. sensible third party leaders are usually cautious about making any predictions about how they will do come the big test. and mr kennedy was not falling into that trap when he fired up his campaign from the party s westminster hq. he would make no predictions other than that he expected the lib dems to increase both their votes and their commons seats at the election. the gap between labour and the tories was now so narrow - as proved he claimed by the defection to labour of robert jackson - that only his party offered a genuine alternative. on the war on iraq identity cards student fees and the council tax there was nothing to chose between the two big parties whereas the liberal democrats offered costed sensible alternatives. he was also happy to break the two party consensus on taxation by promising to increase income tax on those earning more than £100 000 a year to pay for the scrapping of student fees the introduction of free personal care for the elderly and replacing the council tax with a local income tax. he was also happy to offer a pledge that he would be doing no deals to prop up either of the other big parties after the election. there was a time when such optimistic sounds coming from the third party could be dismissed as self-delusion. that is no longer the case with the liberal democrats. the other parties will still insist that the lib dems are no hopers whose greatest effect on the poll will be to boost the hopes of their opponents by denying them otherwise winnable seats. labour in particular fears that disillusioned supporters may switch to the lib dems allowing the tories to win some seats. but mr kennedy is clearly hoping for a more significant outcome than that. he will not talk about the big breakthrough although there are those who believe this could well be the election that sees his party crossing some sort of symbolic threshold. they would argue that by the time of the election after next the liberal democrats may genuinely have replaced the tories as the party challenging labour for power. the lib dems will hope to have made advances because of their consistent stand against the war on iraq. but mr kennedy believes his new manifesto will also offer sensible costed and achievable policies on things like the council tax crime and asylum that will underpin his claim that his party really is the only opposition worth the name.

italy 8-38 wales wales secured their first away win in the rbs six nations for nearly four years with a six-try victory in rome. tries from jonathan thomas tom shanklin and martyn williams gave the visitors a 19-5 half-time advantage. luciano orquera did reply with one for italy but second-half efforts from brent cockbain shane williams and robert sidoli sealed victory. fly-half stephen jones added four conversions as wales maintained their superb start to this year s tournament. starting full of confidence after their victory over england the visitors scored the opening try after just four minutes. diminutive wing shane williams fielded a kick ahead and danced past the onrushing andrea masi and aaron persico into the italian half. his pass to tom shanklin appeared forward but when the centre was held up short the ball was switched left and michael owen s long cut-out pass gave the lurking thomas an easy run-in. stephen jones who retained the kicking duties despite gavin henson s heroics against england slotted an excellent conversion from wide out. wales twice threatened further scores but failed to find the crucial pass and italy hit back out of the blue in the 11th minute. henson sporting gold boots rather than the silver variety that did for england beat two players with ease out on the left touchline. but his attempted chip ahead was charged down by orquera who snaffled the loose ball and hared away from halfway to score in the right corner. with the welsh line-out stuttering and italy twice turning the visitors scrum the home side s forward power brought them back into it. but a clever high kick from henson almost brought a try for hal luscombe when roland de marigny and ludovico nitoglia made a hash of claiming it as the ball bounced into touch. wales regained control with a second try in the 21st minute henson lobbing up a high kick to the left corner where shanklin jumped higher than nitoglia to dot down his 15th test try. jones was unable to convert and de marigny then hit the upright with a penalty attempt for italy. henson was also narrowly short with a long-range effort at goal but wales ended the half with a vital third score to give themselves some breathing space. henson sent luscombe streaking away and when he off-loaded to martyn williams the flanker showed his nous to ground the ball against the padding of the post jones adding the conversion. italy who lost flanker mauro bergamasco with a head knock before half-time built up a head of steam on the resumption. de marigny landed a penalty to make it 19-8 and a nitoglia break through the middle threatened a try only for the move to break down with a knock-on. but wales put the outcome beyond doubt with two superb tries in four minutes before the hour. their fourth after 53 minutes was sparked by another mazy run from shane williams who beat several players with ease and finished with a powerful angled run from lock cockbain. before italy could recover from that blow a strong surge from gareth thomas and great off-loads from martyn williams and replacement kevin morgan saw shane williams scamper over. with jones converting both for a 33-8 lead wales had the luxury of sending on five more replacements for the final quarter. the icing on the cake came with a sixth try after more superb support work shane williams and ceri sweeney combining to send sidoli over in the left corner. the only downside for wales was a hamstring injury suffered by luscombe. but after back-to-back wins at the start of the tournament for the first time in 11 years they will travel to paris in a fortnight looking like genuine contenders. r de marigny; mirco bergamasco w pozzebon a masi l nitoglia; l orquera a troncon; a lo cicero f ongaro m castrogiovanni s dellape m bortolami (capt) a persico mauro bergamasco s parisse. g intoppa s perugini ca del fava d dal maso p griffen m barbini kp robertson. g thomas (capt); h luscombe t shanklin g henson s williams; s jones d peel; g jenkins m davies a jones; b cockbain r sidoli; j thomas m williams m owen. r mcbryde j yapp i gough r sowden-taylor g cooper c sweeney k morgan. andrew cole (australia).

deutsche boerse set to woo lse bosses of deutsche boerse and the london stock exchange are to meet amid talk that a takeover bid for the lse will be raised to £1.5bn ($2.9bn). last month the german exchange tabled a 530 pence-per-share offer for lse valuing it at £1.3bn. paris-based euronext owner of liffe in london has also said it is interested in bidding for lse. euronext is due to hold talks with lse this week and it is reported to be ready to raise £1.4bn to fund a bid. euronext chief jean-francois theodore is scheduled to meet his lse counterpart clara furse on friday. deutsche boerse chief werner seifert is meeting ms furse on thursday in the third meeting between the two exchanges since the bid approach in december. the lse rejected deutsche boerse s proposed £1.3bn offer in december saying it undervalued the business. but it agreed to leave the door open for talks to find out whether a significantly-improved proposal would be in the interests of lse s shareholders and customers. in the meantime euronext which combines the paris amsterdam and lisbon stock exchanges also began talks with the lse. in a statement on thursday euronext said any offer was likely to be solely in cash but added that: there can be no assurances at this stage that any offer will be made. a deal with either bidder would create the biggest stock market operator in europe and the second biggest in the world after the new york stock exchange. according to the ft in its latest meeting deutsche boerse will adopt a charm offensive to woo the london exchange. the newspaper said the german suitor will offer to manage a combined cash and equities market out of london and let ms furse take the helm. other reports this week said the deutsche boerse might even consider selling its luxembourg-based clearstream unit - the clearing house that processes securities transactions. its ownership of clearstream was seen as the main stumbling block to a london-frankfurt merger. lse shareholders feared a deutsche boerse takeover would force them to use clearstream making it difficult for them to negotiate for lower transaction fees.

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.

criminal probe on citigroup deals traders at us banking giant citigroup are facing a criminal investigation in germany over a controversial bond deal. the deal saw the sale of 11bn euros ($14.4bn; £7.6bn) of government bonds in a few minutes on 2 august with 4bn euros-worth then bought back later. the move was widely criticised at the time and now the german regulator has said it has found evidence of possible market manipulation. citigroup said it would continue to co-operate fully with the authorities. we are disappointed that the bafin has referred to the prosecutor the question of whether action should be brought against individuals involved citigroup said. if the traders are found guilty they could face a five-year jail term or a fine reuters reported bafin as saying. however under german criminal law prosecutors cannot pursue citigroup itself. germany s financial watchdog bafin told bbc news it had now transferred the investigation to the public prosecutor. i can confirm that bafin has passed through the case to the public prosecutor a bafin spokeswoman said. it is now a criminal investigation. we found clues of possible market manipulation the spokeswoman said which included signs of linked bond trading ahead of the main trades on 2 august. germany s securities trading act says that if bafin finds such clues it has to put the case in the hands of the prosecutor. regulatory investigations are still going on in france the uk and elsewhere. some citigroup operations elsewhere in the world came under regulatory criticism in 2004. its private banking operation in japan was closed down by regulators in tokyo after an aggressive sales culture led the bank to flout anti-money laundering rules.

ireland win eclipses refereeing errors the international rugby board may have to step in to stop frustrated coaches and players from publicly haranguing referees when things go belly-up. it may have to go the whole way and have nfl-style video cameras all over the field or slap the vociferous perpetrators over the knuckles. what the irb does not want is a football scenario where the verbal slanging matches often overshadow the game itself. sunday s explosive six nations clash at lansdowne road was a good example as ireland took another step towards their first grand slam since 1948. the game was as exciting as it comes with a much-improved england side enraged at a few decisions that did not go their way. one can understand that frustration. there was no doubt that ireland had the rub of the green in their 19-13 victory but the reaction from the england camp may not have endeared them to the sport s blazers . referee jonathan kaplan was not perfect by any means and two decisions in particular made him the villain of the piece. i doubt whether kaplan would have been too pleased at the comments made. after all he has no public recourse to criticism. it was the same for simon mcdowell the touch judge who was heavily criticised by scotland coach matt williams after their defeat against france. as far as england were concerned there were queries over mark cueto s first half-effort when he went over in the corner from a charlie hodgson kick. england coach andy robinson referred to a similar case at ravenhill in january when ulster were playing gloucester in the heineken cup. on that occasion david humphreys kicked to tommy bowe who touched down in the corner only for the try to be wiped out. but you cannot have cameras at every conceivable angle to pick up such anomalies. perhaps robinson was right to say the referee should have gone upstairs when josh lewsey was driven over the irish line near the end. lewsey claims he touched it down and was in full control. however one has to credit ireland flanker johnny o connor for cleverly scooping the ball away and blocking any evidence of a touchdown. but in rugby everything tends to even out over the 80 minutes. the referee also missed england s danny grewcock taking out ronan o gara off the ball to allow martin corry a sunday stroll to the line. those were the stand-out moments in a classic game between the two old foes. but there were many more and one should not take away from those. brian o driscoll s winning try was as well-conceived as they come while charlie hodgson s brilliant kicking display was another highlight. and ronan o gara s tremendous ability to control the game was also a crucial component. but the defining moments came with ireland under the cosh in the final 15 minutes. two outstanding pieces of defensive play denied england and allowed ireland to hold on. the first was denis hickie s brilliant double tackle in the right-hand corner. he gobbled up cueto from another hodgson cross-field kick then regained his feet to stop lewsey from scoring a certain try. ireland s second-row colossus paul o connell was equally superb. england had turned ireland one way then the other and the defence cordon was slowly disintegrating. england prop matt stevens ran in at full steam to suck in a few more tacklers. unfortunately he ran into o connell who hit him hard - very hard - and then wrestled the ball away for a crucial turnover. that spoke volumes about ireland s back-foot display with defensive coach mike ford taking a bow at the end. to win a game like that showed that ireland have moved forward. it may be tries that win games but it is defence that wins championships.

asia quake increases poverty risk nearly two million people across asia could be thrown into poverty because of the indian ocean tsunami the asian development bank (adb) has said. in its first overview of the disaster the adb said the impact on economic growth would be slight because major cities and factories escaped damage. but the blow to many low-income people could be enormous . the paris club of rich creditor nations on wednesday offered to freeze debts owed by tsunami-hit countries. the move was aimed at helping south asian governments find budgets to rebuild devastated coastal areas though so far only sri lanka indonesia and the seychelles have indicated that they will take it up. other countries believe their economies are strong enough to cope or wish to avoid being viewed as credit risks. poverty is potentially the most important impact of this natural disaster said adb chief economist ifzal ali. donor nations have promised to give $717m (£379m) in disaster relief over the next six months according to the united nations. mr ali added his voice to those warning that aid pledges must be promptly delivered saying the number of people at risk of poverty hinged on concerns over sanitation and health conditions and other basic needs being properly and quickly addressed . there are 1.9 billion people in asia living on less than $2 a day. the adb fears that 1 million indonesians could join them while in india just over half a million people - 645 000 - are at risk of falling into poverty. a quarter of a million sri lankans and 23 500 people in the maldives are also facing poverty. in the maldives where 43% of the population already lives on less than $2 a day this could rise to half. sri lanka and the maldives are the two countries the adb fears are most at risk of suffering lasting economic damage from the tsunami. sri lanka s government has estimated reconstruction costs at nearly $3bn. a government task force held meetings to discuss an emergency rebuilding plan with the adb world bank and japanese aid agencies on wednesday and promised to publish the plan within 10 days. indonesia malaysia thailand and india have enjoyed strong economic growth in recent years which should cushion them against reconstruction costs. although indonesia s northern province of aceh suffered the worst death toll the region s oil and natural gas production facilities have survived intact the report said. however it remains too soon to asses the damage to poor people s livelihoods in aceh because it would depend on how much farm land had been flooded by seawater. this is a profoundly tragic event for the region and for the millions who are suffering. but the economies of the affected countries except sri lanka and the maldives should emerge with minimal damage the adb report said. some businesses may even gain from the reconstruction efforts thereby creating jobs. at a meeting in thailand abd president thadao chino said he was confident of the country s own capabilities to restore normalcy to the affected areas and meet the rehabilitation requirements . thailand has said it does not wish to opt for a debt repayment freeze while india has also rejected international aid saying it can cope on its own resources. debt repayment holidays carry the risk of credit ratings downgrades making it more expensive to borrow money in future. indonesia however is pressing for greater help with its debts than the current freeze would bring. it is one of the world s most indebted countries.

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.

csa chief who quit still in job the head of the failing child support agency widely reported to have resigned three months ago is still at the helm of the troubled organisation. doug smith s departure was announced by work secretary alan johnson on 17 november as mps grilled him over the agency s poor performance. his resignation was referred to by both tory and lib dem leaders during that day s prime ministers questions. officials now say he did not resign but will move on under civil service rules. mr smith s departure was reported widely at the time as his shouldering the blame for the failings of the child support agency. in january the mps who make up the commons work and pensions committee published a highly critical report into the failing agency noting the chief executive has now left and hoping the new leadership will bring a fresh approach to what is a failing organisation . on that day s today programme mr johnson was asked why mr smith had been allowed to resign rather than be sacked. he replied: the chief executive decided it was time to move on there is a new chief executive coming in. it now emerges that the widespread belief mr smith made commander of the order of the bath in the new year honours had left was wrong. a department for work and pensions spokeswoman confirmed mr smith was still in post and that he would continue in the job until a replacement was found. no date was ever given for doug smith s departure she said adding that the post had been advertised. tory work and pensions spokesman david willetts said families affected by csa failings would wonder why mr smith was still in his job three months after his departure was announced. the csa has been surrounded by controversy since its introduction in 1993 to assess and enforce child support payments by absent parents. the work and pensions committee launched their inquiry into the csa s performance after it became clear that despite the introduction of a simpler system of calculating maintenance payments for new cases in 2003 a backlog of claims was still building up. it is currently chasing outstanding payments of more than £720m while a further £947m has been designated as unrecoverable . the mps found american it giant eds £456m system was nowhere near being fully functional and the number of dissatisfied disenchanted and angry customers continues to escalate . in november when he surprised mps and the watching media by announcing mr smith s departure mr johnson said: i should tell you that doug has decided that now is the time to stand aside and to allow a new chief executive to tackle the challenges ahead. doug has exceeded the four years that senior civil servants are now expected to remain in a particular post. so doug believes that we have reached the natural breakpoint at which he can hand over the reins. lib dem sir archy kirkwood who chairs the commons work and pensions committee said that when mr johnson had announced mr smith was going he got the clear impression the csa chief was retiring though it had since emerged that was not the case and he may be seeking new employment opportunities. he added his committee was duty bound to allow the work and pensions secretary to get new management into place in the csa and it would be premature to say anything further on the issue at the moment. but committee member and tory mp nigel waterson said he was amazed mr smith was still in his job. when mr smith and the secretary of state came to give evidence we were led to believe he was going shortly he said. even if he was working out three months notice he should have been clearing his desk by now. asked on thursday about mr smith s position mr johnson told bbc radio 4 s world at one he thought it was a non-story . he added that he had been absolutely open when he announced mr smith s departure to the select committee and how people chose to interpret it was a different thing . the major issue is have we got a new chief executive coming into this very important agency as quickly as possible and have we gone through the right selection process to make sure we ve got the right people he added.

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.

uk directors guild nominees named martin scorsese and clint eastwood are among the nominees for the top prize at the directors guild of great britain awards now in their second year. the oscar rivals will compete for the international film prize at the ceremony to be held at the curzon mayfair cinema in london on 20 march. other nominees include bill condon for kinsey and michel gondry for eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. mike leigh s vera drake is among the nominees for best british film. the awards will see eastwood and scorsese once again competing for the directing prize following last weekend s oscars. clint eastwood won best director for million dollar baby beating scorsese who was nominated for a fifth time for the howard hughes biopic the aviator. mike leigh will compete for the british film prize with shane meadows for dead man s shoes roger michell for enduring love and my summer of love director pawel pawlikowski. nominees for best foreign film include spain s pedro almodovar for bad education and hong kong director wong kar-wai for 2046. in the tv categories comedy series early doors and the alan clark diaries will compete for the best directing award for a 30-minute television show while the directors of shameless hustle and bodies are all nominated for the 60-minute television prize. the directors of omagh and sex traffic are among the nominees for a television movie or mini-series. american beauty s sam mendes will receive a lifetime achievement award for his work in film and theatre while theatre director simon mcburney will be given an award for outstanding directorial achievement.

s&n extends indian beer venture the uk s biggest brewer scottish and newcastle (s&n) is to buy 37.5% of india s united breweries in a deal worth 4.66bn rupees ($106m:£54.6m). s&n will buy a 17.5% equity stake in united maker of the well-known kingfisher lager brand and make a public offer to buy another 20% stake. a similar holding will be controlled by vijay mallya chair of the indian firm. the deal was a natural development of its joint venture with united said tony froggatt s&n s chief executive. its top brands include newcastle brown ale foster s john smith s strongbow and kronenbourg. in 2002 s&n and united agreed to form a strategic partnership one that would include a joint venture business and a uk investment in the indian brewer. the joint venture was established in may 2003. with both parties having a 40% stake in the venture - millennium alcobev. millennium alcobev will now be merged with united which expects post-merger to have about half of india s beer market. india with a population of more than one billion consumes about 1.2 billion bottles of beer every year. kingfisher has market share of about 29%. in addition to the equity stake s&n is to invest 2.47bn rupees in united through non-convertible redeemable preference shares. meanwhile united s budget airline kingfisher airlines is to buy 10 a320 aircraft from airbus and has the option to buy 20 more aircraft in a deal worth up to $1.8bn. the airline the brainchild of mr mallya expects to start its operations by the end of april. the new airline would break even in the very first year of operation mr mallya said.

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.

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.

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.

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.

murray returns to scotland fold euan murray has been named in the scotland training squad after an eight-week ban ahead of saturday s six nations match with ireland. the glasgow forward s ban for stamping ended on 2 february. i m just happy to be back playing and be involved with the squad said murray on monday. hopefully i can get a couple of games under my belt and i might have a chance of playing later in the six nations. i m just glad to be part of it all. backs: mike blair (edinburgh rugby) andy craig (glasgow rugby) chris cusiter (the borders) simon danielli (the borders) marcus di rollo (edinburgh rugby) phil godman (edinburgh rugby) calvin howarth (glasgow rugby) ben hinshelwood (worcester warriors) andrew henderson (glasgow rugby) rory lamont (glasgow rugby) sean lamont (glasgow rugby) dan parks (glasgow rugby) chris paterson (edinburgh rugby) gordon ross (leeds tykes) hugo southwell (edinburgh rugby) simon webster (edinburgh rugby) forwards: ross beattie (northampton saints) gordon bulloch (captain glasgow rugby) david callam (edinburgh rugby) bruce douglas (the borders) jon dunbar (leeds tykes) iain fullarton (saracens) stuart grimes (newcastle falcons) nathan hines (edinburgh rugby) allister hogg (edinburgh rugby) gavin kerr (leeds tykes) nick lloyd (saracens) scott lawson (glasgow rugby) euan murray (glasgow rugby) scott murray (edinburgh rugby) jon petrie (glasgow rugby) robbie russell (london irish) tom smith (northampton saints) jason white (sale sharks).

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

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.

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.

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.

enron bosses in $168m payout eighteen former enron directors have agreed a $168m (£89m) settlement deal in a shareholder lawsuit over the collapse of the energy firm. leading plaintiff the university of california announced the news adding that 10 of the former directors will pay $13m from their own pockets. the settlement will be put to the courts for approval next week. enron went bankrupt in 2001 after it emerged it had hidden hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. before its collapse the firm was the seventh biggest public us company by revenue. its demise sent shockwaves through financial markets and dented investor confidence in corporate america. the settlement is very significant in holding these outside directors at least partially personally responsible william lerach the lawyer leading the class action suit against enron said. hopefully this will help send a message to corporate boardrooms of the importance of directors performing their legal duties he added. under the terms of the $168m settlement - $155m of which will be covered by insurance - none of the 18 former directors will admit any wrongdoing. the deal is the fourth major settlement negotiated by lawyers who filed a class action on behalf of enron s shareholders almost three years ago. so far including the latest deal just under $500m (£378.8m) has been retrieved for investors. however the latest deal does not include former enron chief executives ken lay and jeff skilling. both men are facing criminal charges for their alleged misconduct in the run up to the firm s collapse. neither does it cover andrew fastow who has pleaded guilty to taking part in an illegal conspiracy while he was chief financial officer at the group. enron s shareholders are still seeking damages from a long list of other big name defendants including the financial institutions jp morgan chase citigroup merrill lynch and credit suisse first boston. the university of california said the trial in the case is scheduled to begin in october 2006. it joined the lawsuit in december 2001alleging massive insider trading and fraud claiming it had lost $145m on its investments in the company.

tindall wants second opinion england centre mike tindall is to seek a second opinion before having surgery on a foot injury that could force him to miss the entire six nations. the bath player was already out of the opener against wales on 5 february because of a hand problem. mike had a specialist review on a fracture in his right mid foot said england doctor simon kemp. before a final decision is made on surgery... medical teams have decided he should see a second specialist. england coach andy robinson is already without centre will greenwood and flanker richard hill while fly-half jonny wilkinson is certain to miss at least the first two games. robinson is expected to announce his new-look england line-up on monday for the match at the millennium stadium. and newcastle s 18-year-old centre mathew tait is set to stand in for tindall alongside club team-mate jamie noon. meanwhile tindall is targeting a return to action before the end of the regular zurich premiership season on 30 april. he will also aim to be back to full fitness before the lions tour to new zealand this summer.

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.

uk pledges £1bn to vaccine effort uk chancellor gordon brown has offered £960m ($1.8bn) over 15 years to an international scheme aiming to boost vaccination and immunisation schemes. in a speech he called for action to reach the 2000 millennium declaration goals of halving global poverty and tackling child mortality rates. mr brown has just returned from a tour of african nations. the £1bn commitment is part of a five-point plan on debt relief trade aid education and health. the chancellor was speaking at an event jointly organised by the uk s department for international development and the un development programme on wednesday. mr brown welcomed news that the bill gates foundation and norway are joining up to put an extra £0.53bn ($1bn ) into the global alliance for vaccines and immunisation (gavi). britain france gavi and the gates foundation have drawn up proposals to apply the principles of the international finance facility (iff) to the area of immunisation. that could see donors making long-term legally binding financial commitments which can then be used as collateral for raising extra funds from international capital markets. as well as pledging £960m over 15 years to the immunisation iff britain urged other donors to contribute. if gavi could increase its funding for immunisation by an extra £4bn ($7.4bn) over 10 years then an extra five million lives could have been saved by 2015 and five million thereafter mr brown argued. campaign groups including friends of the earth the world development movement and war on want said uk government policy on free trade was a major barrier to fighting poverty. war on want s john hilary said: compassionate rhetoric cannot disguise the reality of the government s neo-liberal policies. as long as mr blair and mr brown continue to push free trade and privatisation on developing countries more and more people will be pushed deeper into poverty not lifted out of it.

kennedy looks to election gains they may not know quite how to describe their position in british politics - the real opposition the valid opposition the effective opposition or the authentic opposition. but the liberal democrats are entering the expected 2005 election campaign determined to prove it is they not the tories who are now the real threat to labour. as tory leader michael howard kicked off his election campaign the lib dem leader charles kennedy dismissed the conservatives as a fading force. and he insisted there was no limit to his party s ambitions in the coming poll. and he can produce some pretty impressive recent election results to back up his optimism for an election which he believes might just see his party doing big things. sensible third party leaders are usually cautious about making any predictions about how they will do come the big test. and mr kennedy was not falling into that trap when he fired up his campaign from the party s westminster hq. he would make no predictions other than that he expected the lib dems to increase both their votes and their commons seats at the election. the gap between labour and the tories was now so narrow - as proved he claimed by the defection to labour of robert jackson - that only his party offered a genuine alternative. on the war on iraq identity cards student fees and the council tax there was nothing to chose between the two big parties whereas the liberal democrats offered costed sensible alternatives. he was also happy to break the two party consensus on taxation by promising to increase income tax on those earning more than £100 000 a year to pay for the scrapping of student fees the introduction of free personal care for the elderly and replacing the council tax with a local income tax. he was also happy to offer a pledge that he would be doing no deals to prop up either of the other big parties after the election. there was a time when such optimistic sounds coming from the third party could be dismissed as self-delusion. that is no longer the case with the liberal democrats. the other parties will still insist that the lib dems are no hopers whose greatest effect on the poll will be to boost the hopes of their opponents by denying them otherwise winnable seats. labour in particular fears that disillusioned supporters may switch to the lib dems allowing the tories to win some seats. but mr kennedy is clearly hoping for a more significant outcome than that. he will not talk about the big breakthrough although there are those who believe this could well be the election that sees his party crossing some sort of symbolic threshold. they would argue that by the time of the election after next the liberal democrats may genuinely have replaced the tories as the party challenging labour for power. the lib dems will hope to have made advances because of their consistent stand against the war on iraq. but mr kennedy believes his new manifesto will also offer sensible costed and achievable policies on things like the council tax crime and asylum that will underpin his claim that his party really is the only opposition worth the name.

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.

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

cabinet anger at brown cash raid ministers are unhappy about plans to use whitehall cash to keep council tax bills down local government minister nick raynsford has acknowledged. gordon brown reallocated £512m from central to local government budgets in his pre-budget report on thursday. mr raynsford said he had held some pretty frank discussions with fellow ministers over the plans. but he said local governments had to deliver good services without big council tax rises. the central government cash is part of a £1bn package to help local authorities in england keep next year s council tax rises below 5% in what is likely to be a general election year. mr raynsford said nearly all central government departments had an interest in well run local authorities. and he confirmed rows over the issue with ministerial colleagues. obviously we had some pretty frank discussions about this he told bbc radio 4 s the world at one. but he said there was a recognition that a good settlement for local government was important to health education and other government departments . ministers had to be sure local government could deliver without unreasonable council tax increases he added. mr raynsford dismissed a suggestion the move was designed to keep council taxes down ahead of an expected general election. this is a response to the concerns that have been voiced by local government about the pressures they face. mr raynsford also plans to make savings of £100m by making changes to local government pensions schemes. these would raise the age from which retiring workers could claim their pensions and limit how much they received if they retired early. he insisted the changes were very modest and designed to tackle the problem of workers retiring very early . but general secretary of the public services union unison dave prentis criticised the plans. if you want world class public services you don t get that by hitting people as they approach retirement.

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.

eu software patent law delayed controversial new eu rules for the patenting of computer-based inventions have been put on hold due to a last minute intervention from poland. poland - a large and therefore crucial eu member - has requested more time to consider the issue especially as it relates to the patenting of software. critics say the law would favour large companies over small innovative ones. they say it could have massive ramifications for developments such as open source software. polish ministers want to see the phrasing of the text of the directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions changed so that it excludes the patenting of software. the planned law has ignited angry debate about whether the eu should allow the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods as currently happens in the us. so for instance us-based amazon.com holds a patent on one-click shopping . critics claim the law which the eu says is needed to harmonise with the us is little more than a law on ideas. patent rights it is claimed protect inventors but in this case it is exclusively the interests of the big companies that are protected eva lichtenberg a austrian green member of the european parliament said in a statement. smaller innovative firms cannot afford the patenting and legal costs that the directive would inflict on them she added. the european parliament has already clashed with the european union on the issue and there have been accusations that the process to decide the issue has been undemocratic. the directive has been subject to several previous delays.

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.

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.

ukip s secret weapon by any measure new yorker dick morris is that thing americans love over everything else - a winner. this is the man who some pundits believe was almost single-handedly responsible for bill clinton s sensational 1992 comeback victory. but morris is no ideologue. he has worked as election strategist for any number of republicans as well and more recently politicians from mexico to uruguay. now he is back in london as the uk independence party s not-so-secret electoral weapon after returning from the ukraine where he helped - you guessed it - opposition candidate viktor yushchenko. if there is one regular criticism levelled at morris it is that he is too ready to switch allegiances. that he enjoys the game more than the politics. so why britain and why ukip which despite its recent eu election successes is not likely to pull off a sensational victory in the looming general election. on this subject morris appears almost evangelical. i was on a cruise in the mediterranean and coincidentally so was ukip leader roger knapman. i had just written a piece saying how the english channel was now wider than the atlantic which he liked and it went from there . but what is it about ukip that particularly attracts him many might think it is simply another chance to practice his art irrespective of the politics. i think the greatest threat to democracy in the world is not terrorism but bureaucratism . a great soundbite but a surprise coming from a new yorker post 11 september. it is the growth of these bodies composed of experts who know better who don t believe in letting democracy govern but believe in letting the correct solution be determined. that s international bankers the world trade organisation the international monetary fund the world bank and primarily the european union . so he is out to help ukip take britain out of this organisation which he believes is unreformable and inherently undemocratic. and he is scathing of the tory party which he also appears to believe is unreformable. the tory party is schizophrenic about europe. but until somebody says they are willing to leave the eu they can t possibly re-negotiate anything (as michael howard is pledged to do). it s like walking into a liquor store with a gun to rob it and saying: before i can proceed with the robbery i want to make clear i am not going to shoot anybody . possibly a very american analogy but another great soundbite. the basic point is that the eu seeks political integration to move the entire nexus of decision making away from britain - and we oppose that and the tories cannot be trusted to oppose it . so is ukip s job to destroy the tories as former member robert kilroy-silk once notoriously declared no. the aim of ukip is to withdraw from the eu and if it has any relation to the tories it is to stiffen the tories spine on the issue by having a large enough ukip vote so that we move the tories in the direction they are refusing to move. but it s not just to shift the tories. i think ukip had a huge amount to do with tony blair s decision to hold a referendum on the european constitution and i think it had a huge amount to do with his refusal to go into the euro . and while we are on the subject of mr kilroy-silk mr morris despatches him with another of his neat soundbites. robert kilroy silk is not a team player - it is a good idea our party stands for some thing and not some one . so what is the big plan for the general election. how will he achieve the breakthrough look we are not going to be forming the next government he said. neither does ukip have to fight every seat. as with the 2004 us presidential election he says the outcome will be decided by a small number of swing seats - just as he believes it will in britain. so with limited resources the aim is to target those seats and end the day with a significant group in the commons. he also believes it is possible the internet could have a big part in the poll. the internet was a decisive factor in the 2004 presidential election - through blogs (individuals posting their views in online diaries). people just did it . anything can happen in the next general election. there is an inherent instability at the moment. labour and the tories have drawn the consensus so tightly and to the left there is room for another voice . that might he suggests lead to a hung parliament with ukip and others holding the balance of power. it is a huge task surely. but there is undoubtedly a sense that the next general election may indeed produce some surprises - even while most still believe it is labour s for the taking. ukip s performance in last year s european elections was just such a shocker and showed that mr morris may have a point about the new consensus. and after all he has a reputation to sustain.

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.

ferguson hails man utd s resolve manchester united s alex ferguson has praised his players gutsy performance in the 1-0 win at aston villa. that was our hardest away game of the season and it was a fantastic game of football end-to-end with lots of good passing said the old trafford boss. we showed lots of character and guts and we weren t going to lose. i look at that fixture and think we ve been there and won while arsenal and chelsea have yet to come and villa may have some players back when they do. ferguson also hailed senior stars ryan giggs and roy keane who came off the bench for the injured john o shea. roy came on and brought a bit of composure to the midfield which we needed and which no other player has got. giggs was a tremendous threat and he brings tremendous penetration. all we can do is maintain our form play as we are and we ll get our rewards.

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

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.

philippoussis doubt over open bid mark philippoussis is almost certain to miss the australian open after suffering a groin injury during the hopman cup loss to the netherlands. the 28-year-old suffered two tears to the adductor muscle and was unable to play in the deciding mixed doubles. he is now unlikely to be fit in time for the australian open which begins on 17 january in melbourne. he has to strengthen it enough to cope with repetitive days of tennis said hopman cup doctor hamish osborne. it would be very unlikely in my opinion for him to do a five-setter once let alone two days in a row inside two weeks. the injury is more common in australian rules football and a fit footballer would normally take three to four weeks to recover fully although mark s injury is slightly different. the australian has suffered a host of injury problems throughout his career but is still holding out slim hope that he can make the event. it s something i ll have to go by feel. i ll start treatment as soon as possible and try to strengthen it without tearing it any more he said. what doesn t kill you makes you stronger. i know i can come back from this and that s all that matters. - former world number two tommy haas is also a doubt for the australian open after picking up a thigh injury playing for germany in the hopman cup. the 26-year-old had treatment on his left thigh while leading argentine guillermo coria 7-5 2-2. he played one more game but his movement was hampered and he quit.

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.

tsunami to cost sri lanka $1.3bn sri lanka faces a $1.3bn (£691m) bill in 2005 for reconstruction after the tsunami which killed more than 30 000 of its people its central bank says. this estimate is preliminary bank governor sunil mendis told reporters and could rise in 2006. the island state is asking for about $320m from the international monetary fund to help pay for relief he said. the bank has 5bn rupees ($50m; £27m) set aside to lend at a lower interest rate to those who lost property. according to mr mendis half the imf support could come from a freeze on debt repayments which would free up resources immediately. the rest could come from a five-year emergency loan. sri lanka is hoping for a wider freeze from other creditors. the paris club of 19 creditors meets on 12 january to discuss a debt moratorium for the nations hit by the tsunami which ravaged south and east asia on 26 december. some 150 000 people across the region are feared to be dead and millions have been left homeless and destitute. a full reckoning of the economic cost to sri lanka of the tsunami will not be clear for some time to come. but already it looks likely that growth in the first half of 2005 will slow mr mendis told reporters although he would not say by how much. one side-effect of the disaster has been that the value of the rupee has risen as foreign funds have flooded into the country. the currency has strengthened 4% since late december coming close to 100 rupees to the us dollar for the first time in more than six months.

mauresmo opens with victory in la amelie mauresmo and maria sharapova won their opening matches at the tour championships in los angeles. france s mauresmo routed vera zvonareva 6-1 6-0 while wimbledon champion sharapova was a 6-1 6-4 winner over fellow russian svetlana kuznetsova. american serena williams also won edging russian elena dementieva 7-6 7-5 for her second victory of the event. the event is split into two groups of four with the top two from each advancing to the semi-finals. mauresmo s win was her ninth in a row as she tries to overtake lindsay davenport for the number one spot. mauresmo spent five weeks at number one after the us open before injury ushered davenport back in front. since then i feel very confident on court and my game is there. i want to get the ranking back but it s very different than before i was number one. it was an obsession but now i take it in a relaxed way. mauresmo completed her first match in the season-ending championship in 54 minutes as russia s zvonareva struggled to return her serve and failed to achieve a single break point. she got mad a little bit and i played some great tennis said mauresmo who was runner-up to kim clijsters in last year s final. zvonareva has lost both her games so far having crashed 6-2 6-4 kuznetsova in the staples centre on wednesday. sometimes not everything works she said. it was lots of pressure. maybe that is why i couldn t do 100%. but i was fighting. sharapova who lost 6-2 6-2 to kuznetsova in beijing in september said: in beijing she was coming off such a big winning streak [14 matches] and she was unstoppable. this time it was important to start off well and put some pressure on her. the tournament debutant added: i love it here. the atmosphere is great. to be here where the lakers play you just feel that excitement. i love basketball. williams admitted she is still some way off her best form but remained positive after two wins in two days. it s hard to go out there and get it right but i m fighting and i m hoping said williams. what makes me happy is the effort. i had a really good effort today. i m trying to add new dimensions to my game.

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.

ruddock backs yapp s credentials wales coach mike ruddock says john yapp has what it takes as an international. the 21-year-old blues prop is the only uncapped player in wales six nations squad gaining a chance in the absence of ospreys loose-head duncan jones. john is a young man with a big future. he has been playing with the blues for two years and has racked up mileage on his playing clock said ruddock. he has international size is a big physical lad and a good ball-carrier with a high tackle-count. ruddock s assessment was backed up by yapp s coach at the blues former wales and lions prop dai young. john s been on an upward curve all season and is going from strength to strength young told bbc sport wales. his ball carrying gives us good go-forward he impresses in defence and his work-rate is excellent. he s working hard on his scrummaging technique which he is keen to improve to become a destroyer on the loose-head. to be fair to him he s not quite there with the scrummaging yet but nobody can fault his effort commitment and attitude. john s a very strong man and is eager for the challenge if he s pitched in he won t let anyone down. he s developing quickly but i hope he isn t pushed too quickly in a way that would hurt his development. ruddock hopes that the selection of yapp and dragons lock ian gough - out of the international reckoning since falling out with former coach steve hansen - will send a message to other players in wales. john and ian have been rewarded for impressing during the heineken cup competition said ruddock. both of them have played well and we want to send a message out that consistently playing well gets you in the squad. we believe this is an exciting squad representing traditional values of welsh rugby and based on the performances in the november internationals. we have strength and experience up front and well-recognised talent pace and skill behind. the management team just want to get hold of the players and get out on the training pitch at the moment. they are all due in on sunday and that s when the hard work starts.

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.