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robinson wants dual code success england rugby union captain jason robinson has targeted dual code success over australia on saturday. robinson a former rugby league international before switching codes in 2000 leads england against australia at twickenham at 1430 gmt. and at 1815 gmt great britain s rugby league team take on australia in the final of the tri-nations tournament. beating the aussies in both games would be a massive achievement especially for league said robinson. england have the chance to seal their third autumn international victory after successive wins over canada and south africa as well as gaining revenge for june s 51-15 hammering by the wallabies. meanwhile great britain could end 34 years of failure against australia with victory at elland road. britain have won individual test matches but have failed to secure any silverware or win the ashes (with a series victory) since 1970. they have a great opportunity to land a trophy and it would be a massive boost for rugby league in this country if we won said robinson. i know the boys can do it - they ve defeated the aussies once already in the tri-nations. but robinson was not losing sight of the task facing his england side in their final autumn international. for us we ve played two and won two this november he said. if we beat australia it would be the end to a great autumn series for england. if we stumble then we ll be looking back with a few regrets. robinson also revealed that the union side had sent the great britain team a good luck message ahead of the showdown in leeds. we signed a card for them today and will write them an email on saturday wishing them all the best said robinson. everyone has signed the card - a lot of the guys watch league and we support them fully. both games will be very tough and hopefully we ll both do well.

boothroyd calls for lords speaker betty boothroyd has said the house of lords needs its own speaker and that peers should lead the way on reforming the upper chamber. baroness boothroyd who was the first woman to be commons speaker said she believed tony blair initiated reforms without a clear outcome in mind. now we have to take care of it ourselves and make the best of it she told the bbc s breakfast with frost. in 1999 labour removed all but 92 of the lords 750 hereditary peers. that was billed as the first stage of reform of the institution. the lord chancellor hinted further reforms could be unveiled in the next labour manifesto. i think we need to look very carefully at the relationship between the lords and the commons lord falconer told bbc1 s breakfast with frost. how it interacts with the commons is a very very important issue. we need to address the issue in the manifesto but you will have to wait for when the manifesto comes. the lord chancellor currently has the role of house of lords speaker. he is also head of the judiciary and a member of the cabinet as constitutional affairs secretary. lady boothroyd said she believed it was unacceptable for the lord chancellor to have the role of speaker. i would really like to see a speaker of the house of lords she said. i don t go for the idea of somebody - a lord chancellor - who is head of the judiciary a senior cabinet minister and speaker of the lords. i want somebody there who is going to look after that house and do a job there.

dirty den s demise seen by 14m more than 14 million people saw dirty den watts killed off on friday marking eastenders 20th anniversary according to unofficial figures. den s death came 16 years after he was supposedly shot in 1989. but he came back to the show in september 2003. the audience for bbc one s one-hour special averaged 13.7 million and peaked at 14.2 million in the last 15 minutes overnight figures showed. den died after being confronted by zoe chrissie and sam in the queen vic. if the ratings are confirmed the episode will have given the soap its highest audience for a year. the overnight figures showed almost 60% of the viewing public tuned into eastenders between 2000 and 2100 gmt leaving itv1 with about 13%. we are very pleased with the figures a bbc spokesman said. it shows viewers have really enjoyed the story of den s demise. the show s highest audience came at christmas 1986 when more than 30 million tuned in to see den played by leslie grantham hand divorce papers to wife angie. two years later 24 million saw him apparently shot by a man with a bunch of daffodils by a canal. more than 16 million viewers watched his return in 2003. the show s ratings have since settled down to about 12 million per episode. grantham hit the headlines in may after a newspaper printed photographs of him apparently exposing himself via a webcam from his dressing room. he also allegedly insulted four co-stars. he apologised for his deplorable actions and a moment s stupidity .

microsoft seeking spyware trojan microsoft is investigating a trojan program that attempts to switch off the firm s anti-spyware software. the spyware tool was only released by microsoft in the last few weeks and has been downloaded by six million people. stephen toulouse a security manager at microsoft said the malicious program was called bankash-a trojan and was being sent as an e-mail attachment. microsoft said it did not believe the program was widespread and recommended users to use an anti-virus program. the program attempts to disable or delete microsoft s anti-spyware tool and suppress warning messages given to users. it may also try to steal online banking passwords or other personal information by tracking users keystrokes. microsoft said in a statement it is investigating what it called a criminal attack on its software. earlier this week microsoft said it would buy anti-virus software maker sybari software to improve its security in its windows and e-mail software. microsoft has said it plans to offer its own paid-for anti-virus software but it has not yet set a date for its release. the anti-spyware program being targeted is currently only in beta form and aims to help users find and remove spyware - programs which monitor internet use causes advert pop-ups and slow a pc s performance.

tory expert denies defeat warning the conservatives campaign director has denied a report claiming he warned michael howard the party could not win the next general election. the times on monday said australian lynton crosby told the party leader to focus on trying to increase the tories commons presence by 25 to 30 seats. but mr crosby said in a statement: i have never had any such conversation... and i do not hold that view. mr howard later added there was not one iota of truth in the report. the strategist helped australia s pm john howard win four elections. mr howard appointed mr crosby as his elections chief last october. mr crosby s statement said: the conservative party has been making an impact on the issues of lower tax and controlled immigration over the past week. it added: the labour party will be wanting to do all they can to distract attention away from the issues that really matter to people.

greek pair attend drugs hearing greek sprinters kostas kenteris and katerina thanou have appeared before an independent tribunal which will decide if their bans should stand. they were given provisional suspensions by athletics ruling body the iaaf in december for failing to take drugs tests before the athens olympics. the pair arrived with former coach christos tzekos to give evidence at the hellenic olympic committee s offices. a decision is expected to be announced before the end of february. whatever the ruling all parties will have the right to appeal to the court of arbitration for sport. yiannis papadoyiannakis who was head of the greek olympic team at the athens games last year also testified at the tribunal along with other greek sports officials and athletes. i believe the tribunal will reach a decision that will uphold the standing of the institution said papadoyiannakis. whatever the athletes have done we must not forget that they have offered us great moments. kenteris won 200m gold at the 2000 sydney olympics while thanou won silver in the 100m. they withdrew from the athens games last august after missing drugs tests on the eve of the opening ceremony. the pair spent four days in a hospital claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle crash. the five-member tribunal assembled by the hellenic association of amateur athletics is also examining allegations that kenteris and thanou avoided tests in tel aviv and chicago before the games. tzekos was also banned for two years by the iaaf. he faces charges of assisting in the use of prohibited substances and tampering with the doping inspection process. all three who have repeatedly denied the allegations have also been charged by a greek prosecutor and face trial for doping-related charges. a trial date has not been set. in imposing two-year suspensions on the duo on 22 december the iaaf described their explanations for missing the tests as unacceptable . but kenteris lawyer gregory ioannidis told bbc sport earlier this week he was confident the sprinters would be cleared of the charges of failing to give information on their location and refusing to submit to testing. we refute both charges as unsubstantiated and illogical he said. there have been certain breaches in the correct application of the rules on behalf of the sporting authorities and their officials and these procedural breaches have also violated my client s rights. there is also evidence that proves the fact that my client has been persecuted.

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.

labour attacked on howard poster labour has been accused of using anti-semitic images in posters which critics claim depict tory leader michael howard as fagin. the poster shows mr howard hypnotising people with a pocket watch saying: i can spend the same money twice. the image prompted concern from the editor of the jewish chronicle but labour insists it is simply anti-tory. labour later took the image off its website saying an alternative idea had proved more popular with party members. the party will now use focus groups to test a poster showing mr howard and shadow chancellor oliver letwin with a blackboard reading: 2+2=5 . the hypnotism poster has been compared to the portrayal of the dickens character fagin in the stage version of the musical oliver! there was controversy over another poster choice offered to labour members. it showed mr howard and mr letwin - who are both jewish - as flying pigs. mr howard did not comment on the anti-semitism claims when asked about the poster on monday. instead he pointed to how tony blair had in 1997 complained about personalised abusive campaigning . mr howard told greater manchester radio: it is such a pity that mr blair doesn t practise what he preaches. jewish chronicle editor ned temko said there had been a mixed reaction to the first poster but e-mails from jewish chronicle readers showed deeper concern about the hypnotism image. shylock and fagin are inextricably linked to notions of centuries-old prejudice he told bbc radio 4 s world at one. whatever the idea is i think it s a difficult exercise to use images like that and to argue that you can divorce them from their historical context or meaning. mr temko said he blamed cock-up not conspiracy saying he did not detect inherent anti-semitism in any of the parties election campaigns. the poster is among one of a series of ideas shown to labour members who have been asked to choose which one should be used ahead of the election. labour mp louise ellman said the hypnotism image was insensitive but urged people not to rush to call things anti-semitic when they only challenged tory economic policies. labour campaign spokesman fraser kemp said the poster had been misunderstood. the image simply portrayed mr howard as a hypnotist he argued. concern has been expressed and clearly we have to take those views on board but i would emphasise that if you see the posters the common theme... is that the tories are trying to con you. a labour spokesman later said the timing of removing the controversial image from the party s website was not affected by the row. this has been up on the website for two weeks and there has only been a fuss in the last four days so a substantial number of people voted before there was any fuss he said. but a conservative spokeswoman said: this poster campaign - which was offensive to many people - was a big misjudgement by labour s campaign team.

parties build up poll war chests the labour party received more than £5m in donations in the final quarter of 2004 new figures show. this is nearly half of the £11 724 929 received by 16 political parties listed by the electoral commission. the conservatives were in second place with donations totalling £4 610 849 while the liberal democrats received just over £1m. the majority of labour s donations came from affiliated trade unions. there were also large sums from individuals. lord drayson whose company powderject won multi-million pound contracts to provide smallpox vaccine to the government after the 11 september terror attacks gave £500 000 to the party just days before christmas. this followed an earlier donation of the same amount earlier in 2004. he was made a lord by tony blair last year. other significant donations came from retired millionaire businessman and philanthropist sir christopher ondaatje who gave the party a sum of £500 000 and refrigerator magnate william haughey obe who gave £330 000. the totals for the fourth quarter were well up on the same period of 2003 as the parties built up their war chests for the general election campaign. the largest donation to the conservatives was a bequest from ruth beardmore of nearly £400 000. the joint founder of merchant bank hambro magan gave £325 417. there were also donations topping £250 000 for the conservatives from scottish business groups focus on scotland and the institute of international research the world s largest independent conference company. also among the gifts to the tories were 24 donations totalling £161 840 from bearwood corporate services. this company is controlled by the party s former treasurer lord ashcroft which has directed almost £300 000 to specific marginal constituencies over the past two years. the liberal democrats largest donor was the joseph rowntree reform trust ltd a company which promotes political reform and constitutional change which gave a sum of £250 000. and fast food giants mcdonald s are listed as donating a sum of £10 575. this was a fee the firm paid for a room for an event held with the work and skills foundation during the party s conference. the uk independence party which lost its main donor paul sykes amid the row over robert kilroy-silk s bid for the leadership last autumn took in £63 081. just £8 170 of this was cash and the remainder came in gifts in kind such as office space and printing. registered political parties are required to set out each quarter all donations over £5 000 to their headquarters and over £1 000 to local constituency parties they receive. it is an offence for a person to knowingly or recklessly make a false declaration about party donations.

butler strikes gold in spain britain s kathy butler continued her impressive year with victory in sunday s 25th cross internacional de venta de banos in spain. the scot who led gb to world cross country bronze earlier this year moved away from the field with ines monteiro halfway into the 6.6km race. she then shrugged off her portuguese rival to win in 20 minutes 38 seconds. meanwhile briton karl keska battled bravely to finish seventh in the men s 10.6km race in a time of 31:41. kenenisa bekele of ethiopia - the reigning world long and short course champion - was never troubled by any of the opposition winning leisurely in 30.26. butler said of her success: i felt great throughout the race and hope this is a good beginning for a marvellous 2005 season for me. elsewhere abebe dinkessa of ethiopia won the brussels iaaf cross-country race on sunday completing the 10 500m course in 33.22. gelete burka then crowned a great day for ethiopia by claiming victory in the women s race.

jones files lawsuit against conte marion jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against balco boss victor conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs. the sydney olympic gold medallist says conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. conte whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation made the claims in a us television programme. he and three others were indicted in february by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. in an email to the associated press on wednesday conte said: i stand by everything i said . jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in sydney in 2000. her lawsuit filed in the us district court in san francisco said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs . conte s statements the suit added were false and malicious . after the abc television program earlier this month jones lawyer richard nicholls said: marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never ever used performance-enhancing drugs. victor conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment while marion jones is one of america s most decorated female athletes. mr conte s statements have been wildly contradictory. mr conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television while marion jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination. mr conte is simply not credible. we challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that marion jones passed. the sport s ruling body the iaaf is taking a cautious approach to conte s allegations but contacted the us anti-doping agency. communications director nick davies said the iaaf would seek to contact conte for further information . but davies stressed it would be up to the american authorities to decide whether they will take action against jones in light of conte s television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. if it is felt there is case to answer it would be for its national governing body (usa track and field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action he added. the us anti-doping agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. and i am sure like ourselves they will be watching the television programme with great interest. jones who is under investigation for steroid use by the us anti-doping agency has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the balco scandal although she praised a zinc supplement conte marketed. jones who did not win any medals in athens in august has never failed a drugs test. meanwhile conte who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering is due to face trial in march.

uk s national gallery in the pink the national gallery home to some of the uk s greatest artworks has seen a big jump in visitor numbers. five million visitors made the london gallery - which houses treasures like raphael s madonna of the pinks - the uk s most visited museum in 2004. it recorded a 13.8% rise in numbers and was the country s second most visited tourist attraction behind blackpool pleasure beach. charles saumarez smith the gallery s director said he was delighted . he said the number of visitors through the doors had boosted figures to pre-11 september 2001 levels. mr saumarez smith added that the pedestrianisation of trafalgar square where the gallery is located and strong temporary collections throughout 2004 had led to the strong performance. our 2004 exhibition programme of el greco russian landscape in the age of tolstoy and raphael: from urbino to rome was particularly strong and exceeded all targets he said. the exceptional quality of the paintings in our permanent collection is also huge draw for the public. the expectations of today s visitors are higher than ever and we have kept pace with their demands. mr saumarez smith said he was confident the gallery could maintain the attendance. with important exhibitions of the work of caravaggio stubbs and rubens in place for 2005 i am confident that the gallery is set for another highly successful year he added. the figures were prepared by the association of leading visitor attractions (alva). it found that the figures had been boosted by an increase in europeans travelling to the uk on budget airlines. popular cultural tourist spots such as the tate modern and the natural history museum all recorded increases of more than 10% in visitor numbers compared with 2003. but for legal or confidentiality reasons some alva members did not submit figures for 2004 including buckingham palace windsor castle madame tussauds and alton towers. alva director robin broke said: visits from western europe were up by 10% and from north america by some 9% compared to 2003 while numbers from the rest of the world rose 20%. european figures were helped by the rapid growth of low-cost flights to britain from europe especially from new eu countries.

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).

show over for mtv s the osbournes rock star ozzy osbourne has said his family will not make any more episodes of reality tv show the osbournes. at the end of it i didn t like having cameras around the house all the time the black sabbath singer told reporters at the mtv europe awards in rome. his wife sharon who also appears in the popular mtv show based on the osbournes family life agreed. now everybody s doing reality shows. he s done it he s been there he s got to do something else she said. ozzy osbourne said he had had enough of the work involved in making the series. when you watch a 25-minute episode i ve been filming all day he said. sharon osbourne is currently appearing as a judge and mentor in itv1 talent show the x-factor alongside simon cowell and louis walsh. earlier this year she topped a poll of the most important people in rock for her part in guiding the career of husband ozzy and her family. she was the driving force behind the osbournes which ran for three series earning the family a reported $85m (£46m). the renewed popularity for ozzy has seen sales of his merchandise hit the $50m (£27.2m) mark a record for a heavy metal artist. sales of t-shirts accessories and action figures have rocketed since the osbournes hit screens. at its peak the osbournes had a regular audience of eight million with america s tv guide magazine describing the series as a cross between the simpsons and this is spinal tap . osbourne himself was at a loss to explain its popularity: i suppose americans get a kick out of watching a crazy brit family like us make complete fools of ourselves every week.

straw attacked on china arms moves to lift the european union s ban on arms exports to china have been condemned by human rights groups and the conservatives. the 15 year embargo was imposed in the aftermath of china s crackdown on protesters in tiananmen square in 1989. uk foreign secretary jack straw who will hold talks in beijing on thursday said an eu arms code was more effective than the current ban. but human rights watch says the eu is putting commerce above abuse concerns. in december the eu pledged to work towards lifting the ban but said it was not ready to do so yet. germany and france have repeatedly called for the embargo to be lifted. britain has been more cautious but mr straw last week said he also wanted it to end despite us objections. he expects it to be lifted over the next six months a prediction which has alarmed critics. brad adams from human rights watch said: this is a huge political signal from europe that they are willing to forget about tiananmen square. there are still thousands of people who are unaccounted for. mr straw said it was wrong to put china under the same embargo as countries such as zimbabwe and burma. the scope of the embargo was very narrow and did not have any force of law behind it he told bbc radio 4 s world at one. in the uk more export licences were refused under the existing european union arms code than under the embargo he said. and only two of the licences denied under the embargo would have been granted under the code. the code of conduct is much more effective it s a more powerful tool of and we intend to strengthen it as a pre-condition of lifting the embargo with china he said. mr straw denied the decision would suggest to china that tiananmen square had been forgotten. the level of human rights was a key criteria under the eu arms exports code he said. human rights groups say the code of conduct is not legally binding - but mr straw said it would be given legal force by the laws of many eu countries. conservative shadow foreign secretary michael ancram said the move would be profoundly wrong . the decision could undermine nato as it severely damaged relations with the us which is opposed to ending the ban. mr ancram argued: what the british government is doing is giving in to french and german pressure especially the french who see vast contracts available to them if the embargo is lifted... it gives the wrong signals to china who are simply not prepared to accept that what happened at tiananmen square was wrong. mr straw s china trip is part of regular high-level meetings with beijing ministers. he will meet chinese counterpart minister li zhaoxing to discuss developing relations between their two countries hong kong and china s part in the talks on north korea.

my memories of marley... to mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of reggae star bob marley rob partridge - marley s former head of press at island records - remembers the man behind the legend. partridge worked with marley from 1977 until the jamaican musician s death in 1981. : i joined island records in 1977 and the first week i was there i worked on his show at the rainbow theatre. it was one of the last dates he did in london. : the album exodus came out in 1977 and that provided five hits and confirmed his global superstar status. by 1979 he was the biggest touring attraction in the world. i remember going to see dates in milan and turin and they were enormous concerts. : bob was one of the most mesmeric people i ve ever had the privilege to work with. he must have had an iron will to succeed. bob was a very driven individual. you realised from the start there was a manifest destiny within him that he believed in. he didn t suffer fools gladly. at the risk of stating the obvious he was an extraordinary song writer and his stage act was perhaps the greatest i ve ever seen. i saw him many times. : i recall in 1978 he came to the uk for top of the pops and a daily mirror journalist did a half-hour interview. it was interrupted to do a rehearsal. he came back into the dressing room to resume the interview but saw a world cup match on tv. he sat down in front of the tv and after 10 minutes it was obvious he wasn t going to move. that was the end of it. the mirror had a very truncated interview. the last time i saw him was in london in 1980. i arranged for him to play four days of football indoors in fulham. bob was a good player. we are talking about jamaican-style football. he was an attacking midfield player. his team assembled wherever his gigs were. we played in brazil against some world cup-winning players. : it was always a struggle for him to connect with black america. reggae did not correspond with disco in the 70s. but bob in the 1990s became one of the great icons in america and the third world. in 1991 ten years after his death he sold more records than at any time during his life. we saw black america taking bob into their hearts for the first time. : bob in worldwide terms is the greatest music star there has ever been. if you went to africa he would be recognised everywhere in places john lennon or elvis wouldn t be. no disrespect to the other artists but a case can be made for him as the greatest the best and the most influential artist in popular music. : well 1981 was to be the year he toured africa with stevie wonder. he had only performed in zimbabwe and guinea before. of course the 1981 tour never happened but the whole of africa would have embraced him. we can t speculate but he was at the height of his powers and just 36 years old. i had no sense his career was going to go downhill. : bob was endlessly optimistic about the way africa would turn out. he realised that nothing was perfect but he had total belief in the power of mankind. i m sure if he were alive today he would believe africa would firstly become politically free and secondly be able to defeat the aids epidemic. : the final tune of his final album was redemption song - one of the most incredible classics of all time.

fantasy book wins hollywood deal a british author has had the film rights to her children s bestseller snapped up for a seven-figure sum with ridley scott set to direct. michelle paver s wolf brother a fantasy set 6 000 years ago is the first in a planned series of six books. film studio fox has bought the rights for around $4m (£2.13m) for scott s company scott free to develop. the director said he was thrilled with the project. wolf brother is an enchanting book he said. paver who lives in london and previously worked as a lawyer began writing the book in 1982 while studying biochemistry at oxford university. she was an established author of love stories when she turned the work-in-progress into a children s novel. it was published in 2004 with paver earning an advance of $5m (£2.8m) - the highest sum ever paid for a debut children s book. wolf brother tells the story of torak a 12-year-old hunter who lives in the forest. after his father is killed he teams up with a wolf cub and sets out to rid the forest of an evil force. paver is currently writing the second book in the series. michelle paver lives and breathes the worlds she writes about said a spokesman for the author. i ve told her about the film deal but at the moment she is writing the second book and her mind is 6000 years away deep in the primeval forest.

iraq to invite phone licence bids iraq is to invite bids for two telephone licences saying it wants to significantly boost nationwide coverage over the next decade. bids have been invited from local arab and foreign companies iraq s ministry of communications said. the winner will work in partnership with the iraqi telecommunications and post company (itpc). the firms will install and operate a fixed phone network providing voice fax and internet services. the ministry said that it wanted to increase iraq s very low telephone service penetration rate from about 4.5% today to about 25% within 10 years. it also hopes to develop a highly visible and changeable telecommunication sector . details of the bidding and tender process will be published on the ministry s website on 9 february. it also is planning a road-show for investors in amman jordan. the ministry said it would base its selection on criteria including the speed of implementation tariff rates coverage and the firm s experience and financial strength.

bridge could miss rest of season chelsea left-back wayne bridge could miss the rest of the season with a suspected broken ankle. the england international 24 was hurt in an innocuous challenge with alan shearer during the londoners fa cup defeat at newcastle on sunday. we think it s a big injury said jose mourinho whose chelsea team this week meet barcelona in the champions league and liverpool in the carling cup final. william gallas and damien duff could also miss the barcelona game. france defender gallas and ireland winger duff both picked up their injuries in the closing stages of chelsea s 1-0 defeat at st james park. with bridge having gone off after mourinho used all three substitutes those knocks plus carlo cudicini s red card meant chelsea finished the game with seven able-bodied players. cudicini would not have played against barcelona but had been promised a game in the carling cup final although he will now miss the cardiff showpiece through suspension. the manager is not planning to add any new names to his squad ahead of the trip to barcelona even though he has few options to replace bridge at left-back. celestine babayaro left the club in january ironically to join newcastle and although gallas has deputised at left-back before he is struggling to be fit himself. it could be that paulo ferreira usually a right-back is switched to left-back with glen johnson who ended the newcastle game in goal playing on the right. youngsters ben hudell joe keenan and sam tillen would be options should mourinho decide to call up a replacement but it is unlikely he would risk an untried prospect in a champions league tie. bridge s injury also means mourinho who reportedly wants to sign ashley cole from arsenal will not have a specialist senior left-back for the run-in to the season. he (bridge) has no chance of playing against barcelona probably will not play against liverpool (in the carling cup final) and maybe not for the rest of the season he said. the medical department will try to do everything to recover gallas and duff. we will have to wait and see but i won t cry about injuries because we will have 11 players to play on tuesday. shearer said he was unsure what caused bridge s injury. i don t know what happened. he said. it was just a shame. i don t think we even touched each other. by all accounts it s pretty serious. i went into the dressing-room after the game and wished him all the best. mourinho whose team are chasing three trophies has already lost winger arjen robben to a serious injury.

nuclear dumpsite plan attacked plans to allow foreign nuclear waste to be permanently stored in the uk have been branded deeply irresponsible by the liberal democrats. the government has confirmed intermediate level waste (ilw) that was to have been shipped back to its home countries will now be stored in the uk. the cash raised will go towards the uk s nuclear clean-up programme. but lib dem norman baker accused ministers of turning britain into a nuclear dumpsite . under current contracts british nuclear fuels should return all but low level waste but none has ever been sent back. in future only highly-radioactive waste will be sent back to its country of origin normally germany or japan under armed guard. intermediate waste from countries such as japan germany spain italy switzerland and sweden will be stored permanently in the uk. at the moment this waste is stored at sellafield in cumbria in the form of glass bricks untreated liquid waste or solid material in drums. in a statement the department of trade and industry said the new policy meant there would be a sixfold reduction in the number of waste shipments to overseas countries . and it said highly-radioactive waste would be returned to its home country sooner ensuring there would be no overall increase in radioactivity. trade secretary patricia hewitt said the new arrangements revealed in a commons written statement would raise up to £680m for britain s nuclear clean-up programme under the new nuclear decommissioning agency. but the move has been criticised by environmental groups and the liberal democrats. mr baker the lib dem environment spokesman said: i have been warning for months that this would happen and raised it with government several times. but now our worst fears have been confirmed. once again britain s environmental and health needs are being ignored in policies driven by the treasury and dti. this is a terrible attempt to offload some of the £48bn cost of cleaning up nuclear sites. the energy act was supposed to help britain clean up but in order to pay for it we are becoming a nuclear dumpsite. the nuclear industry is an economic social and environmental millstone that hangs around britain s neck.

kilroy launches veritas party ex-bbc chat show host and east midlands mep robert kilroy-silk has said he wants to change the face of british politics as he launched his new party. mr kilroy-silk who recently quit the uk independence party said our country was being stolen from us by mass immigration. he told a london news conference that veritas - latin for truth - would avoid the old parties lies and spin . ukip leader roger knapman says he was glad to see the back of mr kilroy-silk. mr kilroy-silk promised a firm but fair policy on immigration and said they hoped to contest most seats at the forthcoming general election. he said veritas would also announce detailed policies on crime tax pensions health and defence over the next few weeks. and he announced the party would be holding a leadership election. on thursday he is due to announce which constituency he will run in at the next general election - that will come amid speculation he has his sights set on defence secretary geoff hoon s ashfield seat. he was joined in the new venture by one of ukip s two london assembly members damien hockney who is now veritas deputy leader. ukip s chairman petrina holdsworth has said the group will just be a parody of the party the men have left. mr kilroy-silk announced his decision to quit ukip at a public meeting in hinckley leicestershire last week. it came after months of tension as he vied unsuccessfully for the leadership of that party. he said he was ashamed to be a member of a ukip whose leadership had gone awol after the great opportunity offered by its third place at last june s european elections. while ukip has turned its back on the british people i shall not he said. i will be standing at the next general election. i shall be leading a vigorous campaign for the causes i believe in. and unlike the old parties we shall be honest open and straight. mr hockney also left ukip saying mr kilroy-silk would deliver better as the leader of a eurosceptic party. a spokesman for ukip called on mr hockney to quit the london assembly. the party asserts that mr hockney has a moral obligation if not a legal one to stand down. its leader roger knapman has said he is glad to see the back of mr kilroy-silk. he has remarkable ability to influence people but sadly after the [european] election it became clear that he was more interested in the robert kilroy-silk party than the uk independence party so it was nice knowing him now goodbye he said. ukip officials also argue mr kilroy-silk has not been straightforward in attacking the party he once wanted to lead. this is just what the europhiles pray for. as the main eurosceptic party ukip should try to resolve its differences with kilroy to show a united front and give the uk public a serious political voice against europe. having multiple parties with the same view point just splits the vote further. thank goodness that kilroy-silk has gone - now ukip at least has a chance in the election! it is very sad to see the cause of britain regaining its proper relationship with europe damaged by this split within ukip. robert kilroy-silk could have a lot to offer. instead we have a split party and a damaged cause. under the present electoral system people must work together and small parties have no hope of representation. last summer ukip achieved a major advance partly and only partly due to kilroy-silk. it is a great shame this has been dissipated in in-fighting. ukip has a wide platform of policies not just withdrawal from the eu. this kilroy-silk conveniently ignores in the comments surrounding the launch of his own party. neither the english democrats nor the new party were interested in letting him join them and take over their leadership speaks volumes. veritas is the beginning of the end for kilroy-silk. if he believes in truth and democracy then he and the two assembly members should resign and force a by-elections to stand on their own platform rather than this backdoor approach to politics of being elected for one party then defecting to another. so ukip was good enough for him to lead not good enough for him to follow! interesting that a party committed to plain speaking should have a latin name! every opinion poll points to an overwhelming anti-europe feeling in this country. kilroy-silk could be on the verge of something huge if he can broaden his appeal beyond this one issue. he is an extremely able communicator with years of political experience. we wants quality schools top hospitals clean and efficient public transport punishments that fit the crime limited asylum a purge on bureaucracy and less taxes. it needs courage and honesty two qualities sadly lacking in our politicians. kilroy-silk may just have those very qualities. recruit the right colleagues robert and your time may have come! well if you cannot get enough limelight being an ordinary mp then go out and start up your own party. it s all flash and no real policy here let s hope this is the start of both ukip and kilroy-silk slipping into obscurity. veritas the name will doom it. but perhaps i am wrong for surely all modern schoolchildren will understand it since they do still learn latin in the classroom do they not the whole essence of what rks represents is euroscepticism so explain to me how the too-twee label of veritas symbolises that

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

correction agency plans dropped plans to create a single correctional agency for scotland have been scrapped. the scottish executive will not now merge the scottish prison service with local authority social work criminal justice departments. the national correctional agency would have provided a one-stop justice system but has been abandoned in the wake of stiff opposition. instead scottish councils and the prison service will be compelled to work more closely to cut reoffending. the plan was to ensure offenders were monitored by the same body during and after prison preventing many from being lost in the system and helping more of them to stop reoffending. scotland s reoffending rate is high with more than 60% of prisoners reconvicted within two years of release from jail. this is leading to an ever-expanding prison population and the executive wants to tackle the problem. ministers thought merging the prison service with the council-controlled criminal justice social work departments which provide community sentences might have provided an answer. however following a consultation on the idea justice minister cathy jamieson has decided to drop the plans. instead ms jamieson will change the law to help produce a closer working relationship between both elements of the justice system. she will announce the move in her criminal justice plan on monday aiming to break down the barriers between what happens in prison and what happens in the community . the new measures will place a new statutory duty on the sps to work with local authorities and others in area partnerships. a national advisory board on offender management will also be created to advise ms jamieson on the sps s role and performance in reducing reoffending. the minister said: better joint working will help prisons play a much stronger role in ending reoffending behaviour and in particular help address the revolving door of reoffending that sees offenders entering prison for short periods during which little is done to address the behaviour that brought them there. communities who are paying the price for this reoffending - both in terms of crime and in terms of prison costs - expect better. it costs the taxpayer £35 000 a year to provide each prison place and that cost is increasing. taxpayers who suffer the consequences of crime also end up paying for keeping those people in prison. therefore as we continue to invest in the service it is only right that we seek to ensure that that service becomes more accountable to the public it serves to ministers and to parliament.

no more concessions on terror charles clarke says he has no desire to offer more concessions on his controversial anti-terror plans to get them on to the statute book. mps voted in favour of the prevention of terrorism bill after mr clarke agreed to key changes - but labour s majority was reduced to 14. the bill now faces opposition from peers angry at house arrest proposals. lord strathclyde tory leader in the lords said ministers should expect it to be substantially re-written . the bill proposes control orders which as well as house arrest could impose curfews tagging or bans on telephone and internet use. they would replace current powers to detain foreign terror suspects without trial which the law lords have ruled against. on monday mps voted 272-219 in favour of the bill after key concessions from mr clarke. the government earlier saw its 161-strong majority cut to just 14 as a cross-party amendment was narrowly rejected by the commons despite the support of 62 labour rebels. mr clarke won over critics by announcing he would introduce an amendment in the lords to ensure the most controversial control order amounting to house arrest would be imposed by judges and not politicians. lord strathclyde warned ministers that they should prepare themselves for substantial rewriting of various aspects of the bill . they should consider far more seriously the use of intercept evidence in any trial and i think they should drop the most objectionable proposals which are for house arrest. but mr clarke told bbc radio 4 s today programme he believed the changes he had made to the bill to win over critics in the commons should be sufficient to satisfy colleagues in the lords. no bill goes through parliament without detailed consideration being made but i believe that what i announced yesterday will be sufficient to secure the agreement of the house of lords he said. i have no desire to make further so-called concessions on the bill. mr clarke s proposed amendment will be debated by the lords on tuesday without having been considered by mps. the debate is unlikely to result in a vote. speaking after the commons debate shadow home secretary david davies said the bill had been clearly very badly drawn-up and that the government was trying to rush it through too quickly. he said it would be possible to rescue the government and make the law tolerable by amending it in the lords. the scope for miscarriages of justice is enormous he told bbc news. mark oaten for the liberal democrats said monday night s vote showed the government had lost the confidence of all sides of the house . he said: they need to rethink the bill and extend the power of a judge to decide on all control orders build safeguards on evidence and create charges against suspects. unless there is a major movement this bill is doomed to fail. bbc news political editor andrew marr said: i think that this is a bill in deep trouble. it s been unravelling in the house of commons - it may unravel further. the government wants the new bill to pass into law by 14 march when the current powers expire.

galloway plea for hostage release ex-labour mp george galloway has appealed for the release of aid worker margaret hassan kidnapped in iraq. mrs hassan 59 who led care international operations in iraq was abducted in baghdad on 19 october. mr galloway was expelled from the labour party because of his staunch opposition to the war on iraq. he denied an earlier report that he planned to make a direct appeal to the kidnappers via the al-jazeera arabic television channel. speaking in london on saturday at the first annual delegate conference of his newly-founded party the respect coalition he said: i have deliberately not involved myself before in any of these situations. but this woman has been a prominent opponent of both the war and the preceding years of sanctions. i am prepared to do anything i can to help save her life. a spokesman later said mr galloway had friends in common with ms hassan who he described as a prominent anti-war activist and that he was willing to do anything - go to iraq or be an intermediary or anything that s necessary . since her abduction several videos of mrs hassan have been broadcast by al-jazeera. the latest footage showed mrs hassan asking for british troops to be pulled out of iraq. she also urged care international the aid agency she works for to close its office in baghdad and appealed for iraqi women prisoners to be freed. care has since closed down all its operations in iraq.

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.

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).

uk homes hit £3.3 trillion total the value of the uk s housing stock reached the £3.3 trillion mark in 2004 - triple the value 10 years earlier a report indicates. research from halifax the country s biggest mortgage lender suggests the value of private housing stock is continuing to rise steadily. all regions saw at least a doubling in their assets during the past decade. but northern ireland led the way with a 262% rise while scotland saw the smallest increase of just 112%. the core retail price index rose by just 28% in the same period underlining how effective an investment in housing has been for most people during the past decade. more than a third of the uk s private housing assets - representing more than a trillion pounds in value - are concentrated in london and the south east the halifax s figures indicate. tim crawford group economist at halifax said: the value of the private housing stock continues to grow and the family home remains by a large margin the most valuable asset of the majority of households in the uk. halifax s own monthly figures on house sales - issued on thursday - suggest the average price of a british property now stands at £163 748 after a 0.8% rise in january. housing experts are split on prospects for the market with some saying price growth will slow but not fall while others predict a sharp drop in values.

lib dems highlight problem debt people vulnerable to problem debts should be afforded greater protection from banks aggressively promoting financial products the lib dems say. vincent cable says one in eight households already struggle with debt and that will worsen if there is a hike in interest rates or unemployment. the lib dems treasury spokesman is unveiling a policy aimed at the issue. he wants to see proper health checks when loans are marketed so people know to take out payment protection. were economic conditions to deteriorate at all large numbers of people could be affected because they have borrowed to the limit mr cable told bbc news. banks are very aggressively promoting debt in many cases there is a bigger problem ahead. mr cable said the government s consumer credit bill would target some of the extreme problems such as loan sharking but ministers had been a bit complacent about the wider issue of debt levels. he said much of the payment protection currently available was extremely expensive and there were lots of exclusions . mr cable added that the office of fair trading should investigate the market. lib dem leader charles kennedy meanwhile is in the middle of a tour of the uk aimed at persuading voters his is the real opposition . mr kennedy is visiting a mixture of rural seats where his party is hoping to make gains from the conservatives and urban areas traditionally associated with labour. labour say a lib dem vote could let the tories in while the tories say the lib dems would mean higher taxes soft crime laws more power to europe . mr kennedy s tour comes as he labour leader tony blair and conservative leader michael howard all step up campaigning ahead of the next general election widely expected to be held on 5 may. the liberal democrats say in the northern cities the race is between them and labour while in southern seats - particularly the south west - it is between them and the tories. speaking to the bbc s westminster hour on sunday mr kennedy said the upcoming general election - widely tipped for 5 may - would be much more unpredictable than any others in recent experience . and he brushed off labour suggestions a vote for his party would mean letting the tories in by the back door . if you look at the four previous parliamentary by-elections the liberal democrats have demonstrated that not only can we leapfrog the conservatives where we start in a third place position but we can go on to defeat the government. that s going to be the story i think of this coming general election.

microsoft sets sights on spyware windows users could soon be paying microsoft to keep pcs free of spyware. following the takeover of anti-spyware firm giant microsoft said it would soon release a toolkit that strips machines of the irritating programs. although initially free microsoft has not ruled out charging people who want to keep this toolkit up to date. surveys show that almost every windows pc is infested with spyware programs that do everything from bombard users with adverts to steal login data. microsoft said that a beta version of the toolkit to clean up windows machines should be available within 30 days. designed for pcs running windows 2000 and xp the utility will clean out spyware programs constantly monitor what happens on a pc and will be regularly updated to catch the latest variants. before now many of microsoft s other security boosting programs such as the firewall in windows xp have been given away free. but mike nash vice president in microsoft s security business unit said it was still working out pricing and licensing issues. charging for future versions has not been discounted he said. we ll come up with a plan and roll that out he said. the plan could turn out to be a lucrative one for microsoft. a recent survey by earthlink and webroot found that 90% of pcs are infested with the surreptitious software and that on average each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as spybot and ad-aware. spyware comes in many forms and at its most benign exploits lazy browsing habits to install itself and subject users to unwanted adverts. other forms hijack net browser settings to force people to view pages they would otherwise never visit. at its most malign spyware watches everything that people do with their pc and steals login information and other personal data. microsoft s announcement about spyware comes after it bought small new york software firm giant company software. terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

ireland call up uncapped campbell ulster scrum-half kieran campbell is one of five uncapped players included in ireland s rbs six nations squad. campbell is joined by ulster colleagues roger wilson and ronan mccormack along with connacht s bernard jackman and munster s shaun payne. gordon d arcy is back after injury while munster flanker alan quinlan also returns to international consideration. the squad is selected purely on form. a lot of players put their hands up coach eddie o sullivan told bbc sport. kieran campbell was just one of those players. he has been playing very well in the heineken cup and deserves his call-up. there is big competition in some departments and not so much in others. there were one or two players who were unfortunate just to miss out. back-row forwards david wallace and victor costello are omitted with o sullivan having quinlan wilson simon easterby anthony foley denis leamy and johnny o connor vying for the three positions. with david humphreys kevin maggs simon best and tommy bowe again included it is ulster s biggest representation in a training panel for quite some time. munster and leinster have 12 and 11 players in the squad respectively while jackman is the sole connacht representative. four british-based players are also included. ulster forward ronan mccormack said he was totally shocked to be included. i m really looking forward to it said mccormack. i played with guys like brian o driscoll and denis hickie back in my school days in leinster so i do know a few of them although not that well. it will be great to work with them. s best (ulster) s byrne (leinster) r corrigan (leinster) l cullen (leinster) s easterby (llanelli) a foley (munster) j hayes (munster) m horan (munster) b jackman (connacht) d leamy (munster) e miller (leinster) r mccormack (ulster) d o callaghan (munster) p o connell (munster) j o connor (wasps) m o kelly (leinster) f sheahan (munster) r wilson (ulster) a quinlan (munster). t bowe (ulster) k campbell (ulster) g d arcy (ulster) g dempsey (leinster) g duffy (harlequins) g easterby (leinster) d hickie (leinster) a horgan (munster) s horgan (leinster) d humphreys (ulster) k maggs (ulster) g murphy (leicester) b o driscoll (leinster) r o gara (munster) s payne (munster) p stringer (munster). k gleeson (leinster) t howe (ulster) j kelly (munster) n mcmillan (ulster).

tv s future down the phone line internet tv has been talked about since the start of the web as we know it now. but any early attempts to do it - the uk s home choice started in 1992 - were thwarted by the lack of a fast network. now that broadband networks are bedding down and it is becoming essential for millions the big telcos are keen to start shooting video down the line. in the face of competition from cable companies offering net voice calls they are keen to be the top iptv dogs. software giant microsoft thinks iptv - internet protocol tv - is the future of television and it sits neatly with its vision of the connected entertainment experience . telcos have been wanting to do video for a long time ed graczyk director of marketing for microsoft iptv told the bbc news website. the challenge has been the broadband network and the state of technology up until not so long ago did not add up to a feasible solution. compression technology was not efficient enough the net was not good enough. a lot of stars have aligned in the last 18 months to make it a reality. last year he said was all about deal making and partnering up; shaping the iptv ecosystem . this year those deals will start to play out and more services will come online. 2006 is where it starts ramping up and expanding to other geographies - over time as broadband becomes more prevalent in south america and other parts of asia it will expand he added. what telcos really want to do is to send the triple-play of video voice and data down one single line be it cable or dsl (digital subscriber line). some are talking about quadruple play too with mobile services added into the mix. it is an emerging new breed of competition for satellite and cable broadcasters and operators. according to technology analysts tdg research there will be 20 million subscribers to iptv services in under six years. key to the appeal of sending tv programmes down the same line as the web data whenever a viewer wants it is that it uses the same technology as the internet. it means there is not just a one-way relationship between the viewer and the broadcaster . this allows for more dvd-like interactivity limitless storage and broadcast space bespoke channel playlists and thousands of hours of programmes or films at a viewer s fingertips. it potentially lets operators target programmes to smaller niche or localised audiences sending films to bollywood fans for instance as well as individual devices. operators could also send high-definition programmes straight to the viewer bypassing the need for a special broadcast receiver. perhaps most compelling - yet some might say insignificant - is instantaneous channel flicking. currently there is a delay when you try to do this on satellite cable or freeview. with iptv the speed is 15 milliseconds. that gets rounds of applause according to mr graczyk. microsoft is one of the companies that started thinking about iptv some time ago. we believe this will be the way all tv is delivered in the future - but that is several years away said mr graczyk. as with music tv has moved to digital formats. the things software can do to integrate media into devices means a whole new generation of connected entertainment experiences that cross devices from the tv to the mobile to the gaming console and so on. the company intends its microsoft s iptv edition software an end-to-end management and delivery platform to let telcos to do exactly that seamlessly. it has netted seven major telcos as customers representing a potential audience of 25 million existing broadband subscribers. its deal with us telco sbc was the largest tv software deal to date said mr graczyk. iptv is about more than telcos though. there are several web-based offerings that aim to put control in the hands of the consumer by exploiting the net s power. jeremy allaire chief of brightcove told the bbc news website that it would be a flavour of iptv that was about harnessing the web as a channel . it is not just niches but about exploiting content not usually viewed he said. we are focussed on the owners of video content who have rights to digitally distribute content and who often see unencumbered distribution. for them to do it through cable and so on is price-prohibitive he said. this type of iptv service might also be a distribution channel for more established publishers who have unique types of content that they cannot offer through cable and satellite operators - history channel archives for instance. what is a clear sign that iptv has a future is that microsoft is not the only player in the field. there are a lot of other middleware players providing similar management services as microsoft like myrio and c-cor. but it will up to the viewer to decide if it really is to be successful.

roddick into san jose final andy roddick will play cyril saulnier in the final of the sap open in san jose on sunday. the american top seed and defending champion overcame germany s tommy haas the third seed 7-6 (7-3) 6-3. and saulnier survived an injury scare in his semi-final with seventh-seeded austrian jurgen melzer. the frenchman twisted his ankle early in the second set but overcame melzer who was left fuming over a series of line calls 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-3. i was feeling horrible earlier in the week roddick said. i thought tonight was another step in the right direction. on my returns i was standing in more and i m getting a little more depth even if i don t hit a perfect return. roddick won the last four points of the first-set tie-break before being broken at the start of the second set. but he broke straight back and then broke haas again to lead 4-2. it s extremely frustrating when you have chances against a top-five player and don t do anything with them admitted haas. i rushed a few backhands and he took advantage. saulnier will move into the world s top 50 for the first time after his passage through to the final. it s taken a lot of work and a lot of fighting in my mind he revealed. sometimes i didn t believe i could get to a final and now i am here. i ve stayed mentally strong. i m on the way. i ll keep fighting and work a lot and i ll be up there.

el guerrouj targets cross country double olympic champion hicham el guerrouj is set to make a rare appearance at the world cross country championships in france. but the moroccan who has not raced over cross country for 15 years will not decide until two weeks before the event which starts on 19 march. if i am to compete in it it is only if i feel i can win said the 30-year-old who is retiring in 2006. otherwise there is not much point in me going. el guerrouj achieved a lifetime ambition last august when he clinched his first olympic titles over 1500m and 5 000m. but the four-time world 1500m champion is still hungry for more success before calling time on his career. the 30-year-old has set his sights on clinching the world 5 000m crown in helsinki this summer. and he is aiming to break 10 000m olympic champion kenenisa bekele s 5 000m and 10 000m world records. el guerrouj could meet bekele in march as the ethiopian is the defending world cross country champion over both the long and short courses. but the moroccan will not commit himself to the st galmier event until he assesses how well his winter training is going. the return to training was very difficult because i accepted a lot of invitations these past few months said el guerrouj. i am almost a month behind but i am on the right track. - britain s paula radcliffe has also not ruled out competing in the world cross country championships. i haven t quite decided what events i will compete in prior to london but the world cross country is an event which is also special to me and is a definite possibility said the two-time champion.

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).

us critics laud comedy sideways road trip comedy sideways has had more praise heaped on it by two us critics associations adding to honours it has already picked up. the chicago film critics association (cfca) named it winner in five categories including best film and best actor for paul giamatti. but the director award went to clint eastwood for million dollar baby. the southeastern film critics also awarded sideways its best film of the year accolade. director alexander payne was named best director and he also won best screenplay shared with jim taylor. the cfca awarded thomas haden church the best supporting actor prize and virginia madsen the best supporting actress award for their roles in the film. sideways has already been voted best film by critics associations in new york and los angeles and has been nominated for a golden globe. british actress imelda staunton won the cfca best actress for the gritty abortion drama vera drake adding to a growing list of awards she has won for her performance in the mike leigh film. scrubs star zach braff was named best new director for his debut garden state. michael moore s controversial documentary fahrenheit 9/11 won the best documentary while a very long engagement won best foreign film. the chicago critics have yet to name a date for when their awards ceremony will be held.

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.

markets fall on weak dollar fears rising oil prices and the sinking dollar hit shares on monday after a finance ministers meeting and stern words from fed chief alan greenspan. the london ftse fell 0.8% while tokyo s nikkei 225 dropped 2.11% its steepest fall in three months. g20 finance ministers said nothing about supporting the dollar whose slide could further jeopardise growth in japan and europe. and mr greenspan warned asian states could soon stop funding the us deficit. on monday afternoon the euro was close to an all-time high against the dollar at above $1.30. oil pushed higher too on monday as investors fretted about cold weather in the us and europe and a potential output cut from oil producers group opec although prices had cooled by the end of the day. in london the benchmark brent crude price closed down 51 cents at $44.38 a barrel while new york light sweet crude closed down 25 cents at $48.64 a barrel. the slide comes as the us has been attempting to talk up the traditional strong dollar policy. the latest to pitch in has been president george w bush himself who told the asia pacific economic co-operation (apec) summit in chile that he remained committed to halving the budget deficit. together with a $500bn trade gap the red ink spreading across america s public finances is widely seen as a key factor driving the dollar lower. and last week us treasury secretary john snow told an audience in the uk that the policy remained unaltered. but he also said that the rate was entirely up to the markets - a signal which traders took as advice to sell the dollar. some had looked to the g20 meeting for direction. but mr snow made clear exchange rates had not been on the agenda. for the us government letting the dollar drift is a useful short-term fix. us exports get more affordable helping perhaps to close the trade gap. in the meantime the debt keeps getting bigger with congress authorising an $800bn rise in what the us can owe - taking the total to $8.2 trillion. but in a speech on friday federal reserve chairman alan greenspan warned that in the longer term things are likely to get tricky. at present much of gap in both public debt is covered by selling bonds to asian states such as japan and china since the dollar is seen as the world s reserve currency. similarly asian investment helps bridge the gap in the current account - the deficit between what the us as a whole spends and what it earns. but already they are turning more cautious - an auction of debt in august found few takers. and mr greenspan said that could turn into a trend if the fall of the dollar kept eating into the value of those investments. it seems persuasive that given the size of the us current account deficit a diminished appetite for adding to dollar balances must occur at some point he said.

bellamy under new fire newcastle boss graeme souness has reopened his dispute with craig bellamy after claiming the welshman was not good enough for the magpies. bellamy left newcastle to join celtic on loan after a major row with souness. souness - who refused to refer to the 25-year-old by name - said bellamy did not score enough goals the chap that s just gone has scored 9.3 goals a season in his time in senior football - half of those weren t even in the top flight said souness. that s not good enough for a striker at a club like this. we need to have two strikers who are near 20 goals on a regular basis. bellamy turned down a move to birmingham in favour of joining celtic after a disagreement about the welsh international playing out of position quickly escalated. earlier in the week souness had said that he risked losing the confidence of the players and damaging his own reputation if he had not taken a hard line after bellamy accused him of lying. there are certain things you can forgive and forget said souness. but if i d been seen to be weak in this case there was no future for me with the players in the dressing room or any job i have after newcastle. he could then return to st james park - and he says that he wants to. however it would seem unlikely he will play for newcastle again as long as souness remains in charge.

celebrities get their skates on former england footballer paul gascoigne will join eastenders actress scarlett johnson on bbc one s strictly ice dancing. the one-off christmas special will also star television presenter carol smillie and jessica taylor from liberty-x. each celebrity will be paired with a professional skater to impress a panel of judges and win the audience vote. the bbc is yet to confirm the final two stars who will battle it out to become ice king or queen. veteran presenter bruce forsyth and tess daly will host the programme which follows hot on the heels of the current saturday night series strictly come dancing. the celebrities will have to practise a stipulated ice dance and perform it at an ice rink with their partner. the judges will have 50% of the vote to decide who wins the contest with the ice rink audience making up the rest of the vote. the show forms part of the bbc s festive schedule. ice skating duo jayne torvill and christopher dean are to front a similar celebrity ice dance show for itv titled stars on thin ice. the contestants on stars on thin ice will each be paired up with a professional skater and will learn a new routine every week. at the end of the series one celebrity will be crowned the winner.

pakistani women must not hide hiding women away in the home hidden behind veils is a backward view of islam president musharraf of pakistan has said during a visit to britain. he was speaking to the bbc s newsnight programme a few hours before visiting the pakistani community in manchester. my wife is travelling around. she is very religious but she is very moderate said general musharraf. it comes after pakistan s high commissioner to britain said some pakistanis should integrate more. dr maleeha lodhi said people could not expect others to listen to their grievances if they isolated themselves. gen musharraf told the bbc: some people think that the women should be confined to their houses and put veils on and all that and they should not move out - absolutely wrong. the pakistani president was also asked whether he thought the war on terror had made the world less safe. yes absolutely. and i would add that unfortunately we are not addressing the core problems so therefore we can never address it in its totality he said. we are fighting it in its immediate context but we are not fighting it in its strategic long-term context. it is the political disputes and we need to resolve them and also the issue of illiteracy and poverty. this combined are breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism. on monday the pakistani president met prime minister tony blair at 10 downing street on his first official visit to london. he is due to visit the pakistani community in manchester on tuesday afternoon. the mirror newspaper said on tuesday it had been handed a sensitive dossier outling the details of gen musharraf s visit to britain. the paper said the document had been found in a london street by a member of the public. it said the dossier contained details about his movements and also confidential police radio channels call signs and codes. speaking in london on monday gen musharraf said al-qaeda was on the run in pakistan. but standing next to mr blair he added that it was crucial to tackle the core of what creates terrorists what creates an extremist militant environment which then leads on to terrorism . that is the resolution of political disputes. mr blair said the two leaders had talked about afghanistan the wider war on terror the situation in the middle east and the ongoing dispute over kashmir. we agreed that in afghanistan there is some cause for optimism about the progress that has been made there said mr blair. in respect of iraq we agreed that whatever the issues of the past the important thing now is to see the strategy through and ensure that iraq is capable of becoming a stable and democratic state.

films on war triumph at sundance a study of the united states at war in the past 50 years has picked up one of the main awards at the 2005 sundance film festival in utah in the us. why we fight scooped the grand jury prize for documentaries at the world s leading independent film festival. british director sean mcallister s the liberace of baghdad - about a pianist in war-torn iraq - won a special prize in the world documentary category. both why we fight and the liberace of baghdad were made for the bbc. why we fight is due to be screened on bbc four in march. the sundance festival was founded by actor robert redford in 1981. this year s festival - which ended on sunday after a 11-day run - has been dominated by the themes of war and politics. in the new world cinema drama category the angolan film the hero triumphed to win the grand jury prize. the film - an angolan/french/portuguese production - tells the story of a veteran of the country s civil war who returns home to face a new battle of survival. twelve films competing in the new world cinema documentary category focused on countries and people under siege. finnish film the three rooms of melancholia looks at the war in chechnya and shake hands with the devil: the journey of romeo dallaire tells the story of a un mission to rwanda during the 1994 genocide. but it was dutch documentary shape of the moon - a study of an extended family in indonesia - which took the top prize. meanwhile french-israeli production wall which looks at israel s controversial security wall separating it from the palestinian territories picked up a world cinema special jury prize for documentaries. in the main drama category forty shades of blue was named winner of the grand jury prize. the film tells the tale of a forbidden tug-of-love between a father his russian immigrant girlfriend and his son. during its 24-year history the sundance film festival has showcased successes such as reservoir dogs the blair witch project and the full monty. last year s festival provided a platform for hits such as open water napoleon dynamite garden state and super-size me. the festival is held in the mountain resort of park city east of salt lake city which sees its population rise from 7 500 to 45 000 during the festival.

labour s core support takes stock tony blair has told labour supporters he s back and still hungry for the job of prime minister - but does that sum up the mood at the party s spring conference in gateshead the electorate are keener on the government than some labour party members is the dry assessment of graham lane leader of the labour group on newham council. the problem according to mr lane is not continuing divisions over iraq foundation hospitals or tuition fees or even voter apathy but mr blair himself. i have a new slogan. vote blair get brown. that s what i am telling people on the doorstep. don t worry he will be gone soon. his friend saxon spence leader of devon county labour group lays the blame for any lack of campaigning zeal on one issue above all others. you cannot underestimate the impact of the war in iraq. we lost people from our local party who had some key roles. but the two friends were fired up by gordon brown s speech on saturday with its appeal to core labour values on social justice health and education. there was real passion. i think we have all felt a little jaded but it reminded us why we joined the party in the first place said mrs spence. if he hadn t have walked off the stage they would still be clapping added mr lane. but for every brownite at the spring conference there was an equally ardent fan of mr blair. stephen douglas 26 from wales said after the pm s speech on sunday: i think it was a bit of a turning point given the roasting he has had on some issues. the guy still has it. tony martin of burnley said: he is the first leader who has won us two terms. this bloke has delivered for us. malcolm shipley of shipley said it was as if he is coming round to the right approach again . katrina bull a prospective parliamentary candidate said mr blair had shown he could rouse the party s grassroots: i think if every voter was able to spend time in a room with tony the way we have today we will have no problem with turnout. she had just emerged from a q&a session in which mr blair - tieless and supremely at ease - answered questions posed via the party s website. a party of councillors from nottingham agreed that there was nothing wrong with mr blair s leadership - and they were adamant that the campaigning strength of the party in their city was as strong as ever. iraq they insisted would not be a factor for most voters. the biggest problem we have got at the moment is that we keep getting all these polls saying we are going to run away with the election. it might sound great but it does create this sense of complacency among our own voters and i think that is the greater problem than iraq said nottingham city councillor brian parbutt. and even mr blair s most vocal critics seemed to agree on one thing - he is a master of the sort of glossy high-profile campaigning that has become labour s hallmark epitomised by friday s whistle-stop tour of marginal seats. a group of shop stewards from the swan hunter shipyard who said they were facing redundancy could barely suppress their anger at mr blair s failure to as they saw it shake off his tory leanings and stand up for manufacturing in the north east. they were also scathing about the alleged benefits of showpiece projects such as conference venue sage centre heralded by john prescott and others this weekend as a symbol of labour s success in urban regeneration. it is no good having the sage or baltic if you haven t got the money for the entrance fee said terry telford. but when asked about mr blair s bravura performance on friday the men agreed he was brilliant . and they would all be out on the doorstep pushing the labour message come election time. if you are not fired up about the election then what s the point there is no complacency as far as i can see in the labour party. we are fired up. we are up for this election said richie porterhouse. mr telford agreed but added it was becoming increasingly difficult to think of an answer when people asked what has labour done for the north east i have had doors slammed in my face he said. every activist i spoke to said they were proud of what they believed labour had achieved in their local communities - the new hospitals and schools the better life chances for young people. the problem they faced they said was converting this local feelgood factor into votes. but they could at least rely on one secret weapon as one activist put it - tory leader michael howard.

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.

axa sun life cuts bonus payments life insurer axa sun life has lowered annual bonus payouts for up to 50 000 with-profits investors. regular annual bonus rates on former axa equity & law with-profits policies are to be cut from 2% to 1% for 2004. axa blamed a poor stock market performance for the cut adding that recent gains have not yet offset the market falls seen in 2001 and 2002. the cut will hit an estimated 3% of axa s policyholders. the rest will know their fate in march. the cuts on axa s policies will mean a policyholder who had invested £50 a month into an endowment policy for the past 25 years would see a final maturity payout of £46 998. this equated to a annual investment growth rate of 8% axa said. with-profits policies are designed to smooth out the peaks and troughs of stock market volatility. however heavy stock market falls throughout 2001 and 2002 forced most firms to trim bonus rates on their policies. the stock market has grown over the past 18 months however not enough to undo the damage that occurred during 2001 and 2002 axa spokesman mark hamilton axa spokesman told bbc news. axa cut payouts for the same investors last january.

mps tout lords replacement plan a group of mps has tried to raise the pressure on tony blair over reform to the house of lords by publishing a detailed blueprint for change. the cross-party group has unveiled a draft bill proposing a smaller second chamber in which 70% of members would be elected. mps and peers have failed to agree on reform since 1999 when 600 hereditaries lost their seats. the group says it can win support for removing the last 92 hereditaries. the government postponed plans to remove the remaining hereditary peers because they said they were unlikely to succeed after opposition in the lords. tony blair has argued. there needs to be consensus on reforms. there have been suggestions there will be proposals for changing at least the powers of the lords in labour s manifesto. but the all-party group including tories ken clarke and sir george young labour s robin cook and tony wright and liberal democrat paul tyler is confident its plan would win support from a large majority . and they list former conservative leader william hague and former labour leader neil kinnock as supporters of the plans. the group says the british public and a clear majority of mps support replacing the lords with a largely-elected second chamber. their plan would see the house of lords being renamed the second chamber of parliament and its members would be known as mscps. there would be 385 mscps including 270 elected members 87 appointed members and 16 bishops. they would serve for between 12 and 14 years. mr cook said holding elections for mscps on the same day as those for mps might help motivate the electorate and increase voter turnout. he added: over the last year i have seen many statements from senior figures of this government insisting the public must have the right of choice. what could be more important than a choice of the people who sit in our parliament the group believes pressure is growing for change and the government s current position is unsustainable. it wants all three main parties to include a commitment to a largely democratic second chamber in their manifestos. mr clarke said the issue went to the heart of reforming the health of the british political system . and mr tyler said the prime minister s view that there was no agreement on the shape of the future of the lords was flawed. the problem i think in the prime minister s mind is there doesn t appear to be a consensus that includes him he said. we are providing a consensus . the elect the lords campaign said the draft bill was an important contribution to the debate. we believe this draft bill is detailed enough to form the basis of closer parliamentary scrutiny said co-ordinator peter facey. in lieu of any other such clear proposals the government must permit that to happen.

bennett play takes theatre prizes the history boys by alan bennett has been named best new play in the critics circle theatre awards. set in a grammar school the play also earned a best actor prize for star richard griffiths as teacher hector. the producers was named best musical victoria hamilton was best actress for suddenly last summer and festen s rufus norris was named best director. the history boys also won the best new comedy title at the theatregoers choice awards. partly based upon alan bennett s experience as a teacher the history boys has been at london s national theatre since last may. the critics circle named rebecca lenkiewicz its most promising playwright for the night season and eddie redmayne most promising newcomer for the goat or who is sylvia paul rhys was its best shakespearean performer for measure for measure at the national theatre and christopher oram won the design award for suddenly last summer. both the critics circle and whatsonstage.com theatregoers choice award winners were announced on tuesday. chosen by more than 11 000 theatre fans the theatregoers choice awards named us actor christian slater best actor for one flew over the cuckoo s nest. diana rigg was best actress for suddenly last summer dame judi dench was best supporting actress for the rsc s all s well that ends well and the history boys samuel barnett was best supporting actor.

blair told to double overseas aid tony blair is being urged to use all his negotiating powers to end poor countries debt and double aid. some 45 million children will die needlessly before 2015 and aid budgets are half their 1960 levels oxfam says in a report paying the price. the call comes as the prime minister prepares to assume the presidency of the g8 of top industrialised nations. as rich countries get richer they re giving less and less. this scandal must stop oxfam s barbara stocking said. the world s poorest children are paying for rich countries policies in aid and debt with their lives. 2005 offers the chance for an historic breakthrough but unless world leaders act now the year will end in shameful failure the charity s director added. the report said: for rich countries providing aid to help to end global poverty is an obligation and a matter of justice not an act of charity. it also points out that in 1970 the g8 of top industrialised nations agreed to spend 0.7% of their incomes on aid. but 34 years later none of the organisations members have reached this target and many have not yet set a timetable the report says. it argues that the price of not investing in poor countries sustainable development will be felt across the world. the report said: global poverty threatens our shared prosperity and security. environmental crises and natural disasters disease and drug trafficking know no national borders. poverty heightens the likelihood of conflict and unrest. new threats to the peace and security of rich nations arise from poverty and gross inequalities. criminal and terrorist networks are more likely to operate where state institutions are weak. both the prime minister and chancellor gordon brown have called for urgent action to fight world poverty. mr blair who has described africa as a scar on the world s conscience has already said tackling world poverty would be one his g8 priorities along with climate change and the aids epidemic. mr brown has also pledged to write off the debt owed to britain by the world s poor nations. a spokeswoman for the department for international development said: the government had made a clear commitment to reaching 0.7% of gross national income for overseas development aid by 2013. if britain s proposal for an international finance facility were adopted the objective of 0.7% could be achieved earlier by 2008-09. these additional resources will be used to increase uk bilateral aid to africa to at least £1.25bn a year by 2008 and spend at least £1.5bn on hiv/aids related work over the next three years.

mallon wades into ne vote battle middlesbrough mayor ray mallon has been drafted in to boost the yes campaign as the north east assembly referendum enters its final week. the former police chief dubbed robocop for his zero tolerance style clashed on thursday with sunderland no campaigner neil herron. mr mallon said an assembly would give local people more of a say over key issues such as transport and crime. but mr herron said north east people did not want or need an assembly. the pair met on the platform at sunderland station as mr mallon toured the region highlighting claimed improvements to transport if the area gets an assembly. but mr herron - who gained fame as one of sunderland s metric martyrs and is running his own no campaign alongside the official north east says no campaign - said he was not convinced by mr mallon s arguments. the reality is that it is not going to deliver he said. labour has had two-and-a-half years to convince people of this. if you can t sell a deal in that time it is a bad deal. on wednesday mr mallon provoked fury by branding the official no campaign two-bit tories in a confrontation outside its durham headquarters. the campaign is being run by two-bit conservatives who are not interested in what happens in the north east; they are interested in hitting the labour party over the head he said. mr mallon is a late recruit to the yes campaign after rejecting overtures from no campaigners including he claims tory leader michael howard. most local observers believe the contest is too close to call although little recent polling has been carried out. yes campaign chairman john tomaney said he hoped for a late flurry of votes to boost turnout - something he says will boost their cause. he added: the government exerts a lot of political power in the north east. the accountability should be in the north east as well. he also defended the decision to attack the official no campaign s alleged political allegiances. we felt we had to show what people were behind the no campaign - london tory spin doctors. graham robb spokesman for north east says no said the yes campaign s decision to get personal dragged the campaign into the gutter and showed they were rattled . and he hit back at mr mallon s claim that an assembly would improve transport links in the region. it can push paper around but it can not get people moving he said. some 487 939 people had returned their ballot papers by wednesday - a turnout of 25.7%. the deadline for voting is next thursday 4 november.

pension hitch for long-living men male life expectancy is much higher than originally estimated leading pension researchers have said. the pensions policy institute (ppi) said life expectancy for unskilled and professional men has been understated. life expectancy at birth is 71 years for a manual worker and 79 years for a professional - a gap of eight years. but if measured at age 65 instead the ppi said a manual worker will live to 81 years and a professional worker to 86 years - a gap of just five years. the ppi s estimate is higher because it excludes people who have died before they reach 65 years of age and also takes into account ongoing improvements in life expectancy. the government has ruled out raising the state pension age because it says it would penalise lower-skilled workers who generally have lower life expectancies. chris curry ppi research director said its calculations suggested there could be more pressure on state pension spending than originally envisaged. even people in social class v [unskilled manual workers] who are widely likely to have the lowest life expectancy can still expect to live 16 years after state pension age he said. researchers have not updated life expectancy projections for women who on average live longer than men.

e-university disgraceful waste a failed government scheme to offer uk university courses online has been branded a disgraceful waste by mps. the e-university was scrapped last year having attracted only 900 students at a cost of £50m. chief executive john beaumont was paid a bonus of £44 914 despite a failure to bring in private sector backers. the commons education select committee called this morally indefensible but the government said the e-university project had improved understanding . a department for education and skills spokeswoman said the venture had been ambitious and ground-breaking but take-up had not been sufficient to continue with the project . she added: uk e-universities was not the only organisation to have lost out on private sector investment in the collapse of the dotcom boom. the select committee found that those responsible for founding the e-university in 2000 had been caught up in the general atmosphere of enthusiasm surrounding the internet. initial business plans forecast a quarter of a million students joining within a decade bringing in at least £110m in profit. but virtually no market research was carried out and just £4.2m was spent on worldwide sales and marketing of courses. some £14m went on developing the technology to make the e-university work. this was used by just 200 students the rest preferring to work through existing university websites. with no significant private investors and no direct accountability to a government minister the e-university had had too much freedom to spend public money as it wished the report found. committee chairman barry sheerman said: uk e-university was a terrible waste of public money. the senior executives failed to interest any private investors and showed an extraordinary over-confidence in their ability to attract students to the scheme. the report warns that the government should not be scared off investment in innovative but potentially risky schemes by the failure of the e-university but should learn the lessons from this disaster .

arnold congratulated on oscar win oscar-winner andrea arnold has been congratulated by the uk film council the organisation which partly funded her project. arnold s film wasp won the best live action short film award on sunday. the uk film council spends millions of pounds of lottery investment on short filmmaking in britain every year said chief executive officer john woodward. it certainly pays off when you see new film-makers winning such prestigious awards he added. wasp which was commissioned by the film council and channel 4 beat films by fellow uk nominees gary mckendry and ashvin kumar to the prize. it stars actress nathalie press who appeared in the bafta-winning drama my summer of love as a single mother who is forced to take drastic action when she is invited on a date and is unable to find a babysitter to look after her four daughters. the film has already won over 30 other international awards including the sundance short film prize. arnold from dartford in kent described her victory as truly overwhelming. i m really not used to this kind of thing she said after receiving her oscar from actor jeremy irons. thanks to everyone who worked on this - the beers are on me when we get home. the director was one of only two british winners on the night the other being sandy powell who won the costume design oscar for her work on the aviator.

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.

msps hear renewed climate warning climate change could be completely out of control within several decades the scottish environment protection agency is warning a committee of msps. experts are giving evidence on the subject to the scottish parliament s environment committee. officials believe nuclear energy and wind farms may be better options than trying to tackle global warming. solutions suggested by conservationists include reducing internal uk air travel and boosting electric trains. the evidence is part of the committee s inquiry into the impact of climate change in scotland. sepa is attempting to curb global warming gases as pollution from transport emissions increases. ecologists are warning msps that scotland may have to accept significant intrusion from wind farms. it is likely also that nuclear power will be needed for possibly several decades. sepa predict that the two methods will remain as energy sources until climate change is under control. experts studying the seas off scotland s west coast have already forecast more devastating weather of the type which caused havoc across the country last month. they predicted that damaging storms will become more frequent. researchers from the university of the highlands and islands and southampton have been looking at wave heights in the atlantic over the last nine years. the project was conducted jointly by the environmental research institute in thurso which is part of the university of the highlands and islands (uhi) millennium institute network and the southampton oceanography centre. scientists carried out a series of studies including the use of satellites to assess wave heights in the seas around the west coast and the hebrides.

blair buys copies of new band aid prime minister tony blair purchased two copies of the charity single band aid 20 in edinburgh on friday. staff were surprised when the prime minister walked into hmv at 0900 gmt accompanied by aides and local police. when mr blair came in unannounced we were all pretty gobsmacked said hmv manager clive smith. our customer helper approached him... it was only then we realised he wanted to buy copies of the band aid single rather than the latest eminem album. predicted chart-topper do they know it s christmas is expected to sell at least 300 000 copies by the time the new chart is announced on sunday. however the new version of the 1984 single is not going to be released in the us despite being sold in many countries around the world. us record shops are stocking an import version of do they know it s christmas which is said to be selling very well in los angeles and new york. the original track was released in the us and reached number 13 in the singles chart. british stars who appear on the current recording such as dido and coldplay s chris martin are well-known to music fans across the atlantic along with u2 frontman bono. record company universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single which will be available across europe asia south america and canada. but music fans in the us are still able to access the song and download it on band aid 20 s official website. in 1985 a group of high-profile american stars known as usa for africa came together to record their own fund-raising single we are the world. the song was written by lionel richie and michael jackson with quincy jones as producer. it topped the us charts for three weeks and went on win grammy awards for best record and song. dionne warwick diana ross and tina turner were among the line-up of performers. it is predicted that the band aid 20 song will sell 300 000 copies in the uk by the time the new chart is announced on sunday. the record is also tipped to become this year s christmas number one as the original version did in 1984. proceeds from the sales are going towards relief for the darfur region of sudan and to combat hiv and aids across africa.

fbi agent colludes with analyst a former fbi agent and an internet stock picker have been found guilty of using confidential us government information to manipulate stock prices. a new york court ruled that former fbi man jeffrey royer 41 fed damaging information to anthony elgindy 36. mr elgindy then drove share prices lower by spreading negative publicity via his newsletter. the egyptian-born analyst would extort money from his targets in return for stopping the attacks prosecutors said. under the guise of protecting investors from fraud royer and elgindy used the fbi s crime-fighting tools and resources actually to defraud the public said us attorney roslynn mauskopf. mr royer was convicted of racketeering securities fraud obstruction of justice and witness tampering. mr elgindy was convicted of racketeering securities fraud and extortion. the charges carry sentences of up to 20 years. when the guilty verdict was announced by the jury foreman mr elgindy dropped his face into his hands and sobbed the associated press news agency reported. he was led weeping from the court room by us marshals ap said. defense lawyers contended that mr royer had been feeding information to mr elgindy and another trader in an attempt to expose corporate fraud. mr elgindy s team claimed that he also was fighting against corporate wrongdoing. elgindy s conviction marks the end of his public charade as a crusader against fraud in the market said ms mauskopf. one of the more bizarre aspects of the trial focused on the claims that mr elgindy may have had foreknowledge of the 11 september terrorist attacks in new york and washington. mr elgindy had been trying to sell stock prior to the attack and had predicted a slump in the market. no charges were brought in relation to these allegations.

double win for sea inside spanish movie the sea inside has been named best picture and star javier bardem best actor at the bangkok international film festival. based on the true story of a paralysed man s battle to end his life the sea inside was best foreign language film at the 2005 golden globe awards. annette bening and ana geislerova shared the best actress award at the bangkok festival. this year s event was scaled down following the asian tsunami disaster. falling down and the phantom of the opera director joel schumacher won a lifetime achievement award while hong kong director wong kar-wai was honoured for promoting asian cinema. it s a great honour i want to share this honour with my thai colleagues wong said. french writer christophe barratie and korean writer park chan-chook shared the best screenplay award for les choristes and old boy respectively. now in its third year the bangkok international film festival is donating profits from ticket sales to the tsunami relief fund.

strike threat over pension plans millions of public service workers could strike if ministers scrap their final salary pension scheme and make them work longer warn union leaders. the cabinet office has confirmed it is reviewing the current pension system prompting unions representing 4.5m workers to threaten united action. they believe the plans include raising the mandatory retirement age for public service workers from 60 to 65. the government says unions will be consulted before any changes are made. it is thought the proposed overhaul due on thursday could mean pensions could be based on a career average salary. for each year served staff currently get one eightieth of their highest salary in the final three years. ministers will be anxious to avoid mass strike action in the lead-up to the next general election which is widely expected next may. in a statement on sunday the cabinet office said it was reviewing the civil service pension scheme and hoped to announce proposals soon. unions will of course be consulted about any proposed changes. public sector pension schemes need to remain affordable and sustainable. people are living longer and pensions are getting more expensive. to maintain the long-term affordability of our pension scheme the government announced in its green paper on pensions that pension age would rise from 60 to 65. on monday tony blair s official spokesman declined to say whether the prime minister backed the plans. he said: what s important is that there s a process going on it s out for consultation at the moment let s wait for that process to complete itself. there is already widespread anger over the chancellor s plans to get rid of more than 100 000 civil servants. now public service unions are united against the plans and the trades union congress is discussing the issue next monday. dave prentis general secretary of unison said changes to pension provisions for workers in the public sector would mean they had to pay in more but would still face a raw deal. members working in the nhs or for local government have never had high pay or city bonuses but they could look forward to a decent pension - now all that is being taken away he said. what really riles me is the breathtaking hypocrisy of mps who recently voted themselves the best pension scheme in europe but say they can t afford it for anyone else. this is a position that unison cannot accept and will oppose. it will lead to conflict between unison and the government if not this year then next. mr prentis said workers did not want to go on strike and called for talks between unions and the highest level of government. mark serwotka from the public and commercial services union said there should be a co-ordinated one day strike unless there was a government rethink. the fire brigades union said the government was planning to cut ill health retirement benefits for firefighters and other measures to chip away at pensions. pensions officer paul woolstenholmes said: the pensions of millions of public sector workers are under threat - apart from mps and judges who have the most generous pensions arrangements in the country.

parties warned over grey vote political parties cannot afford to take older uk voters for granted in the coming election says age concern. a survey for the charity suggests 69% of over-55s say they always vote in a general election compared with just 17% of 18 to 24 year olds. charity boss gordon lishman said if a decisive blow was struck at the election it would be by older voters who could be relied on to turn out. a total of 3 028 adults aged 18 or over were interviewed for the study. mr lishman urged the next government to boost state pension. he also called for measures to combat ageism and build effective public services to support us all in an ageing society . older people want to see manifesto commitments that will make a difference to their lives mr lishman said. political parties must wake up to the fact that unless they address the demands and concerns of older people they will not keep or attract their vote. in the survey carried out by icm research 14% of people aged between 18 and 34 said they never voted in general elections. among the over-65s 70% said they would be certain to vote in an immediate election compared with 39% of people under 55. age concern says the over-55s are united around key areas of policy they want the government to focus on. for 57% pensions and the nhs were key issues while the economy was important for a third and tax was a crucial area for 25%. the report was welcomed by conservative shadow pensions secretary david willetts. the pensioners voice must certainly be heard in the next election as they have never fitted into blair s cool britannia he said. labour s continued refusal to admit the true extent of the pensions crisis will be one of the monumental failures of this government. he pointed to tory plans to increase the basic state pension to reduce means testing strengthen company pensions and encourage savings. a liberal democrat spokesman said the party took the issues raised in the report very seriously. he highlighted the party s promises to raise the basic state pension provide free long-term care for the elderly and replace council tax seen as a particular problem for pensioners on fixed incomes. labour has said it wants to use savings reforms to incapacity benefit to improve the basic state pension and has set up a review of the council tax system.

tv debate urged for party chiefs broadcasters should fix a date for a pre-election televised debate between the three main political leaders according to the hansard society. it would then be up to tony blair michael howard and charles kennedy to decide whether to take part the non-partisan charity said. chairman lord holme argued that prime ministers should not have the right of veto on a matter of public interest . the broadcasters should make the decision to go ahead he said. lord holme s proposal for a televised debate comes just four months after millions of viewers were able to watch us president george w bush slug it out verbally with his democratic challenger john kerry. he said it was a democratically dubious proposition that it was up to the incumbent prime minister to decide whether a similar event takes place here. if mr blair did not want to take part the broadcasters could go ahead with an empty chair or cancel the event and explain their reasons why lord holme said. what makes the present situation even less acceptable is that although mr howard and mr kennedy have said they would welcome a debate no-one has heard directly from the prime minister he said. it has been left to nudges and winks hints and briefings from his aides and campaign managers to imply that mr blair doesn t want one but we haven t heard from the prime minister himself. lord holme who has campaigned for televised debates at previous elections said broadcasters were more than willing to cooperate with the arrangements . opinion polls suggested that the idea had the backing of the public who like comparing the personalities and policies of the contenders in their own homes he said. lord holme argued that as part of their public service obligations broadcasters should make the decision to go ahead as soon as the election is called. an independent third-party body such as the hansard society or electoral commission could work out the ground rules so they were fair to participants and informative to the public he said. it would be up to each party leader to accept or refuse said lord holme. if the prime minister s reported position is true and he does want to take part he would then be obliged to say why publicly. the broadcasters would then have the option of cancelling the event for obvious and well-understood reasons or going ahead with an empty chair. either way would be preferable to the present hidden veto. the hansard society has long campaigned for televised debates and has published reports on the issue in 1997 and 2001. tony blair has already ruled out taking part in a televised debate during the forthcoming election campaign. last month he said: we answer this every election campaign and for the reasons i have given before the answer is no he said at his monthly news conference.

defection timed to hit tax pledge with impeccable and precisely-calculated timing tory defector robert jackson and his new labour bosses have attempted to overshadow michael howard s latest announcement on taxation and spending. with just about everyone in westminster now working towards a may general election mr howard is eager to map out some clear and distinctive policies aimed at finally shifting the tories resolutely depressing poll showings. the big idea is his £35bn savings on waste and bureaucracy which mr howard has pledged to plough back into public services and tax cuts. and it was virtually certain his pledge on tax cuts was meant to be the core message from his interview on the bbc one s breakfast with frost programme. he and his shadow chancellor oliver letwin have been edging towards an announcement on this front for some months now but without any concrete pledges. but mr howard announced that of the £35bn he has earmarked from savings £12bn will be used to plug labour s claimed financial black hole with any left over going to tax cuts in mr letwin s first budget. he would not be precise but there are already suggestions he is set to announce lifting the threshold on income tax and reforming or abolishing inheritance tax. but he did for the first time say there would be such tax cuts. at this election people will have a clear choice between mr blair who will waste more and tax more and the conservative party which will give value for money and tax less . it is the tories attempt to open that famed clear blue water between them and the labour party and return to a traditional tory agenda that will both reassure the middle england voters who have abandoned him and appeal to core conservative voters. so it is a pretty safe bet to assume that when robert jackson finally decided to jump ship and swim over to the labour benches his new masters decided to time the announcement for the greatest possible impact. mr howard however was dismissive. these things happen from time to time. there are disagreements between robert jackson and me. the election is not going to be decided on what robert jackson did he added. and that is certainly true. the election will be decided on the economy stupid . other issues like the iraq war and the trust thing will also play a major part. but it is the economy that will probably be the greatest influence over the way people finally vote. and many on the tory benches have been crying out for mr howard to get back onto the old tory tax cuts agenda. mr howard knows that risks accusations that as a result he would slash public services so he has attempted to shoot that fox first. with polls suggesting voters would rather any government cash surpluses were spent on schools and hospitals before tax cuts he has suggested that is exactly what he will do. whether this will finally be enough to shift those polls remains to be seen.

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.

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

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.

business fears over sluggish eu economy as european leaders gather in rome on friday to sign the new eu constitution many companies will be focusing on matters much closer to home - namely how to stay in business. lille is a popular tourist destination for britons who want a taste of france at the weekend. but how many tourists look at the impressively grand victorian chambre de commerce which stands beside the opera house and consider that it was built - like the town halls in many northern english towns - on the wealth created by coal steel and textiles like northern england and industrial scotland those industries have been in long term decline - the last coal pit closed in 1990. beck-crespel is a specialist steel firm in armentieres about 20 miles from lille. the company has not laid off a worker since 1945. it specialises in making bolts and fixings for power stations and the oil industry but not many of those are being built in europe these days. director hugues charbonnier says he is under pressure because factories in the far east are able to make some of his output more cheaply while his key markets are now in china and india. in our business the market is absolutely global you can not imagine living with our size (of business) even within an enlarged european union (if we did that) we would need not 350 people but perhaps just 150 or 200 he says. it isn t just globalisation that is hurting; the law in france means workers are paid for a 39 hour week even though they work just 35 hours. but at least there is still a steel industry. coal has now totally vanished and textiles are struggling. new business has been attracted but not enough to make up the difference. that is one reason why people here are not great fans of the eu says frederic sawicki a politics lecturer at the university of lille. in the region today the unemployment rate is 12% in some areas it is 15%. they don t see what europe is doing for them so there is a kind of euro scepticism especially in the working classes he says. which is strange because lille is at the crossroads of europe - if anywhere should be benefiting from the euro it is here. the euro was designed to increase trade within the eurozone but the biggest increase in trade has been with the rest of the world. much of that trade passes through the world s largest port rotterdam in holland home to specialist crane maker huisman itrec. its cranes help build oil rigs and lifted the sunken russian submarine kursk from the sea bed but huisman itrec is now setting up a factory in china where costs are cheaper and its main customers are closer. boss henk addink blames the low growth rate in europe for the lack of orders closer to home. in the us growth is something like 6% in china they are estimating 15% and in the eu it is more or less 1% he says. mr addink blames the euro for stifling demand. he much preferred the old currencies of europe which moved in relation to each country s economic performance. in germany industry is exporting more these days but the economy as a whole is once again mired in slow growth and high unemployment. growth is likely to peak this year at just under 2%. in britain that would be a bad year; in germany it is one of the best in recent years. with germany making up a third of the eurozone s economy this is a major problem. if germany doesn t once again become the powerhouse of europe growth across the bloc is never going to be as strong as it could be. however at one factory near the dutch border things are changing. the siemens plant at boscholt makes cordless phones and employs 2 000 staff. staff have started working an extra four hours a week for no extra pay after siemens threatened to take the factory and their jobs to hungary. factory manager herbert stueker says that he now hopes to increase productivity by nearly 30% . but germany needs much more reform if all its industry is to compete with places such hungary or china. the government is reforming the labour market and cutting the generous unemployment system but the real solution is to cut the wages of low skilled workers says helmut schneider director of the institute for the study of labour at bonn university. labour is too costly in germany especially for the low skilled labour and this is the main problem. if we could solve that problem we could cut unemployment by half he says. the eu set itself the target of being the most efficient economy in the world by 2010. four years into that process and the target seems further away than ever.

microsoft takes on desktop search microsoft has entered the desktop search fray releasing a test version of its tool to find documents e-mails and other files on a pc hard drive. the beta program only works on pcs running windows xp or windows 2000. the desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded with firms touting programs that help people find files. search giant google launched its desktop search tool in october while yahoo is planning to release similar software in january. our ambition for search is to provide the ultimate information tool that can find anything you re looking for said yusuf mehdi corporate vice president at microsoft s msn internet division. microsoft s program can be used as a toolbar on the windows desktop the internet explorer browser and within the outlook e-mail program. the software giant is coming late to the desktop search arena competing with a large number of rivals. google has already released a desktop tool. yahoo is planning to get into the game in january and aol is expected to offer desktop searching early next year. small firms such as blinkx copernic enfish x1 technologies and x-friend offer tools that catalogue the huge amounts of information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home computer. apple will release a similar search system for its computers called spotlight that is due to be released with the tiger operating system.

us actor found with gun residue actor robert blake had gunshot residue on his hands and clothes the night his wife was shot dead a court has heard. but it may not have come from the shot that killed bonny lee bakley in 2001 mr blake s murder trial was told by criminalist steven dowell. mr dowell told a los angeles court the residue may have come from mr blake s revolver his gun collection his presence at the crime scene or police. the 71-year-old former star of us tv drama baretta has denied murder. mr blake said he found ms bakley 44 dead in a car after they left a restaurant. he said he briefly returned to the restaurant to collect a gun he had left behind and discovered her body when he returned. the gun he collected was not the murder weapon. it could also have been picked up if he touched or leant on the car when he found the body or from a police box in which his clothes were later stored. the box had come from an area where officers went after being on the firing range. but mr dowell also said the residue would have been present if mr blake fired a gun that night. witnesses have already told the trial mr blake stood out as being quite nervous and agitated at the restaurant before the murder. the actor who won an emmy for playing a maverick detective in the 1970s tv cop drama baretta could face life in prison if convicted.

hearts of oak 3-2 cotonsport hearts of oak set up an all ghanaian confederation cup final with a 3-2 win over cameroon s cotonsport garoua in accra on sunday. the win for hearts means they will play asante kotoko in the two-leg final after the kumasi team qualified from group a on saturday. in the other group b game cameroon s beat of south africa 3-2 in douala neither side could have qualified for the final. hearts of oak started the game needing a win to qualify for the final while cotonsport only needed to avoid defeat to go through. louis agyemang scored the first two goals for hearts either side of half time before ben don bortey scored the third. hearts looked set for a comfortable win but cotonsport staged a late fight back scoring twice late on. first of all boukar makaji scored in the 89th minute and then 3 minutes into injury time at the end of the game andre nzame iii was on target. but it was too little too late for the cameroonians and hearts held on to win the game and a place in the final. the first leg of the final will be played in accra on the weekend of 27-28 november and the second leg two weeks later on the 11 december in kumasi. in the other group b game cameroon s sable batie took the lead in the 35th minute through kemadjou before santos equalised on the hour mark thanks to thokozani xaba . bernard ngom put sable ahead just five minutes later and then ernest nfor settled the game on 68 minutes. ruben cloete scored the south african sides consolation with just three minutes left on the clock.

highbury tunnel players in clear the football association has said it will not be bringing charges over the tunnel incident prior to the arsenal and manchester united game. arsenal s patrick vieira had earlier denied accusations that he threatened gary neville before the 4-2 defeat. vieira also clashed with opposing skipper roy keane and referee graham poll had to separate them. the referee has confirmed that he is satisfied he dealt with the incident at the time said an fa statement. it means united s win will pass off without further intervention from the governing body whose new chief executive brian barwick was in the highbury stands. i didn t threaten anybody. they are big enough players to handle themselves said vieira. i had a talk with roy keane and that s it. gary neville is a big lad he can handle himself. they just played better than us and deserved to win. neville admitted there had been incidents before the game but insisted it had not distracted his focus. there were a couple of things that did happen before the game which disappoint you he said. especially from players of that calibre but it s a tough game and we ve been around a long time. neville admitted that he had not enjoyed the match which was punctuated by fouls and the sending off of mikael silvestre for head-butting freddie ljungberg . i thought it was a horrible game in the first half and it was not much better in the second he said. there is no way that should have happened in a football match. after the match keane accused vieira of starting the row. patrick vieira is 6ft 4in and having a go at gary neville. so i said have a go at me he said. if he wants to intimidate our players and thinks that gary neville is an easy target i m not having it. manchester united manager sir alex ferguson added: vieira was well wound up for it. i ve heard different stories. patrick vieira has apparently threatened some of our players and things like that.

manchester wins labour conference the labour party will hold its 2006 autumn conference in manchester and not blackpool it has been confirmed. the much trailed decision was ratified by labour s ruling national executive committee in a break with the traditional choice of a seaside venue. it will be the first time since 1917 that the party has chosen manchester to host the annual event. blackpool will get the much smaller february spring conference instead in what will be seen as a placatory move. for years the main political parties have rotated between blackpool bournemouth and brighton. and the news the much larger annual conference is not to gather in blackpool will be seen as a blow in the coastal resort. in 1998 the party said it would not return to blackpool but did so in 2002. the following year bournemouth hosted the event before the party signed a two year deal for brighton to host the autumn conference. colin asplin blackpool hotel association said: we have tried very hard to make sure they come back to blackpool. obviously we have failed in that. i just hope manchester can handle the crowds. it amazes me that the labour party which is a working class party doesn t want to come to the main working class resort in the country. the exact cost to blackpool in terms of lost revenue for hotel accommodation is not yet known but it is thought that block bookings will be taken at the major manchester hotels after the official announcement.

tech helps disabled speed demons an organisation has been launched to encourage disabled people to get involved in all aspects of motorsport which is now increasingly possible thanks to technological innovations. the motorsport endeavour club left the starting grid yesterday at the autosport international 2005 show at birmingham s nec with several technologies to adapt vehicles on display. motorcycle racer roy tansley from derby developed his electronic sequential gear changer following an accident which resulted in part of his left leg being amputated. i needed to find a way of changing gear and generally you do that with your left leg mr tansley told the bbc news website. in simple terms i needed to invent a left foot - initially it was quite a heath robinson device. mr tansley had to argue his case to be allowed to continue competing with motorcycle racing s governing body the autocycle union. at that time they wouldn t let any amputee race at all but eventually they told me i could have a licence as long as i raced sidecars. mr tansley s invention the pro-shift is designed to work with hewland gearboxes which are widely used in motorcycle racing. in addition to helping disabled riders to compete mr tansley reckons that the pro-shift saves at least 20 seconds per lap when he competes in the isle of man tt. as a result there has been considerable interest in the product from other riders keen to improve their performance. i m not prejudiced i ll sell to able-bodied people if i have to! he joked. another exhibit on the motorsport endeavour stand is a subaru impreza rally car adapted to accommodate a variety of disabilities. the vehicle belongs to pararallying the world s only rally school for disabled drivers which is based in lincolnshire. we use the latest technology supplied by an italian company said rally driver dave hawkins who runs the company. the cars have electronic throttles electronic brakes electronic clutches - we ve yet to turn anybody away. mr hawkins - a paraplegic himself - says his customers have included right or left arm amputees quadriplegics people who have had strokes and a woman who had had all four limbs amputated. pararallying uses a vauxhall astra gsi with an automatic gearbox and manual subaru imprezas. the car on display is fitted with a duck clutch - a switch on the gear stick used instead of the clutch pedal. it also has a second ring behind the steering wheel to operate the throttle and a hand operated brake bar. when joy rainey started competing in motorsport in 1974 she was continuing the family tradition - her father murray is a former australian formula 3 champion. and it was rainey senior who modified a sports racer to accommodate his daughter s small stature so that she could take part in hill climbs. she uses an ordinary road car by putting extensions on the pedals a cushion behind her back and raising the seat. but in a competition car you have to have everything right or you ll lose the balance of the car she said. i bring everything back to me - steering wheel steering column gear lever and pedals. when she recently took part in the london to sydney marathon she shared the driving with her partner trevor who now does the engineering work. he designed a system for their morris minor so that the adaptations could be totally removed in under a minute. the motorsport endeavour club is hoping that putting such technologies on display will result in more disabled people becoming involved in all areas of the sport and at every level.

us crude prices surge above $53 us crude prices have soared to fresh four-month highs above $53 in the us as refinery problems propelled petrol prices to an all-time high. us light sweet crude futures jumped to $53.09 a barrel in new york before closing at $53.03. the gains tracked a surge in us gasoline futures to a record high of $1.4850 a gallon. the jump followed a fire at western refining company s refinery in texas which shut down petrol production. a spokesman for the group was unable to say when the production unit would be back up and running. this market simply wants to go up citigroup global markets analyst kyle cooper told reuters news agency. ed silliere analyst at energy merchant added: gasoline is up because of the refinery issues in texas which means there will be a scramble for product in the (us) gulf coast. elsewhere a refinery in houston was closed due to mechanical problems while on tuesday production at bp s texas city refinery was taken down for a short time. in the approach to spring the market becomes much more sensitive to problems with petrol production as dealers anticipate rising demand for fuel ahead of the holiday season. the rise in prices came despite a us government report that showed domestic supplies of fuel oil and fuel were rising. meanwhile oil production cartel opec s recent announcement that it was now unlikely to cut production levels has also failed to calm fears on the market. oil prices are roughly 45% higher than a year ago and have risen sharply in recent weeks due to a combination of colder weather the declining value of the dollar and fears that opec could rein in production to head off a seasonal drop in demand. instability in iraq and underlying fears about terrorism have also played a part in the rally.

labour accused of broken pledge labour has already broken its pre-election promise on immigration before the ink has dried on its new pledge card the tories have claimed. home secretary charles clarke has been quoted as telling labour members he wants more migrants to come to the uk. tory co-chairman liam fox said the comments were at odds with tony blair s prediction of a net cut in immigration. but mr clarke accused him of trying to score cheap political points by muddling immigration with asylum. london s evening standard quoted mr clarke telling labour activists at a question and answer session in gateshead that he wanted britain to offer refuge for those fleeing tyranny. that s not only a moral duty and a legal duty but something which is part of the essence of this country he said. we want more migration more people come to study and to work. we want more people coming to look for refuge. mr blair s was asked last wednesday if the government s new immigration plans including a point system for economic migrants would reduce net migration. the prime minister told mps: the abusers will be weeded out and as a result of the end of chain migration [where families have an automatic right to settle] the numbers will probably fall. on monday dr fox told reporters: the prime minister has broken his word so many times in the past but now his promises do not even last a week. the labour party election pledges even when they are so incredibly vague do not even last four days. the tories want quotas for economic migrants and refugees and on tuesday will outline more details of their plans for health checks on migrants. mr clarke dismissed the latest tory attack. this is simply a scurrilous attempt by the tories to score cheap political points he said. the tories are purposely mixing together two separate issues of immigration and asylum. mr clarke said he had made clear the uk would welcome genuine economic migrants for key jobs on a strict points based system. and only asylum seekers genuinely fleeing death or persecution would be admitted. under our plans we expect unfounded applications to continue to fall he added. earlier dr fox accused mr blair and other cabinet ministers of telling lies about tory policies and then attacking the lies. he told bbc radio: if you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war i guess you are going to lie about anything at all. the latest pre-election spats come after mr blair told labour members the tories offered a hard right agenda which would take britain backwards. lib dem leader charles kennedy accelerating lib dem election preparations this week as he visits manchester liverpool leicester somerset basingstoke shrewsbury dorset and torbay.

what really divides the parties so what is the gap between labour and the tories nowadays one starbucks one rymans and one small greek cafe as it happens. both parties have now completed their moves to new headquarters with labour creating its election hub just three doors away from the tories new headquarters in victoria street just down the road from the commons. that should make things a little easier if and when the crack-of-dawn election press conferences kick off. unlike 2001 there should be no need for colleagues to have taxis gunning their engines outside or to buy scooters to get themselves between the tightly-timetabled events. and to all intents and purposes we already appear to be in that general election campaign. certainly the press conference hosted by election co-ordinator alan milburn in the rather compact new conference room - still smelling of new carpet and with the garish new labour coffee mugs as yet unstained - had all the hallmarks of an election event. welcome to the unremittingly new labour media centre he said. and i ll bet he hadn t checked that one with gordon brown. along with work and pensions secretary alan johnson and minister for work jane kennedy he then went on to tear into the tory plans to scrap the new deal welfare-to-work scheme which they claimed would lead to an increase of almost 300 000 in unemployment. and they ridiculed the claims made on monday by michael howard that he could save £35 billion of labour waste and inefficiency to spend on public services while also offering £4 billion of tax cuts. labour has come up with a figure of £22 billions worth of efficiency savings so understandably perhaps believe mr howard must be planning cuts to squeeze the extra £13 billion. these figures based on the two parties own detailed studies will be battered to within an inch of their lives during the campaign. wednesday was just the start.

straw praises kashmir moves the uk has welcomed the decision by india and pakistan to open a bus link across the ceasefire line dividing the disputed region of kashmir. foreign secretary jack straw touring south east asian countries praised the spirit of cooperation in achieving the breakthrough. media reports in both countries describe the deal as a major step in the ongoing peace process. mr straw said he hoped the agreement would make a difference to kashmiris. the bus service was one of several announcements made after a meeting of foreign ministers of both countries in islamabad on wednesday. kashmiri politicians on both sides of the line of control which divides the region welcomed the move. in a statement mr straw said the bus service between srinagar and muzaffarabad will be able to reunite families that have been divided for decades . this will make a real difference to the lives of kashmiris on both sides of the line of control he said. i warmly applaud the efforts of both india and pakistan to make this happen. this spirit of cooperation will i hope lead to many more measures that will benefit all in the region. on thursday mr straw was in india visiting sikhism s holiest shrine the golden temple in amritsar where he tried his hand at making indian bread or roti. he is due to take part in talks with the indian government on friday. a second bus service linking the pakistani city of lahore with amritsar in india was also announced as well as a rail link between rajasthan state and pakistan s sindh province. both sides agreed to begin talks on reducing the risk of nuclear accidents and also said they planned to reopen their respective consulates in karachi and mumbai (bombay). the mountainous region of kashmir has been a flashpoint between the two nuclear powers for more than 50 years.

jones files lawsuit against conte marion jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against balco boss victor conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs. the sydney olympic gold medallist says conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. conte whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation made the claims in a us television programme. he and three others were indicted in february by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. in an email to the associated press on wednesday conte said: i stand by everything i said . jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in sydney in 2000. her lawsuit filed in the us district court in san francisco said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs . conte s statements the suit added were false and malicious . after the abc television program earlier this month jones lawyer richard nicholls said: marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never ever used performance-enhancing drugs. victor conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment while marion jones is one of america s most decorated female athletes. mr conte s statements have been wildly contradictory. mr conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television while marion jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination. mr conte is simply not credible. we challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that marion jones passed. the sport s ruling body the iaaf is taking a cautious approach to conte s allegations but contacted the us anti-doping agency. communications director nick davies said the iaaf would seek to contact conte for further information . but davies stressed it would be up to the american authorities to decide whether they will take action against jones in light of conte s television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. if it is felt there is case to answer it would be for its national governing body (usa track and field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action he added. the us anti-doping agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. and i am sure like ourselves they will be watching the television programme with great interest. jones who is under investigation for steroid use by the us anti-doping agency has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the balco scandal although she praised a zinc supplement conte marketed. jones who did not win any medals in athens in august has never failed a drugs test. meanwhile conte who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering is due to face trial in march.

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.

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.

german jobless rate at new record more than 5.2 million germans were out of work in february new figures show. the figure of 5.216 million people or 12.6% of the working-age population is the highest jobless rate in europe s biggest economy since the 1930s. the news comes as the head of germany s panel of government economic advisers predicted growth would again stagnate. speaking on german tv bert ruerup said the panel s earlier forecast of 1.4% was too optimistic and warned growth would be just 1% in 2005. the german government is trying to tackle the stubbornly-high levels of joblessness with a range of labour market reforms. at their centre is the hartz-iv programme introduced in january to shake up welfare benefits and push people back into work - even if some of the jobs are heavily subsidised. the latest unemployment figures look set to increase the pressure on the government. widely leaked to the german newspapers a day in advance they produced screaming headlines criticising chancellor gerhard schroeder s social democrat-green party administration. mr schroeder had originally come into office promising to halve unemployment. still some measures suggest the picture is not quite so bleak. the soaring official unemployment figure follows a change in the methodology which pushed up the jobless rate by more than 500 000 in january. adjusted for seasonal changes the overall unemployment rate is 4.875 million people or 11.7% up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. using the most internationally-accepted methodology of the international labour organisation (ilo) germany had 3.97 million people out of work in january. and ilo-based figures also suggest that 14 000 new net jobs were created that month taking the number of people employed to 38.9 million. the ilo defines an unemployed person as someone who in the previous four weeks had actively looked for work they could take up immediately.

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%.

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.

oscar nominees lack pulling power this year s clutch of oscar nominees have been the least popular for 20 years according to box office figures. in the us the five nominated for best film have been seen by 50% fewer people than movies in previous years. while the awards are not based on box office popularity there is concern for the ratings of the televised ceremony. we don t have a titanic or a lord of the rings out there. i think it s fair to say it does concern us a bit said academy executive director bruce davis. about 51 million people in the us have seen this year s nominees compared with between 100 million and 118 million in recent years. the last time combined attendance was so low was in 1984 when amadeus beat the killing fields a passage to india places in the heart and a soldier s story to best picture when 41 million saw the five films. last year s ceremony attracted the highest audience in four years as viewers tuned in to see lord of the ring: return of the king sweep the board. and the show reaped its biggest audience in 1997 when titanic took home 11 oscars. the film had taken $500m (£264m) worldwide before the ceremony and eventually took $1.8bn (£952m). eyeballs starring at the movie screen translates to eyeballs staring at the tv screen said paul dergarabedian of box office tracker exhibitor relations. people like to have a vested interest in what they re watching. when titanic does $1.8bn in worldwide box office you ve got a lot of people with a vested interest. past years have also seen blockbusters such as saving private ryan forrest gump and ghost compete for oscars. the biggest box office hitter among this year s nominees is the aviator which has taken $90m (£48m) in the us although takings in the uk have reached only £7m so far. low-budget move sideways and finding neverland have so far grossed about $45m (£24m) each. the year s biggest blockbusters do actually feature in the oscar nominees but in the animation category. shrek 2 and the incredibles took $436m (£231m) while the incredibles took $259m (£137m). mel gibson s the passion of the christ which took $370m (£196m) in the us was largely ignored by academy voters. but many in the film industry do not equate award and box office success. i have never equated the academy awards with how much money a movie takes in said nikki rocco head of distribution at universal which released nominee ray. that s the people s choice awards. this is not about the public. this is about the industry bestowing awards on what they think are the best films of the year.

mp attacked by muggers in kenya an mp has had more than £600 and his passport stolen after being mugged by six men in a park in kenya. quentin davies the mp for grantham and stamford was attacked in a notoriously dangerous park in the capital nairobi. he was not hurt in the mugging on saturday evening. several people are being questioned over the attack. he was in kenya before travelling to sudan with the parliamentary committee. local police were said to be surprised he was in the area. mr davies 60 said the mugging occurred 100 yards from the nairobi serena hotel and equally close to the anglican cathedral in the centre of the city at dusk. he said in a statement: it was a frightening experience. six men managed to steal up on me and grab me from behind. i knew i had to stay very calm and passive - you cannot fight six men . he had to spend an extra 24 hours in nairobi before rejoining the rest of the house of commons international development committee in dafur after the mugging. naturally i was afraid they would use a knife or gun though they never produced any weapon he said. two of them held me from behind and two others held my legs and another one expertly rifled all my pockets.

radcliffe enjoys winning comeback paula radcliffe made a triumphant return to competitive running with victory in the new york marathon. the briton running for the first time since dropping out of the olympic marathon and 10 000m held off kenyan susan chepkemei in a thrilling finish. the pair were locked together for the last few miles before radcliffe finally sprinted clear to win in two hours 23 minutes and 10 seconds. it s a good way to end the year she said. i m ready for a good rest now. radcliffe decided only recently to run in the race and many had doubted whether she had sufficiently recovered from her olympic ordeal just 11 weeks ago. but the world record-holder was prominent at the head of the field for the whole race as her rivals slowly dropped off the pace. just chepkemei and radcliffe were left in contention as the race came into the final few miles. the kenyan put in several bursts of speed to throw off radcliffe but the briton managed to hang in. both runners looked to be suffering as they reached the final mile in central park. but it was radcliffe who managed to dredge up a final sprint to see off chepkemei in the closest finish in the race s history and in the process make a huge step in erasing the disappointment she suffered in athens.

us peer-to-peer pirates convicted the first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the us. new yorker william trowbridge and texan michael chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music movies and software. the two men faced charges following raids in august on suspected pirates by the fbi. the pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250 000 (£130 000) fine. in a statement the us department of justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the direct connect peer-to-peer network. the piracy group called itself the underground network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. direct connect allows users to set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers. users would swap files such as films and music by exchanging data over the network. during its investigation fbi agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies 40 software programs 13 games and 178 sound recordings from the five hubs that made up the larger piracy group. the raids were organised under the umbrella of operation digital gridlock which was aimed at fighting criminal copyright theft on peer-to-peer networks . in total six raids were carried out in august. five were on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. the department of justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. they also pleaded guilty to acting for commercial advantage. the two men are due to be sentenced on 29 april.

xbox 2 may be unveiled in summer details of the next generation of microsoft s xbox games console - codenamed xenon - will most likely be unveiled in may according to reports. it was widely expected that gamers would get a sneak preview of xbox s successor at the game developers conference (gdc) in march. but a microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that it would not be at gdc. sony microsoft and nintendo are all expected to release their more powerful machines in the next 18 months. the next xbox console is expected to go on sale at the end of the year but very few details about it have been released. it is thought that the machine may be unveiled at the electronic entertainment expo (e3) in los angeles which takes place in may according to a reuters news agency report. e3 concentrates on showing off the latest in gaming to publishers marketers and retailers. the gdc is aimed more at game developers. microsoft chief bill gates used the gdc event to unveil the original xbox five years ago. since its launch microsoft has sold 19.9 million units worldwide. at the consumer electronics show earlier this year there was very little mention of the next generation gaming machine. in his keynote speech mr gates only referred to it as playing an essential part of his vision of the digital lifestyle. but the battle between the rival consoles to win gamers hearts and thumbs will be extremely hard-fought. sony has traditionally dominated the console market with its playstation 2. but earlier this year microsoft said it had reached a european milestone selling five million consoles since its european launch in march 2002. hit games like halo 2 which was released in november helped to buoy the sales figures. gamers are looking forward to the next generation of machines because they will have much more processing and graphical power. they are also likely to pack in more features and technologies that make them more central as entertainment and communications hubs. although details of playstation 3 xenon and nintendo s so-called revolution are yet to be finalised developers are already working on titles. rory armes studio general manager for games giant electronic arts (ea) in europe recently told the bbc news website in an interview that ea was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. microsoft had delivered development kits to ea but he said the company was still waiting on sony and nintendo s kits. but he added the playstation 3 was rumoured to have a little more under the hood [than xbox 2] .

tory leader urges harry apology prince harry should personally make clear how sorry he is about wearing a nazi uniform to a friend s fancy dress party says tory leader michael howard. mr howard whose grandmother died in auschwitz said many people would be offended by the prince s actions clarence house has issued a statement saying the prince has apologised and realised it had been a poor costume. number 10 said an error was made but now harry had apologised the matter should be left to the palace. that was a message repeated by home secretary charles clarke who said the matter should now be left to lie. but lib dem leader charles kennedy said harry was in a privileged position and said he should apologise in person. there is a reservoir of goodwill for prince harry and prince william with him in this country but i think he needs to remember that it can t last forever. he added that sandhurst would probably be good for harry as it would teach him some self discipline. former labour mp lord janner who is a high profile member of britain s jewish community branded harry s action s stupid and evil . he told itv: the time has come for him to make a public apology. it is about common decency of respect to the people who fought the nazis to the families of those who were killed by the nazis and to people who suffered during the holocaust. he added: i would send him in the army as fast as possible. i hope that would teach him not to behave like that. a photograph of prince harry wearing a swastika armband and german desert uniform at the party appears in thursday s sun newspaper under the headline: harry the nazi. mr howard acknowledged the prince s apology and said he had no doubt the prince s father and family would have much to say to him privately about the incident. but he told bbc radio 4 s today programme: it might be appropriate to tell us himself just how contrite he is. mr howard declined to say what form the statement should take. but former buckingham palace press spokesman dicky arbiter said the prince should make a personal broadcast apology. mr clarke said he recognised people s concerns about the costume but argued: he has apologised and i think we should leave the matter there.

krispy kreme shares hit shares in krispy kreme doughnuts have taken a dunking on wall street after the firm revealed it would have to restate its 2004 financial reports. the company warned the move would cut its profits by $3.8m to $4.9m (£2m to £2.6m) - or between 6.6% and 8.6%. krispy kreme said accounting errors had forced the move adding that its board of directors made the decision to restate its accounts on 28 december. however the company was unavailable to comment on why it had delayed the news. it also warned it might have to further restate results for 2004 and 2005. shares in krispy kreme sank 14.87% - or $1.83 - to close at $10.48 on the news. the revelation comes just a month after the firm warned earnings would be cut by as much as 7.6% as a result of accounting errors. krispy kreme said the latest adjustments involved the way it accounted for the repurchase of three franchise restaurants. it added it would now be reviewing how it accounts for its leases. in a further blow the firm said it had been advised that some of its franchise owners were not in compliance with their loan agreements and warned it might need to borrow extra money if it was required to honour agreements on franchisee debts or operating leases. krispy kreme added that it had enough cash to fund its current operations but it could not borrow any more under its existing agreements. there are many more questions than answers especially given increased concerns regarding company liquidity jp morgan securities analyst john ivankoe said in a research note on the firm. the announcement is the latest blow for the one-time darling of wall street which has lost 80% of its stock value in just over a year. the firm is currently facing securities and exchange commission investigation of its accounts. shareholders have also launched lawsuits against the group claiming it made false statements and inflated sales.

edwards tips idowu for euro gold world outdoor triple jump record holder and bbc pundit jonathan edwards believes phillips idowu can take gold at the european indoor championships. idowu landed 17.30m at the british trials in sheffield last month to lead the world triple jump rankings. it s all down to him but if he jumps as well as he did in sheffield he could win the gold medal said edwards. his ability is undoubted but all his best performances seem to happen in domestic meetings. idowu made his breakthrough five years ago but so far has only a commonwealth silver medal to his name. edwards himself kept idowu off top spot at the manchester games. but he believes the european indoors in madrid represent a chance for the 26-year-old to prove his credentials as britain s top triple jumper. he has to start producing at international level and here is the beginning said edwards. phillips still needs to be much more consistent. i m sure a victory in madrid will build up his confidence and self-belief that he can be best in the world. the qualifying round of the men s triple jump in madrid takes place on friday with the final scheduled for saturday. olympic champion christian olsson will not be taking part as he is out for the entire indoor season with an ankle injury.

redknapp s saints face pompey tie new southampton manager harry redknapp faces an immediate reunion with his old club portsmouth after they were drawn together in the fa cup fourth round. exeter city face a home tie against middlesbrough if they can see off holders manchester united in a replay. oldham s reward for beating manchester city is a home tie with bolton while yeovil will be away to charlton. chelsea host birmingham tottenham travel to west brom and arsenal will entertain championship side wolves. saints boss redknapp was upbeat about the draw despite having to face the club he walked out on just six weeks ago. i ve said before i can walk away from portsmouth with my head held high i m proud of what i did there and no one can take that away from me said redknapp. maybe i ll be in for some stick there s always some of that but we ll get on with it and it s only a game of football. birmingham manager steve bruce admitted their trip to stamford bridge to face premiership leaders chelsea was the toughest draw possible. bruce said: i m still in shock. we ve given good accounts of ourselves against chelsea in the past and played well when we lost 1-0 at home at the start of the season - but that s the past. but it s the best competition in the world as far as i am concerned and we will give it our best shot. brentford boss martin allen remained cautious despite his side s favourable draw - a home tie with either hartlepool or boston. the best thing is it s a home game. however we know that whoever we play it is going to be a really tough game said allen. but it s not about the opposition it s about us. we all want to get through to the next round and face a massive team that s the way it is. meanwhile the bbc has confirmed it will be televising exeter s replay with man utd live on wednesday 19 january from 1930 on bbc one. derby v watford or fulham man utd or exeter v middlesbrough cardiff or blackburn v colchester chelsea v birmingham west ham v sheff utd oldham v bolton arsenal v wolverhampton everton v sunderland nottm forest v peterborough brentford v hartlepool or boston reading or swansea v leicester or blackpool burnley or liverpool v bournemouth southampton v portsmouth west brom v tottenham newcastle v coventry charlton v yeovil

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.

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.

finding new homes for old phones re-using old mobile phones is not just good for the environment it has social benefits too. research has found that in some developing nations old mobile phones can help close the digital divide. the forum for the future research found that the low cost of these recycled handsets means they can have a very useful second life in poorer nations. but the forum found that more needed to be done to collect old phones rather than let them rot in landfill sites. the report reveals that approximately 15 million mobile phones go out of use every year in the uk. of the 15 million that are swapped for newer models each year only 25% get returned to mobile phone firms for recycling or re-use. the slowly growing mass of unrecycled discarded phones has now reached 90 million handsets the equivalent of 9 000 tonnes of waste estimates james goodman report author and a senior adviser at the forum for the future. it s quite common for people to have two or three phones just lying around said mr goodman. many of these older phones could end up in landfill sites leaking the potentially toxic materials they are made of into the wider world said mr goodman. far better he said to hand the phone back to an operator who can send it overseas where it can enjoy a second lease of life. we ve heard the environmental argument for handing a phone back said mr goodman but there s a strong social argument too. older mobile phones are proving particularly useful in poorer nations where people want to use a mobile and keep in touch with friends and family but do not have the income to buy the most up to date model. the forum for the future report took an in-depth look at romania where reconditioned mobile phones were proving very popular. it s an interesting country because it has a really crap fixed line network said mr goodman and there s a real desire for people to get mobile phones. but the relatively low wages in romania which is one of the poorest countries in europe mean few people can afford a shiny new phone. the affordability of the handsets is a real barrier to getting one he said. reconditioned handsets have boosted take-up of mobiles as the report revealed that almost one-third of romanian pre-pay mobile phone users were using reconditioned handsets. the re-used handsets tend to be about one-third of the price of a new handset. georgeta minciu a romanian part-time cleaner said: normally a mobile phone would not be possible on my wages. i am a single parent - keeping in touch with my daughter is important to me. this is the only way i can afford to have a phone she said. mr goodman said phone operators and consumers needed to do more to ensure that more of britain s mobile mountain made it overseas. but he added those keen to use a mobile will not accept any old handset. if its more than a few years old people are not going to want it he said.

house prices show slight increase prices of homes in the uk rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in february says the nationwide building society. the figure means the annual rate of increase in the uk is down to 10.2% the lowest rate since june 2001. the annual rate has halved since august last year as interest rises have cooled the housing market. at the same time the number of mortgage approvals fell in january to a near 10-year low official bank of england figures have shown. nationwide said that in january house prices went up by 0.4% on the month and by 12.6% on a year earlier. we are not seeing the market collapsing in the way some had feared said nationwide economist alex bannister. there have been a number of warnings that the uk housing market may be heading for a downturn after four years of strong growth to 2004. in november barclays which owns former building society the woolwich forecast an 8% fall in property prices in 2005 followed by further declines in 2006 and 2007. and last summer economists at pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc) warned house prices were overvalued and could fall by between 10% and 15% by 2009. the price of an average uk property now stands at £152 879. homeowners now expect house prices to rise by 1% over the next six months mr bannister said. he said if the growth continued at this level then the bank of england may increase interest rates from their current 4.75%. i think the key is what the bank expects to happen to the housing market. we always thought we would see a small rise they thought they would see a small decline. house prices have risen 0.9% this year nationwide said and if this pace of increase persists prices would rise by just under 6% in the year to december. this is slightly above the 0-5% range nationwide predicts. further evidence of a slowdown in the housing market emerged from bank of england lending figures released on tuesday. new mortgage loans in january fell to 79 000 from 82 000 in december the bank said. the past few months have seen approvals fall to levels last seen in 1995. the bank revealed that 48 000 fewer mortgages were approved in january than for the same month in 2004. overall mortgage lending rose by £7.2bn in january marginally up on the £7.1bn rise in december.

howard hits back at mongrel jibe michael howard has said a claim by peter hain that the tory leader is acting like an attack mongrel shows labour is rattled by the opposition. in an upbeat speech to his party s spring conference in brighton he said labour s campaigning tactics proved the tories were hitting home. mr hain made the claim about tory tactics in the anti-terror bill debate. something tells me that someone somewhere out there is just a little bit rattled mr howard said. mr hain leader of the commons told bbc radio four s today programme that mr howard s stance on the government s anti-terrorism legislation was putting the country at risk. he then accused the tory leader of behaving like an attack mongrel and playing opposition for opposition sake . mr howard told his party that labour would do anything say anything claim anything to cling on to office at all costs . so far this year they have compared me to fagin to shylock and to a flying pig. this morning peter hain even called me a mongrel. i don t know about you but something tells me that someone somewhere out there is just a little bit rattled. environment secretary margaret beckett rejected mr howard s comment telling radio 4 s pm programme that labour was not rattled . we have a very real duty to try to get people to focus on michael howard s record what the proposals are that he is trying to put forward to the country and also the many examples we are seeing now of what we believe is really poor judgement on his behalf. mr howard said tory policies on schools taxes immigration and crime were striking a chord with voters. since the beginning of this year - election year - we ve been making the political weather he told the party conference. mr howard denied he had been playing politics by raising the case of margaret dixon whose operation had been cancelled seven times which grabbed headlines for the party two weeks ago. and he hit back at labour claims he had used mrs dixon as a human shield . she s not a human shield mr blair she s a human being. mr howard said his party plans for immigration quotas which have also been the focus of much media coverage were not racist - just common sense . he pledged cleaner hospitals and better school discipline with a promise to get rid of political correctness in the national curriculum and give everyone to the same chance of a decent state education as he had. i come from an ordinary family. if the teenage michael howard were applying to cambridge today gordon brown would love me. and he stressed his party s commitment to cut taxes and red tape and increase the basic state pension in line with earnings. he finished with a personal appeal to party activists to go out and win the next election. one day you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren as i will tell mine i was there. i did my bit. i played my part. i helped to win that famous election - the election that transformed our country for the better . labour election co-ordinator alan milburn said: michael howard s speech today confirms what we have always said - that his only strategy is opportunism but he has no forward vision for the country. in reference to the appearance of mr howard s family on the conference stage with him mr milburn said: michael howard is perfectly entitled to pose with his family today. but it is the hard working families across britain that will be damaged by his plan to cut £35bn from public spending.

smith aims to bring back respect scotland manager walter smith says he wants to restore the national team s respectability in world football. smith has joined his first squad for a three-day get-together near manchester in preference to playing a friendly. while qualification for the 2006 world cup appears to be beyond scotland smith is anxious that the remainder of the campaign should be positive. i think we have got to try to get a bit of respectability back in whatever way we can he said. we will have to approach each game differently. obviously we will have to approach the italian game away from home in a different manner to moldova at home. we have to meet the challenge of each match. smith meeting a number of his squad for the first time brought them together on monday to outline his ideas for improving the nation s fortunes. he said: i pointed out how i see the international team going forward and that was the main topic. this is a relaxed gathering and i don t think there is a lot of doom and gloom about the squad that a lot of people think exists. a 25-man squad will spend the next three days based at the mottram hall hotel in cheshire and will train at manchester united s nearby carrington complex. smith will be absent for the final sessions however as he is due to fly out to sardinia on wednesday to watch italy s friendly with russia.

egypt to sell off state-owned bank the egyptian government is reportedly planning to privatise one of the country s big public banks. an investment ministry official has told the reuters news agency that the bank of alexandria will be sold sometime in 2005. the move is seen as evidence of a new commitment by the government to reduce the size of public sector. the official said the government has not yet decided whether the sale will take the form of a public flotation. the most important thing to decide now is the method - whether by selling shares to the public or to a strategic investor from abroad he said. analysts say the public-sector banks have suited the government s monetary credit and exchange policies. nevertheless the egyptian government has spoken for years about privatising one of the big four state banks - banque misr national bank of egypt banque du caire and bank of alexandria. it had been expected one of the smallest of the four big public banks - bank of alexandria or banque du caire - would be sold first. the announcement reinforces the hopes of investors and international financial bodies for a revival of egypt s privatisation programme. about 190 state-run companies and facilities were sold off from the early 1990s to 1997. the appointment of mahmoud mohieldin a reform-minded technocrat to the new post of investment minister in july was taken as a sign that more sell-offs were on the way. both the imf and world bank have urged egypt to remove obstacles to the development of the private sector which they say has a vital role to play in reducing poverty by expanding the economy.

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).

muslims discuss election concerns issues that muslims should be considering before voting in the next general election are to be debated by uk community representatives. the event is being held by the muslim association of britain (mab) which believes muslim voters could influence the result in up to 50 constituencies. last year mab which opposed the war in iraq urged muslims not to vote for labour in the european elections. but a spokesman stressed the meeting was not necessarily anti-labour . this meeting is not anti-party in particular it s anti-policy it s on the issues we are going to ask muslims to vote on mab spokesman dr azzam tamimi said of tuesday s event. there are issues of concern to muslims and muslims generally agree on them but have not in the past been aware of how a vote can serve these issues. dr tamimi said the main issues muslims should consider were what he referred to as the war on iraq the palestinian situation the erosion of civil liberties for muslims in the uk and economic social and education problems. approximately 1.1m of the uk s 1.6m muslims are of voting age. previous election research has shown the overwhelming majority have traditionally voted labour but more recent studies have suggested labour support has been falling away significantly among some muslim voters. anger over the war in iraq has appeared to be the main reason with many saying it was unjustified . representatives from a number of muslim organisations will attend tuesday s event. among them will be the muslim council of britain (mcb). the chairman of the mcb s public affairs committee sher khan said the war in iraq would be a significant factor affecting muslims voting intentions. i think it s going to be quite significant because of the number of seats in which they could have an impact mr khan said. however professor john curtice of the university of strathclyde is sceptical about how much difference tactical voting by muslims could make. for the most part the labour constituencies where there s a large muslim community are relatively safe but there are one or two that are not quite so safe professor curtice said. the constituencies where labour was most at risk from a muslim tactical vote were bethnal green in east london and rochdale in lancashire he added. in bethnal green former labour mp george galloway who founded the anti-war party respect is standing against sitting mp oona king who had a 10 000-vote majority in 2001. in rochdale the liberal democrats - the mainstream party a 2004 icm survey showed was benefiting most from muslim disaffection with labour - secured second place in the 2001 election securing just under 6 000 votes fewer than labour s lorna fitzsimons. but professor curtice said the muslim anti-war vote could be split between the liberal democrats and respect meaning neither would benefit much at the ballot box. ironically the tories might be the beneficiaries if labour does lose seats which is generally the case he said. but dr tamimi said mab s intention was not to empower the tories. we know the next government will be labour but we are aiming to send a message that it will make a difference if the muslims use their vote properly. if the next labour government has a reduced majority that s a great achievement because having a very big majority has been very harmful for politics in this country dr tamimi said.

napster offers rented music to go music downloading for those that have rejected the free peer to peer services can be a costly business. the cost of paying even as little as 70p per track can add up particularly for those people who own one of the new generation of players that can store thousands of songs. paying per track for music is becoming as outmoded as paying per minute for internet access and alternative monthly or yearly subscription models are springing up as a more convenient and ultimately cheaper way of owning music. music fans are moving away from buying the traditional bundled package of a dozen or more songs that we used to call an album to newer ways that fit their lifestyle; either single tracks or subscriptions services said paul myers chief executive of wippit a uk-based music download service. while itunes is doing good business with its sales of individual tracks to ipod owners others are questioning whether the concept of owning music is even valid in the digital age. napster is due to launch a new rental subscription service - dubbed napster to go in the uk in the next few months. the service can be used on players that support microsoft windows latest digital rights management technology known as janus. this includes players made by samsung rio and creative. currently on offer in beta-version in the us the service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads. the technology ensures that music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to the service. users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes will no longer play. this has outraged some digital music lovers especially as napster already offers a cheaper service for downloading music to the pc. napster claims the higher price is a result of record labels charging more for the to-go service and says it also offers greater value for customers. mr myers is not convinced a rental model will work for consumers. we ve been offering our unlimited music subscription service for more than three years now and our customers know what they want. format interoperability excellent value and the reassurance that music purchased from wippit is theirs to keep and enjoy on whatever device they choose he said. who wants to download a track that won t play next month if you decide to unsubscribe to the service or change portable player for an ipod or the latest mobile phone wippit offers a download subscription service for £4.99 per month or £50 per year. it has a catalogue of around 60 000 songs.

ukip candidate suspended in probe eurosceptic party ukip have suspended a candidate for allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed. john houston 54 was due to stand in the east kilbride seat in lanarkshire at the next election. but he was suspended after his reported views including the return of the british empire were sent to two scottish newspapers. ukip spokesman mark croucher said those who selected mr houston knew nothing of his views. the episode comes at a difficult time for ukip soon after the high-profile departure of mep robert kilroy-silk. mr houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be made available to law-abiding members of the community and proposed the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. the document reportedly said: we re looking for the resurrection of the british empire. the problems for the human race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale and that calls for a radical alliance of the english-speaking nations which they are uniquely able to do. mr croucher said the main issue would be that mr houston s reported views had been presented as ukip policy which they were not. he said they might have been submissions to a committee working on the party s manifesto but would not have been matched to mr houston when he was standing to become a candidate. he told bbc news: he appears to have said these things. we have suspended him as a member and as a candidate. by all accounts none of this was mentioned at his selection meeting. it is simply a distraction from the task in hand the eu constitution not individual idiocies. mr houston was quoted in the herald newspaper saying: i feel ukip have over-reacted and overshot the runway. peter nielson who is ukip scotland chairman said he had suspended mr houston on friday night. he will remain suspended while the matter is being investigated and then we will decide if and what further action will be taken. he said that any evidence would be looked into and mr houston may be interviewed by the party. he added: i can t comment too much at the moment i have one version from him but i haven t seen the papers yet.

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.

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.

buyers snap up jet airways shares investors have snapped up shares in jet airways india s biggest airline following the launch of its much anticipated initial public offer (ipo). the ipo for 17.3 million shares was fully sold within 10 minutes of opening on friday. analysts expect jet to raise at least 16.4bn rupees ($375m; £198m) from the offering. interest in jet s ipo has been fuelled by hopes for robust growth in india s air travel market. the share offer representing about 20% of jet s equity was oversubscribed news agency reuters reported. jet which was founded by london-based travel agent naresh goyal plans to use the cash to buy new planes and cut its debt. the company has grown rapidly since it launched operations in 1993 overtaking state-owned flag carrier indian airlines. however it faces stiff competition from rivals and low-cost carriers. jet s ipo is the first in a series of expected share offers from indian companies this year as they move to raise funds to help them do business in a rapidly-growing economy.

viewers to be able to shape tv imagine editing titanic down to watch just your favourite bits or cutting out the slushier moments of star wars to leave you with a bare bones action-fest. manipulating your favourite films to make a more personalised movie is just the beginning of an ambitious new 7.5m euro (£5.1m) project funded by the european union. new media for a new millennium (nm2) will have as its endgame the development of a completely new media genre which will allow audiences to create their own media worlds based on their specific interests or tastes. viewers will be able to participate in storylines manipulate plots and even the sets and props of tv shows. bt is one of 13 partners involved in the project. it will be contributing software that was originally designed to spot anomalies in cctv pictures. the software uses content recognition algorithms. the three-year project will work on seven productions as it develops a set of software tools that will allow viewers to edit content to their needs. one of the productions will be a experimental television show where the plot will be driven by text messages from the tv audience. participants will text selected words which will impact how the characters in the drama interact. it is being developed in finland and will be shown to finnish tv audiences. another team will work on the bbc s big budget drama of mervyn peake s gothic fantasy gormenghast. it will be re-engineered to allow people to choose a variety of edited versions. the bbc is allowing us access to the material so that we can prove the technology and the principles explained dr doug williams of bt who will be nm2 s technical project manager. the tv at the moment is a relatively dumb box which receives signals. this project is about teaching the machine to look at content like lego blocks that can be reassembled to make perfect sense he said. at the moment we have interactive gaming and a limited form of interactive tv which usually means allowing audiences to vote on shows. we are hoping to occupy the space in-between he added. nm2 s co-ordinator peter stollenmayer explained that the new genre would radically alter the role of the audience. viewers will be able to interact directly with the medium and influence what they see and hear according to their personal tastes and wishes he said. media users will no longer be passive viewers but become active engagers. it will also be important that the tools are sophisticated enough to obey the complex rules of cinematography and editing said john wyver from tv producer illuminations television limited which is also involved in the project. it s not just a matter of stringing together the romantic or action portions of a production said mr wyver. the tool has to know which bits fit together both visually by observing the time-honoured rules that go in editing and in terms of the story. only then will the personalised version both make sense and be aesthetically pleasing he added. mr wyver is planning a production entitled the golden age about renaissance art. it will allow viewers to create a so-called media world based on their own specific areas of interest such as poetry music and architecture. other productions that the nm2 team will make range from news documentaries to a romantic comedy drama.

preview: ireland v england (sun) lansdowne road dublin sunday 27 february 1500 gmt bbc1 radio 4 lw and this website ireland are going for their first grand slam since 1948 after two opening wins and england represent their sternest test of the championship so far. england were sloppy and leaderless in the defeats against wales and france and another loss would be unthinkable. the pressure is on coach andy robinson and his side have to deliver. despite england s dramatic dip in form since the world cup final - they have lost eight of their last 13 matches - ireland coach eddie o sullivan says his side should not underestimate the visitors. had they kicked their points they would have beaten france and that would have created a different landscape for sunday he said. this is england we are talking about. they have a depth of talent and a very good record against ireland. they will target a victory in dublin as the turning point in their six nations. the differences between the sides is also highlighted in the team selections for the dublin encounter. ireland despite having gordon d arcy still out injured have been boosted by the return of star skipper brian o driscoll who missed the scotland game with a hamstring injury. the knowledge that the england game was coming up really helped during rehabilitation he said. the will to play in this game was enormous. it doesn t get much bigger than england at home. as well as entering the tournament without players like jonny wilkinson mike tindall and richard hill england have now lost two tighthead props in julian white and phil vickery while blind-side flanker lewis moody is a major concern. robinson who received a lot of flak for the inclusion and then dropping of centre mathew tait has kept faith with kicking fly-half charlie hodgson despite his horror show at twickenham. if england slump in dublin it will be their worst run of results in the championship since 1987. but robinson was bullish during the week about the game saying that his side are going there to get in their faces and has identified the line-out and tackle area as the key to england s chances. and despite the recent results skipper jason robinson believes there is nothing wrong with the mood in the camp. there is no lack of confidence in the team said the sale full-back. we have had a good week s training and we are all looking forward to the challenge. i still believe in this team. i know if we get our game right we will win the games. g murphy; g dempsey b o driscoll s horgan d hickie; r o gara p stringer; r corrigan s byrne j hayes; m o kelly p o connell; s easterby j o connor a foley. f sheahan m horan d o callaghan e miller g easterby d humphreys k maggs. j robinson (capt); m cueto j noon o barkley j lewsey; c hodgson h ellis; g rowntree s thompson m stevens; d grewcock b kay; j worsley l moody m corry. a titterrell d bell s borthwick a hazell m dawson a goode o smith.

have hackers recruited your pc more than one million computers on the net have been hijacked to attack websites and pump out spam and viruses. the huge number was revealed by security researchers who have spent months tracking more than 100 networks of remotely-controlled machines. the largest network of so-called zombie networks spied on by the team was made up of 50 000 hijacked home computers. data was gathered using machines that looked innocent but which logged everything hackers did to them. the detailed look at zombie or bot nets of hijacked computers was done by the honeynet project - a group of security researchers that gather information using networks of computers that act as honey pots to attract hackers and gather information about how they work. while bot nets have been known about for some time estimates of how widespread they are from security firms have varied widely. to gather its information the german arm of the honeynet project created software tools to log what happened to the machines they put on the web. getting the machines hijacked was worryingly easy. the longest time a honeynet machine survived without being found by an automatic attack tool was only a few minutes. the shortest compromise time was only a few seconds. the research found that once compromised machines tend to report in to chat channels on irc servers and wait instructions from the malicious hacker behind the tools used to recruit the machine. many well-known vulnerabilities in the windows operating system were exploited by bot net controllers to find and take over target machines. especially coveted were home pcs sitting on broadband connections that are never turned off. the months of surveillance revealed that the different bot nets - which involve a few hundred to tens of thousands of machines - are used for a variety of purposes. many are used as relays for spam to route unwanted adverts to pc users or as launch platforms for viruses. but the research team found that many are put to very different uses. during the monitoring period the team saw bot nets used to launch 226 distributed denial-of-service attacks on 99 separate targets. these attacks bombard websites with data in an attempt to overwhelm the target. using a bot net of machines spread around different networks and nations makes such attacks hard to defend against. one ddos attack was used by one firm to knock its competitors offline. other bot nets were used to abuse the google adsense program that rewards websites for displaying adverts from the search engine. some networks were used to abuse or manipulate online polls and games. criminals also seem to be starting to use bot nets for mass identity theft to host websites that look like those of banks so confidential information can be gathered and to peep into online traffic to steal sensitive data. leveraging the power of several thousand bots it is viable to take down almost any website or network instantly said the researchers. even in unskilled hands it should be obvious that bot nets are a loaded and powerful weapon.

france v wales (sat) stade de france paris saturday 26 february 1600 gmt bbc1 radio 4 lw and this website france may have beaten scotland and england but they were tedious and uninspired throughout both matches. wales on the other hand have played some fine rugby and have made their best start since they last won the title in 1994. they also have a good record at the stade de france having won their first two games there in 1999 and 2001. wales have made two changes from the team that thrashed italy 38-8 in rome. kevin morgan takes over from his injured newport-gwent dragons colleague hal luscombe on the right wing. in the pack neath-swansea ospreys forward ryan jones bas been brought on the blind-side flank to beef up the wales back row in place of jonathan thomas. wales coach mike ruddock is determined that his team will not go into their shells after their promising start to the championship. graham henry (former wales coach) said a couple of years ago that we should be bold when going to france and he was proved right said ruddock. that is a great way to approach the game and something we will further endorse with the players this week. despite their stuttering displays in their first two games defending champions france are also unbeaten. under-pressure coach bernard laporte has made four changes with yannick nyanga the debutant julien laharrague aurelien rougerie and yannick jauzion coming into the side. france have been criticised for the absence of traditional french flair as they have ground their way to victory so far this year but captain fabien pelous sees hope on the horizon. i get the impression we are getting better he said. against wales which is different from the teams we have beaten i hope we can show our proper game. j laharrague; a rougerie y jauzion d traille c dominici; y delaigue d yachvili; s marconnet s bruno n mas; f pelous (capt) j thion; s betsen y nyanga j bonnaire (bourgoin). w servat o milloud g lamboley i harinordoquy p mignoni f michalak j-p grandclaude. g thomas (capt); k morgan t shanklin g henson s williams; s jones d peel; g jenkins m davies a jones; b cockbain r sidoli; r jones m williams m owen. r mcbryde j yapp j thomas r sowden-taylor g cooper c sweeney r williams.

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.

blinx sequel purrs nicely the original blinx was intended to convert many platform game lovers to microsoft s then new xbox console. its sharp graphics and novel gameplay with the main character able to pause slow rewind and fast-forward time were meant to lure many fans to the new machine. but poor design meant the game became a very frustrating affair with players often stranded half-way through a level without the required tools to finish. thankfully the sequel has fixed many of the original faults. this time around you do not play as blinx but instead you are given the chance to create two unique cat characters and two pig characters. the character generator is very detailed and a few minutes of tweaking and adjusting will create a unique personality to unleash on the game. as the game progresses you swap between the two rival factions pig and feline assuming the role of your created characters. the thrust of the game sees the two factions competing to recover pieces of a missing time crystal. as in the original your feline persona can control time but this time the pigs get to control space. there are a number of puzzles which require control over time to solve while the pigs can create things such as warps space bubbles and void traps in order to progress. the control over space and time is achieved through a number of vcr-style icons and is quite intuitive. annoyingly the puzzles are a little too obviously flagged up and most gamers will find it more of a chore than a challenge to solve them. the game has also tried to emulate franchises such as jak and daxter and ratchet and clank on ps2 and so there are a number of combat elements. these are a little predictable and tend to drag the general polish of the game down to a more dulled affair. but the game s excellent graphics easily the best-looking platform game around sound and dollops of humour make it an attractive game for younger platform fans. blinx 2 is out on xbox now.

news corp makes $5.4bn fox offer news corporation is seeking to buy out minority investors in fox entertainment group its broadcasting subsidiary for about $5.4bn (£3.7bn). the media giant run by rupert murdoch owns 82% of the shares in the company home to the fox television network and the 20th century fox film studio. the move follows news corp s decision to register its business in the us. 20th century fox s recent film releases include i heart huckabees and i robot while fox puts out hit tv series 24. under the terms of the offer minority fox shareholders will receive 1.90 news corp shares in return for each fox share they hold. analysts said the decision to list news corp in the us - which will result in the firm s shares trading in new york rather than sydney- nullified the need to retain a separate stock market listing for fox entertainment shares. news corp investors voted in october to approve the transfer of the company s corporate domicile from australia to the us state of delaware. the move is designed to help news corp attract more investment from the largest us financial institutions and make it easier to raise capital. fox entertainment group generated revenues of $12bn last year. news corp shares fell 25 cents to $17.65 after the share offer was announced while fox shares were up 19 cents at $31.22.

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

safety alert as gm recalls cars the world s biggest carmaker general motors (gm) is recalling nearly 200 000 vehicles in the us on safety grounds according to federal regulators. the national highway traffic safety administration (nhtsa) said the largest recall involves 155 465 pickups vans and sports utility vehicles (suvs). this is because of possible malfunctions with the braking systems. the affected vehicles in the product recall are from the 2004 and 2005 model years gm said. those vehicles with potential faults are the chevrolet avalanche express kodiak silverade and suburban; the gmc savana sierra and yukon. the nhtsa said a pressure accumulator in the braking system could crack during normal driving and fragments could injure people if the hood was open. this could allow hydraulic fluid to leak which could make it harder to brake or steer and could cause a crash it warned. gm is also recalling 19 924 cadillac xlr coupes srx suvs and pontiac grand prix sedans from the 2004 model year. this is because the accelerator pedal may not work properly in extremely cold temperatures requiring more braking. in addition the car giant is calling back 17 815 buick raniers chevrolet trailblazers gmc envoys and isuzu ascenders from the 2005 model years because the windshield is not properly fitted and could fall out in a crash. however gm stressed that it did not know of any injuries related to the problems. news of the recall follows an announcement last month that gm expects earnings this year be lower than in 2004. the world s biggest car maker is grappling with losses in its european business weak us sales and now a product recall. in january gm said higher healthcare costs in north america and lower profits at its financial services subsidiary would hurt its performance in 2005.

mobile audio enters new dimension as mobile phones move closer to being a ubiquitous all-in-one media player audio is becoming ever more important. but how good can that sound be from such a small device the sound of a buzzing bee jumps from left to right before disappearing around the back of my head. the surround sound demo is unremarkable when heard on a multi-speaker home cinema system but startling when emerging from a small mobile phone. british firm sonaptic is one of a number of companies to have developed 3d audio technology that emerges from stereo speakers. firms am3d and srs both offer stereo-widening technology for mobile phones. but sonaptic s managing director david monteith says his firm is the only company to offer positional 3d audio on a mobile. there are quite a few basic technologies out there making the sound seem a bit bigger headphones a bit nicer. no-one has really tried before to make proper 3d positional audio - where an individual channel can be moved around. sonaptic has been working with japanese mobile network ntt docomo to set standards for 3d audio on mobile phones. in the last few months handsets from nec fujitsu and mitsubishi have been released on to the japanese marker which have chips produced by yamaha and rohm with sonaptic s technology. the technology has been around on pcs and games consoles for some time but what we are doing is making it more efficient so it can go on a small consumer device like a mobile phone said mr monteith. the technology works through applying the science of psychoacoustics and grew out of medical research done by the company s research director dr alastair sibbald. we are basically trying to fool your ears into thinking sound is coming from areas it actually isn t. your brain uses certain bits of information which we are effectively synthesising on a mobile phone handset. the structure of the ear works as a 3d encoder for sound - helping the brain understand from where sound is emanating. sonaptic s audio processing algorithms mimic that 3d encoding giving the impression that sound is coming from the left right and behind a listener when in fact it is coming from a single source. mr montieth says: if the sound is off to one side it will get to one ear before the other - if it is on the right it has to bend around your head to get to your left ear. the shape of your ear causes differences in sound from one ear to the other. we are synthesising those differences. sonaptic hopes the technology will have a big impact in the growing market of mobile gaming and music downloading. handhelds often have limitations - screens will be small by definition. if you want to get impact from media you are running - either a movie a game or watching tv - if you want it to be more immersive then our technology can help. a fishing game is the first title to use the technology creating a 3d sound field while the gamer plays. driving games and shoot em ups using the technology are in development. the technology can also be used for music - giving songs a much more expansive and immersive feel. sonaptic offers its technology on a chip or in software and is about to release a new version which significantly improves the efficiency of the audio processing. it s important we only use 10 or 15% of the processor otherwise you won t be able to play a game on the handset explained mr montieth. the company is now looking to the us and european markets where it has been working with network vodafone. we have focused first on japan because it has a very advanced mobile phone market. we knew japan would be the first place to have the handsets that could use our technology. there should be handsets out in the uk in the next six months.

films on war triumph at sundance a study of the united states at war in the past 50 years has picked up one of the main awards at the 2005 sundance film festival in utah in the us. why we fight scooped the grand jury prize for documentaries at the world s leading independent film festival. british director sean mcallister s the liberace of baghdad - about a pianist in war-torn iraq - won a special prize in the world documentary category. both why we fight and the liberace of baghdad were made for the bbc. why we fight is due to be screened on bbc four in march. the sundance festival was founded by actor robert redford in 1981. this year s festival - which ended on sunday after a 11-day run - has been dominated by the themes of war and politics. in the new world cinema drama category the angolan film the hero triumphed to win the grand jury prize. the film - an angolan/french/portuguese production - tells the story of a veteran of the country s civil war who returns home to face a new battle of survival. twelve films competing in the new world cinema documentary category focused on countries and people under siege. finnish film the three rooms of melancholia looks at the war in chechnya and shake hands with the devil: the journey of romeo dallaire tells the story of a un mission to rwanda during the 1994 genocide. but it was dutch documentary shape of the moon - a study of an extended family in indonesia - which took the top prize. meanwhile french-israeli production wall which looks at israel s controversial security wall separating it from the palestinian territories picked up a world cinema special jury prize for documentaries. in the main drama category forty shades of blue was named winner of the grand jury prize. the film tells the tale of a forbidden tug-of-love between a father his russian immigrant girlfriend and his son. during its 24-year history the sundance film festival has showcased successes such as reservoir dogs the blair witch project and the full monty. last year s festival provided a platform for hits such as open water napoleon dynamite garden state and super-size me. the festival is held in the mountain resort of park city east of salt lake city which sees its population rise from 7 500 to 45 000 during the festival.

us interest rates increased to 2% us interest rates are to rise for the fourth time in five months in a widely anticipated move. the federal reserve has raised its key federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 2% in light of mounting evidence that the us economy is regaining steam. us companies created twice as many jobs as expected in october while exports hit record levels in september. analysts said a clear-cut victory for president bush in last week s election paved the way for a rise. another rise could be in store for december some economists warned. the fed s open market committee - which sets interest rate policy in the us - voted unanimously in favour of a quarter point rise. the fed has been gradually easing rates up since the summer with quarter percentage point rises in june august and september. the central bank has been acting to restrain inflationary pressures while being careful not to obstruct economic growth. the fed did not rule out raising rates once again in december but noted that any future increases would take place at a measured pace. in a statement the fed said that long-term inflation pressures remained well contained while the us economy appeared to be growing at a moderate pace despite the rise in energy prices . financial analysts broadly welcomed the fed s move and shares traded largely flat. the dow jones industrial average closed down 0.89 points or 0.01% at 10 385.48. recent evidence has pointed to an upturn in the us economy. us firms created 337 000 jobs last month twice the amount expected while exports reached record levels in september. the economy grew 3.7% in the third quarter slower than forecast but an improvement on the 3.3% growth seen in the second quarter. analysts claimed the fed s assessment of future economic growth was a positive one but stressed that the jury was still out on the prospect of a further rise in december. let s wait until we see how growth and employment bear up under the fourth quarter s energy price drag before concluding that the fed has more work to do in 2005 said avery shenfeld senior economist at cibc world markets. i think the federal reserve does not want to rock the boat and is using a gradual approach in raising the interest rate said sung won sohn chief us economist for wells fargo bank. the economy is doing a bit better right now but there are still some concerns about geopolitics employment and the price of oil he added. the further rise in us rates is unlikely to have a direct bearing on uk monetary policy. the bank of england (boe) has kept interest rates on hold at 4.75% for the past three months leading some commentators to argue that rates may have peaked. in a report published on wednesday the bank said that with rates at their current level inflation would rise to its 2% target within two years. however boe governor mervyn king warned only last month that the era of consistently low inflation and low unemployment may be coming to an end.

lewis-francis eyeing world gold mark lewis-francis says his olympic success has made him determined to bag world championship 100m gold in 2005. the 22-year-old pipped maurice greene on the last leg of the 4x100m relay in athens to take top honours for team gb. but individually the birchfield harrier has yet to build on his world junior championship win four years ago. the gold medal in athens has made me realise that i can get to the top level and i want to get there again. it can happen i don t see why not he said. lewis-francis has still to decided what events will feature in his build-up to the worlds - with one exception. he has confirmed his participation in the norwich union grand prix in birmingham on 18 february where he will take on another member of britain s victorious men s relay team - jason gardener - over 60m. he added: it s a bit too early to make any predictions for helsinki but i have my eyes open and i know i can be the best in the world.

france set for new da vinci novel french booksellers are braced for a rush of interest after another book from the author of the da vinci code is translated into french. angels and demons by us author dan brown will go on sale on wednesday. the da vinci code is set in paris - including the louvre - and has sold around one million copies in france. the main character robert langdon also appears in angels and demons. the da vinci code is being made into a film starring tom hanks. angels and demons was written before the da vinci code which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages since it was released in 2003. angels and demons is set mainly in rome as symbologist robert langdon follows a 400-year-old trail to try to uncover a plot by an ancient brotherhood the illuminati to blow up the vatican. the novel deals with moral issues such as the debate between science and religion and also seeks to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding the pope. on his website brown wrote: i think the reason angels and demons is raising eyebrows right now is that it opens some vatican closets most people don t even know exist. but i think most people understand that an organisation as old and powerful as the vatican could not possibly have risen to power without acquiring a few skeletons in their closets. such is the success of the da vinci code in france special tours have been organised to trace langdon s footsteps including the the louvre museum and the saint sulpice church. the louvre has also given permission for parts of the film version to be shot in the museum. the film to be directed by a beautiful mind s ron howard is due to start filming at the paris museum in may and stars hanks alongside french actress audrey tautou.

playstation 3 chip to be unveiled details of the chip designed to power sony s playstation 3 console will be released in san francisco on monday. sony ibm and toshiba who have been working on the cell processor for three years will unveil the chip at a technology conference. the chip is reported to be up to 10 times faster than current processors. it is being designed for use in graphics workstations the new playstation console and has been described as a supercomputer on a chip. sony has said the cell processor could be used to bridge the gap between movies and video games. special effects and graphics designed for films could be ported for use directly in a video game sony told an audience at the e3 exhibition in los angeles last year. cell could also be marketed as an ideal technology for televisions and supercomputers and everything in between said kevin krewell the editor in chief of microprocessor report. the chip will be made of several different processing cores that work on tasks together. the playstation 3 is expected in 2006 but developers are expecting to get prototypes early next year to tune games that will appear on it at launch. details of the chip will be released at the international solid state circuits conference in san francisco. some details have already emerged however. when put inside powerful computer servers the cell consortium expects it to be capable of handling 16 trillion floating point operations or calculations every second. the chip has also been refined to be able to handle the detailed graphics common in games and the data demands of films and broadband media. ibm said it would start producing the chip in early 2005 at manufacturing plants in the us. the first machines off the line using the cell processor will be computer workstations and servers. a working version of the ps3 is due to be shown off in may 2005 but a full launch of the next generation console is not expected to start until 2006. in the future all forms of digital content will be converged and fused onto the broadband network said ken kutaragi chief operating officer of sony said last year. current pc architecture is nearing its limits he added.

uk broadband gets speed injection broadband s rapid rise continues apace as speeds gear up a notch. an eight megabit service has been launched by internet service provider uk online. it is 16 times faster than the average broadband package on the market and will pave the way for services such as video-on-demand and broadband tv. the service is possible due to a new regime which allows other operators to use bt s exchanges and will initially only be available in towns. it represents a big leap forward for broadband said chris stening uk online general manager. the service comes with a hefty £39.99 monthly price tag but will mean users can download mp3s in seconds and offers tv-quality video streaming. the service includes wifi as standard meaning users can connect multiple pcs laptops and game consoles from any room in the house. not everybody will be able to take advantage of the service as it will be restricted to metropolitan areas. the service will initially be available to users within 2km radius of 230 telephone exchanges in areas such as london birmingham glasgow and cambridge. that represents about 4.4 million households. the service is possible due to a decision to loosen bt s strangle-hold on telephone exchanges. the process known as local loop unbundling was put in motion by the now defunct telecoms watchdog oftel but has only proved popular in recent months due to falling costs. uk online is looking at the possibility of bundling services such as cheap net telephone calls video-on-demand and tv by 2005 if the service proves popular. the service is twice as fast as any other service on offer in the uk and 16 times faster than most broadband services said mr stening. it takes a big leap for broadband and we are very excited about it he said. countries such as south korea and france have found the advantage of upping the speeds of broadband. in south korea video-on-demand over the net is cheaper than renting a dvd and online gaming is huge. mr stening believes the service will appeal to people in multi-occupancy buildings as well as easing family arguments. a typical family with two adults and two children is currently sharing a 512 kilobit service. this will basically give them 2 megabits each he said.

calder fears for scottish rugby former scotland international finlay calder fears civil war at the sru could seriously hamper his country s rbs six nations campaign. four members of the executive board including the chairman david mackay have resigned after a simmering row. and calder said: this is terrible news for every level of scottish rugby. david is a successful businessman and i thought that if anybody could transform the negative atmosphere and rising debt level it was him. mackay s executive board has been in a power struggle with the general committee which contains members elected by scotland s club sides. he has been driven out by people who seem happier waging civil war than addressing the central issue that professional rugby can t be run by amateurs said calder. in fact i don t understand why we are still having this argument 10 years after professionalism arrived. but i don t believe the rest of the sru will take this lying down. i think the banks will be dismayed at this decision and ultimately it is them who pull the strings. so i wouldn t be surprised if they reviewed their position. but in the wider picture what message does this send out he thought the work of scotland s coaches who have been attempting to arrest the decline of the national side would be made much more difficult. matt williams and willie anderson must be wondering what have we walked into here said calder. and we can now expect weeks of arguments and acrimony just at a time when we should be looking forward to the six nations championship. i am very very disappointed more than you can imagine. why do so many scots have this knack of turning on each other when the going gets tough

minister digs in over doping row the belgian sports minister at the centre of the svetlana kuznetsova doping row says he will not apologise for making allegations against her. claude eerdekens claims the us open champion tested positive for ephedrine at an exhibition event last month. criticised for making the announcement he said: i will never apologise. this product is banned and it s up to her to explain why it s there. kuznetsova says the stimulant may have been in a cold remedy she took. the russian said she did nothing wrong by taking the medicine during the event. the women s tennis association cleared kuznetsova of any offence because the drug is not banned when taken out of competition. eerdekens said he made the statement in order to protect the other three players that took part in the tournament belgian justine henin-hardenne nathalie dechy of france and russia s elena dementieva. but dechy is fuming that she has been implicated in the row. how can you be happy when you see your face on the cover page and talking about doping dechy said. i m really upset about it and i think the belgian government did a really bad job about this. i think we deserve an apology from the guy. you cannot say anything like this - you cannot say some stuff like this saying it s one of these girls. this is terrible. dementieva is also angry and says that dechy and herself are the real victims of the scandal. you have no idea what i have been through all these days. it s been too hard on me she said. the wta are trying to handle this problem by saying there are three victims but i see only two victims in this story - me and nathalie dechy who really have nothing to do with this. to be honest with you i don t feel like i want to talk to sveta at all. i m just very upset with the way everything has happened.

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.

sluggish economy hits german jobs the number of people out of work in europe s largest economy has risen for the tenth straight month as growth remains stubbornly slow. german unemployment rose 7 000 in november to 4.464 million people or 10.8% of the workforce. the seasonally adjusted rise showed a smaller rise than expected as government measures to encourage job creation began to take effect. but officials said stagnant growth was still stifling the job market. there are clear signs of a revival in domestic demand said frank-juergen weise head of the federal labour agency in a statement. but growth of 0.1%... in the third quarter is still insufficient to deliver positive momentum to the labour market. high oil prices and the soaring euro - which damages the competitiveness of exporters - were also having a negative effect he said. the brunt of the unemployment is still being felt in the eastern part of germany where the rate is 18.8%. with unemployment stuck above 4 million for years the government of chancellor gerhard schroeder has put job creation at the top of the agenda. a controversial package of measures to shake up incentives to get back to work paid for by cutting some cherished benefits has sparked anger among some german workers. strikes in a number of industries notably among the country s iconic carmakers have demonstrated the displeasure - as well as fears about further job losses as outsourcing takes hold. among the new initiatives are the so-called one-euro jobs which top up unemployment benefit. the scheme s formal launch is january but hirings for these positions are already taking place and affecting the unemployment statistics economists said. the deterioration of the labour market does not come as a surprise said isabelle kronawitter at hypovereinsbank. job creation measures probably prevented a stronger increase in the seasonally adjusted numbers.

henman & murray claim lta awards tim henman was named player of the year for 2004 by the lawn tennis association at wimbledon on monday. the briton was recognised for the best year of his career which saw him reach the semis at the french and us opens. scotland s andrew murray was named young player of the year after winning the us open juniors as well as a futures event in italy. and world number one peter norfolk won disabled player of the year after claiming his third us open crown. great britain s under 14 boys won the team of the year prize for their victory at the world junior tennis event in august. henman will start his 2005 campaign at the kooyong event on 12 january in a field that includes roger federer andy roddick and andre agassi. and the briton is optimistic of surpassing his best effort of a fourth-round place at the australian open which begins the following week. i ve often felt that the conditions suit my game in melbourne so i d love to be able to start next year by doing well at the australian open henman told his website. that s why i ve changed my schedule slightly by committing to play in the kooyong classic. i ll be able to acclimatise while practising before the event and then will be guaranteed matches against the best players in the world. i think that will give me the best possible chance of doing well at the australian open.

lewis-francis turns to christie mark lewis-francis has stepped up his preparations for the new season by taking advice from british sprint icon linford christie. the 22-year-old is set to compete at sheffield this weekend and will then take on maurice greene and kim collins in birmingham on 18 february. training in wales and getting advice from linford christie is broadening my mind said lewis-francis. the sprinter has also shed weight since winning relay gold at the athens games. last year i was 91kg now i am 86.9kg - hopefully my times will come down he said. this has been brought about by eating the right foods and cutting out the snacks. it is just discipline and being more focused about what i am doing. i am still keeping up my weights work and i can see the improvement in my running. despite playing his part in britain s successful 4x100m relay team lewis-francis still feels the frustration of missing out on the individual 100m final at the 2004 olympics. that was heartbreaking but i had made it to the semi-final and for me on a personal level that was an achievement. i just have to be patient and build up for the next olympics. that is my goal and whatever i do between now and then will be geared to making the final.

japanese growth grinds to a halt growth in japan evaporated in the three months to september sparking renewed concern about an economy not long out of a decade-long trough. output in the period grew just 0.1% an annual rate of 0.3%. exports - the usual engine of recovery - faltered while domestic demand stayed subdued and corporate investment also fell short. the growth falls well short of expectations but does mark a sixth straight quarter of expansion. the economy had stagnated throughout the 1990s experiencing only brief spurts of expansion amid long periods in the doldrums. one result was deflation - prices falling rather than rising - which made japanese shoppers cautious and kept them from spending. the effect was to leave the economy more dependent than ever on exports for its recent recovery. but high oil prices have knocked 0.2% off the growth rate while the falling dollar means products shipped to the us are becoming relatively more expensive. the performance for the third quarter marks a sharp downturn from earlier in the year. the first quarter showed annual growth of 6.3% with the second showing 1.1% and economists had been predicting as much as 2% this time around. exports slowed while capital spending became weaker said hiromichi shirakawa chief economist at ubs securities in tokyo. personal consumption looks good but it was mainly due to temporary factors such as the olympics. the amber light is flashing. the government may now find it more difficult to raise taxes a policy it will have to implement when the economy picks up to help deal with japan s massive public debt.

parties warned over grey vote political parties cannot afford to take older uk voters for granted in the coming election says age concern. a survey for the charity suggests 69% of over-55s say they always vote in a general election compared with just 17% of 18 to 24 year olds. charity boss gordon lishman said if a decisive blow was struck at the election it would be by older voters who could be relied on to turn out. a total of 3 028 adults aged 18 or over were interviewed for the study. mr lishman urged the next government to boost state pension. he also called for measures to combat ageism and build effective public services to support us all in an ageing society . older people want to see manifesto commitments that will make a difference to their lives mr lishman said. political parties must wake up to the fact that unless they address the demands and concerns of older people they will not keep or attract their vote. in the survey carried out by icm research 14% of people aged between 18 and 34 said they never voted in general elections. among the over-65s 70% said they would be certain to vote in an immediate election compared with 39% of people under 55. age concern says the over-55s are united around key areas of policy they want the government to focus on. for 57% pensions and the nhs were key issues while the economy was important for a third and tax was a crucial area for 25%.

chelsea sack mutu chelsea have sacked adrian mutu after he failed a drugs test. the 25-year-old tested positive for a banned substance - which he later denied was cocaine - in october. chelsea have decided to write off a possible transfer fee for mutu a £15.8m signing from parma last season who may face a two-year suspension. a statement from chelsea explaining the decision read: we want to make clear that chelsea has a zero tolerance policy towards drugs. mutu scored six goals in his first five games after arriving at stamford bridge but his form went into decline and he was frozen out by coach jose mourinho. chelsea s statement added: this applies to both performance-enhancing drugs or so-called recreational drugs. they have no place at our club or in sport. in coming to a decision on this case chelsea believed the club s social responsibility to its fans players employees and other stakeholders in football regarding drugs was more important than the major financial considerations to the company. any player who takes drugs breaches his contract with the club as well as football association rules. the club totally supports the fa in strong action on all drugs cases. fifa s disciplinary code stipulates that a first doping offence should be followed by a six-month ban. and the sport s world governing body has re-iterated their stance over mutu s failed drugs test maintaining it is a matter for the domestic sporting authorities. fifa is not in a position to make any comment on the matter until the english fa have informed us of their disciplinary decision and the relevant information associated with it said a fifa spokesman. chelsea s move won backing from drug-testing expert michelle verroken. verroken a former director of drug-free sport for uk sport insists the blues were right to sack mutu and have enhanced their reputation by doing so. chelsea are saying quite clearly to the rest of their players and their fans that this is a situation they are not prepared to tolerate. it was a very difficult decision for them and an expensive decision for them but the terms of his contract were breached and it was the only decision they could make. it is a very clear stance by chelsea and it has given a strong boost to the reputation of the club. it emerged that mutu had failed a drugs test on october 18 and although it was initially reported that the banned substance in question was cocaine. the romanian international later suggested it was a substance designed to enhance sexual performance. the football association has yet to act on mutu s failed drugs test and refuses to discuss his case.

totp turns to elvis impersonator top of the pops has turned to the star of elvis presley musical jailhouse rock after the late rock legend scooped the uk s 1 000th number one single. mario kombou who plays the presley role on stage will sing one night on friday s bbc one show as producers are unable to use presley video footage. it is his second number one in a row. the show used presley photos last week. presley will feature in the charts for several more months as all 18 of his original uk chart-toppers are reissued. a top of the pops spokesperson said: it s a very special number one as it s the uk s 1 000th. we wanted to pay tribute to elvis in the best way we knew how so we thought getting a professional would be the best way for top of the pops to do that. kombou is likely to appear on the show again next week as the next presley re-release a fool such as i is on course to give him his third number one in three weeks. kombou plays vince everett in jailhouse rock - the same role presley played in the 1957 film of the same name.

blair defends terror law changes the prime minister has defended measures to allow house arrest without trial saying several hundred people in the uk are plotting terror attacks. the government is facing opposition from tory and lib dem mps and its own backbenchers as it prepares for the final commons debate on the changes. but tony blair said there could be no concession on the basic principle . mr blair told the bbc the control orders would only be used in the most limited circumstances. critics in the opposition and civil rights activists are worried that the home secretary will have the power to issue the detention orders. but the government has so far resisted pressure for judges to be responsible for making the orders instead saying judges will be able to quash them. an explanation is being sent by home secretary charles clarke to all mps and peers ahead of the final debate in the house of commons. on sunday conservative shadow home secretary david davis claimed judges would get the powers to issue detention orders. and liberal democrat leader charles kennedy said some concessions had already been offered by the government during last-minute negotiations. some 32 labour mps voted against the legislation last week. barbara follett whose first husband was killed while under house arrest in south africa during the apartheid era confirmed she would vote against the government. but the government is continuing to insist that control orders must be issued by the home secretary. mr blair told bbc radio 4 s woman s hour: we are being advised by the police and the security services... what they say is you have got to give us powers in between mere surveillance of these people - there are several hundred of them in this country who we believe are engaged in plotting or trying to commit terrorist acts - you have got to give us power in between just surveying them and being able being sure enough of the proof to prosecute them beyond reasonable doubt. and these will be restrictions on their liberty that we will use only in the most limited circumstances. a yougov poll in the daily telegraph suggested 75% of respondents thought action was sometimes necessary against people who had not committed an offence but who had been found by intelligence services to be planning a terrorist attack. but tory leader michael howard told bbc news that the government was again making a mistake in rushing anti-terrorism legislation. i very much hope it would be possible to reach a compromise on this. he said after meeting tony blair he had been left with the impression that he really wasn t interested in any of the various proposals we have put forward . mr clarke wants house arrest and other powers to replace indefinite jail for terror suspects - something the law lords have ruled against on the basis that it breaches human rights. bbc political correspondent vicky young said some form of concession on the measures was likely to be needed to get the legislation through the house of lords where labour does not have a majority and would require support from other parties. shami chakrabarti director of civil liberties pressure group liberty said who was able to issue the control orders was not the main issue. she said the legislation was a travesty and a perversion of justice and would remain unpalatable even if a judge was involved early in the process.

napster offers rented music to go music downloading for those that have rejected the free peer to peer services can be a costly business. the cost of paying even as little as 70p per track can add up particularly for those people who own one of the new generation of players that can store thousands of songs. paying per track for music is becoming as outmoded as paying per minute for internet access and alternative monthly or yearly subscription models are springing up as a more convenient and ultimately cheaper way of owning music. music fans are moving away from buying the traditional bundled package of a dozen or more songs that we used to call an album to newer ways that fit their lifestyle; either single tracks or subscriptions services said paul myers chief executive of wippit a uk-based music download service. while itunes is doing good business with its sales of individual tracks to ipod owners others are questioning whether the concept of owning music is even valid in the digital age. napster is due to launch a new rental subscription service - dubbed napster to go in the uk in the next few months. the service can be used on players that support microsoft windows latest digital rights management technology known as janus. this includes players made by samsung rio and creative. currently on offer in beta-version in the us the service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads. the technology ensures that music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to the service. users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes will no longer play. this has outraged some digital music lovers especially as napster already offers a cheaper service for downloading music to the pc. napster claims the higher price is a result of record labels charging more for the to-go service and says it also offers greater value for customers. mr myers is not convinced a rental model will work for consumers. we ve been offering our unlimited music subscription service for more than three years now and our customers know what they want. format interoperability excellent value and the reassurance that music purchased from wippit is theirs to keep and enjoy on whatever device they choose he said. who wants to download a track that won t play next month if you decide to unsubscribe to the service or change portable player for an ipod or the latest mobile phone wippit offers a download subscription service for £4.99 per month or £50 per year. it has a catalogue of around 60 000 songs.

microsoft releases bumper patches microsoft has warned pc users to update their systems with the latest security fixes for flaws in windows programs. in its monthly security bulletin it flagged up eight critical security holes which could leave pcs open to attack if left unpatched. the number of holes considered critical is more than usual. they affect windows programs including internet explorer (ie) media player and instant messaging. four other important fixes were also released. these were considered to be less critical however. if not updated either automatically or manually pc users running the programs could be vulnerable to viruses or other malicious attacks designed to exploit the holes. many of the flaws could be used by virus writers to take over computers remotely install programs change and delete or see data. one of the critical patches microsoft has made available is an important one that fixes some ie flaws. stephen toulouse a microsoft security manager said the flaws were known about and although the firm had not seen any attacks exploiting the flaw he did not rule them out. often when a critical flaw is announced spates of viruses follow because home users and businesses leave the flaw unpatched. a further patch fixes a hole in media player windows messenger and msn messenger which an attacker could use to take control of unprotected machines through .png files. microsoft announces any vulnerabilities in its software every month. the most important ones are those which are classed as critical . its latest releases came the week that the company announced it was to buy security software maker sybari software as part of microsoft s plans to make its own security programs.

gm pays $2bn to evade fiat buyout general motors of the us is to pay fiat 1.55bn euros ($2bn; £1.1bn) to get out of a deal which could have forced it to buy the italian car maker outright. fiat had sold gm a stake in 2000 as part of a partnership agreement. but fiat s heavy losses have convinced gm - whose own european operations are in the red - to back away. the pay-off means the two firms will unwind joint ventures but fiat will keep supplying diesel engines and the money will allow it to reduce its debt. fiat s shares on the milan stock exchange rose 4.5% by 0900 gmt to 6.2 euros having shot up more than 7% in early trading. we now have absolute freedom to design our own future said fiat chief executive sergio marchionne. analysts said fiat seemed to have done well out of the deal although some predictions had expected a 2bn euro pay-off. fiat is to get 1bn euros immediately with another 550m to follow within 90 days. the firm is italy s largest private employer and a failure to reach an agreement could have had severe consequences for thousands of workers and for the italian economy. for its part gm was keen to ward off any criticism that the deal had been a mistake. we needed scale in europe to get costs down and we were able to do that in working with fiat said gm chief executive rick wagoner. the fiat-gm alliance came about in 2000 as an alternative to selling fiat outright. german-us car firm daimlerchrysler had been willing to buy the firm but fiat patriarch gianni agnelli did not want to give up control. instead gm swapped a 6% stake in itself for 20% of fiat - and gave fiat a put option to sell gm the rest of the car maker between january 2004 and july 2009. but despite the alliance fiat failed to put itself back on track continuing to lose money and market share. as a result the sell-off looked better and better for the italians - and much worse for gm which is struggling with its own loss-making european marques opel and saab. the relationship soured further after fiat sold half its finance arm and recapitalised in 2003 halving gm s stake to 10%.

mcconnell in drunk remark row scotland s first minister has told a group of high school pupils that it is okay to get drunk once in a while . jack mcconnell was speaking to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions. he has been criticised by the snp for encouraging young people to get drunk. but the scottish executive has insisted mr mcconnell was speaking about adults and his comments were a recognition that people will get drunk . the first minister s comments came in a question and answer session at glenurquhart high school in inverness attended by pupils from a number of secondary schools. a highland councillor who was at the event has also defended mr mcconnell. margaret davidson the independent member for the loch ness west said the first minister was speaking in a very general way and she was sure he was speaking about adults at the time. when one pupil asked mr mcconnell how the executive proposed to tackle under-age drinking began his response with the quip: i m sure there s no under-age drinking in the highlands. he went on to speak about the evils of binge drinking and railed against irresponsible drinks promotions. he said: i hope i m not going to be seen as preaching to anybody here but the really serious problem at the moment is binge drinking and the impact it has on people s health and their ability to control what s happening round about them. mr mcconnell said he regularly saw reports on the effects of binge drinking sprees which ended in assaults or even rapes and on the health consequences of binge drinking. the one thing we are going to do something really serious about is binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions that can help lead to that he said. far too many pub chains in particular are selling far too much booze far too cheaply and encouraging people to drink it far too quickly. we are go to clamp down on that and make those promotions illegal in the hope that people can enjoy a drink sensibly over the course of an evening. he added: by all means get drunk once in a while - but do not get into a situation where people are being encouraged to get completely incapable just to save some money and drink more quickly. snp holyrood leader nicola sturgeon said: this is an incredible gaffe by jack mcconnell. we all know that under-age drinking is an issue in scotland but it is quite staggering that any politician particularly the first minister should encourage young people to get drunk. the first minister should withdraw these remarks immediately. but an executive spokeswoman insisted mr mcconnell had made the remark with adults not youngsters in mind. he was talking in the context of adults binge drinking and irresponsible drinks promotions - which are for the over-18s she said. it was just a recognition that people will get drunk but that binge drinking and drinks promotions that encourage it are not acceptable.

junk e-mails on relentless rise spam traffic is up by 40% putting the total amount of e-mail that is junk up to an astonishing 90%. the figures from e-mail management firm email systems will alarm firms attempting to cope with the amount of spam in their in-boxes. while virus traffic has slowed down denial of service attacks are on the increase according to the firm. virus mail accounts for just over 15% of all e-mail traffic analysis by the firm has found. it is no longer just multi-nationals that are in danger of so-called denial of service attacks in which websites are bombarded by requests for information and rendered inaccessible. email systems refers to a small uk-based engineering firm which received a staggering 12 million e-mails in january. the type of spam currently being sent has subtlety altered in the last few months according to email systems analysis. half of spam received since christmas has been health-related with gambling and porn also on the increase. scam mails offering ways to make a quick buck have declined by 40%. january is clearly a month when consumers are less motivated to purchase financial products or put money into dubious financial opportunities said neil hammerton managing director of email systems. spammers seem to have adapted their output to reflect this focussing instead on medically motivated and pornographic offers presumably intentionally intended to coincide with what is traditionally considered to be the bleakest month in the calendar he said.

moore questions captaincy brian moore believes the england captain should not be a full-back. jason robinson has led the team during their opening three defeats in the six nations tournament in the absence of fly-half jonny wilkinson. the world champions have struggled since the retirement of former captain martin johnson a lock forward. and former england captain moore told the bbc: full-backs are too far away from the action. that s not a reflection on robinson personally. he added: i just think the point of influence needs to move closer to the pack - which is after all where games usually start and finish. moore says a lack of cohesion in the forwards is one of the reasons why england have lost against wales france and ireland in this year s tournament. assertiveness in the pack isn t there we re not getting enough people into the breakdowns he explained. wer e not getting quick ball which means the backs are being stifled. their creativity depends on quick ball and we re not getting that. with injuries depriving him of key players like wilkinson coach andy robinson has given youngsters such as harry ellis and jamie noon a chance. and moore believes the last two games against italy and scotland are a good opportunity to experiment further. the problem is the players that are around to replace the icons which have been lost because of retirement and injury don t have the requisite experience moore added. you can t do anything about that but play them. there are players who have been knocking on the door it s time for them to be looked at in these last two games because there s nothing on them. we then go into next season with a greater certainty of who can and cannot handle the pressure of international rugby.

gamers could drive high-definition tv films and games have been gearing up for some time now for the next revolution to transform the quality of what is on our screens. it is called high-definition - hd for short - and it is already hugely popular in japan and the us. it is set according to analysts to do for images what cds did for sound. different equipment able to receive hd signals is needed though and is expensive. but europe s gamers may be the early adopters to drive demand. europeans will have to wait until at least 2006 until they see mainstream hdtv. to view it it needs to be transmitted in hd format and people need special receivers and displays that can handle the high-quality resolution. the next generation of consoles however are expected to start appearing at the end of 2005 start of 2006. and most new computer displays and plasma sets are already capable of handling such high-resolution pictures. in the next generation [of consoles] hd support is mandatory dr mark tuffy games systems director at digital content firm thx told the bbc news website. every game is going to be playable in hd. so consumers who have gone out and spent all this money on hdtvs and who have no content to watch are going to be blown away by these really high-detail pictures. it s going to change really the way they look at gaming. at the end of last year chris deering sony s european president made a prediction that 20 million european households would have hdtv sets by 2008. a previous prediction from analysts datamonitor put the figure at 4.6 million by 2008 an increase from an estimated 50 000 sets at the end of 2003. but those in europe may see little point in buying what is quite an expensive bit of technology - about £2 000 - if there are few programmes or films to watch on them. satellite broadcaster bskyb is planning hdtv services in 2006 and the bbc intends to produce all of its content in hd by 2010. until broadcast rights format standards - and the practicalities of updating equipment - are agreed tv content will be limited. all tv images are made up of pixels which go across the screen and scan lines which go down the screen. most standard uk tv pictures are made up of 625 lines and about 700 pixels. hd offers up to 1 080 active lines with each line made up of 1 920 pixels. this means the picture is up to six times as sharp as standard tv. probably in the uk [gaming] is going to be the only thing you are going to really be able to show off as in look what this tv can do until hd is really adopted by broadcasters explains dr tuffy. but gamers are also the ideal target audience for hd because they always crave better quality graphics and more immersive gaming experiences. they are used to spending money on hardware to match a game s requirements. demographics have changed too and the sweet spot for the games industry is the gamer in his or her late 20s. this means they are likely to have higher disposable incomes and can afford the price of big-screen high-definition display technologies and hd projectors earlier than others. higher capacity storage discs such as hd-dvd and blue-ray are set to be standard in the next round of games consoles - allowing developers more room for detailed graphics. for console developers though hd offers some production changes. it could make games production slightly more expensive thinks dr tuffy. but we may see the cross-platform development of games becoming more common because they will more easily be able to take a pc game and apply it to a console he says. you are literally going to get to the point with a lord of the rings game for example is going to be closer and closer to the actual film especially the cgi stuff from the dvd. and the transition when they move from a cut scene to the game just now they have almost got it seamless. with hd he says the transition will be completely seamless and the same quality as the big-screen cinema release. this could herald an increasing convergence between the film and gaming industry. but it may not be until the generation after the next games consoles where the two industries really collide. at that point says dr tuffy games could become more or less interactive movies.

stam spices up man utd encounter ac milan defender jaap stam says manchester united know they made a mistake by selling him in 2001. the sides meet at old trafford in the champions league game on wednesday and the 32-year-old s dutchman s presence is sure to add spice to the fixture. united made a mistake in selling me stam told uefa s champions magazine. i was settled at manchester united but they wanted to sell me. if a club want to sell you there is nothing you can do. you can be sold like cattle. sir alex ferguson surprised the football world - and stam - by selling the dutchman to lazio for £16.5m in august 2001. the decision came shortly after stam claimed in his autobiography that ferguson had tapped him up when he was at psv eindhoven. but ferguson insisted he sold the defender because the transfer fee was too good to refuse for a player past his prime. the affair still rankles with the dutchman. i was settled at manchester united i had even just ordered a new kitchen but they wanted to sell me he said. in what other industry can a good employee be ushered out the door against their wishes of course you can refuse to go but then the club have the power to put you on the bench. i don t agree that players control the game. there have been opportunities to confront them in the newspapers but i have turned them down. what s the point wednesday s game at old trafford will provide an intriguing confrontation between united s young attackers wayne rooney and cristiano ronaldo and milan s veteran defence of stam paolo maldini cafu and alessandro costacurta. stam says rooney s teenage stardom is in stark contract to his own start in the game. we can t all be wayne rooneys - at his age i was training to be an electrician and thought my chance of becoming a professional footballer had gone he said. starting late can be a good thing. some kids who start early get bored. i had my youth - having fun drinking beers blowing up milk cannisters. it sounds strange but it s a tradition where i grew up in kampen - and i had done all the things i wanted to do.

australia rates at four year high australia is raising its benchmark interest rate to its highest level in four years despite signs of a slowdown in the country s economy. the reserve bank of australia lifted interest rates 0.25% to 5.5% their first upwards move in more than a year. however shortly after the bank made its decision new figures showed a fall in economic growth in the last quarter. the bank said it had acted to curb inflation but the move was criticised by some analysts. the rate hike was the first since december 2003 and had been well-flagged in advance. however opposition parties and some analysts said the move was ill-timed given data showing the australian economy grew just 0.1% between october and december and 1.5% on an annual basis. the figures representing a decline from the 0.2% growth in gdp seen between july and september were below market expectations. consumer spending remains strong however and the bank is concerned about growing inflationary pressures. over recent months it has become increasingly clear that remaining spare capacity in the labour and goods markets is becoming rather limited said ian macfarlane governor of the reserve bank. at 2.6% inflation remains within the bank s 2-3% target range. however exports declined in the second half of 2004 fuelling a rise in the country s current account deficit - the difference in the value of imports compared to exports - to a record australian dollar 29.4bn. the australian government said the economy remained strong with unemployment at a near 30 year low. the economy has been strong and it is properly moderating but it doesn t look to me like it s slowing in any unreasonable way said treasurer peter costello. stock markets had factored in the likelihood of a rate rise but analysts still expressed concern about the strength of the economy. that 1.5% annual growth rate is the lowest we have seen since the post-election slump we saw back in 2000-1 said michael blythe chief economist at the commonwealth bank of australia. this suggests the economy really did slow very sharply in the second half of 2004.

housewives lift channel 4 ratings the debut of us television hit desperate housewives has helped lift channel 4 s january audience share by 12% compared to last year. other successes such as celebrity big brother and the simpsons have enabled the broadcaster to surpass bbc two for the first month since last july. bbc two s share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in comparison with january 2004. celebrity big brother attracted fewer viewers than its 2002 series. comedy drama desperate housewives managed to pull in five million viewers at one point during its run to date attracting a quarter of the television audience. the two main television channels bbc1 and itv1 have both seen their monthly audience share decline in a year on year comparison for january while five s proportion remained the same at a slender 6.3%. digital multi-channel tv is continuing to be the strongest area of growth with the bbc reporting freeview box ownership of five million including one million sales in the last portion of 2004. its share of the audience soared by 20% in january 2005 compared with last year and currently stands at an average of 28.6%.

apple unveils low-cost mac mini apple has unveiled a new low-cost macintosh computer for the masses billed as the mac mini. chief executive steve jobs showed off the new machine at his annual macworld speech in san francisco. the $499 macintosh sold for £339 in the uk was described by jobs as the most important mac made by apple. mr jobs also unveiled the ipod shuffle a new music player using cheaper flash memory rather than hard drives which are used in more expensive ipods. the new computer shifts the company into new territory - traditionally the firm is known as a design and innovation-led firm rather than as a mass-market manufacturer. the mac mini comes without a monitor keyboard and mouse and a second version with a larger hard drive will also be sold for $599. the machine - which will be available from 22 january - was described by jobs as byodkm... bring your own display keyboard and mouse . in an attempt to win over windows pc customers mr jobs said it would appeal to people thinking of changing operating systems. people who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses he said. it s the newest and most affordable mac ever. the new computer has been the subject of speculation for several weeks and while few people will be surprised by the announcement many analysts had already said it was a sensible move. in january apple sued a website after it published what it said were specifications for the new computer. ian harris deputy editor of uk magazine mac format said the machine would appeal to pc-owning consumers who had purchased an ipod. they want a further taste of mac because they like what they have seen with ipod. harris added: everybody thought that apple was happy to remain a niche maker of luxury computers and moving into a market dominated by low margin manufacturers like dell is a bold move. but it shows that apple is keen to capitalise on the mass market success it s had with the ipod. the mac mini will appeal to pc users looking for an attractive no fuss computer. the new ipod shuffle comes in two versions - one offering 512mb of storage for $99 (£69 in the uk) and a second with one gigabyte of storage for $149 (£99) - and went on sale tuesday. the music player has no display and will play songs either consecutively or shuffled. the smaller ipod will hold about 120 songs said mr jobs. mr jobs told the delegates at macworld that ipod already had a 65% market share of all digital music players.

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.

o gara revels in ireland victory ireland fly-half ronan o gara hailed his side s 19-13 victory over england as a special win. the munster number 10 kicked a total of 14 points including two drop goals to help keep alive their grand slam hopes. he told bbc sport: we made hard work of it but it s still special to beat england. i had three chances to win the game but didn t. we have work to do after this but we never take a victory over england lightly. ireland hooker shane byrne echoed o gara s comments but admitted the game had been england s best outing in the six nations. byrne said: it was a really really hard game but from one to 15 in our team we worked really really hard. we just had to stick to our defensive pattern trust ourselves and trust those around us. all round it was fantastic. ireland captain brian o driscoll who scored his side s only try said: we are delighted we felt if we performed well then we would win but with england also having played very well it makes it all the sweeter. we did get the bounce of the ball and some days that happens and you ve just got to jump on the back of it. ireland coach eddie o sullivan was surprised that england coach andy robinson said he was certain mark cueto was onside for a disallowed try just before the break. andy was sitting two yards from me and i couldn t see whether he was offside or not so i don t know how andy could have known said o sullivan. what i do know is that england played well and when that happens it makes a very good victory for us. we had to defend for long periods and that is all good for the confidence of the team. i think our try was very well worked it was a gem as good a try as we have scored for a while. o sullivan also rejected robinson s contention england dominated the forward play. i think we lost one lineout and they lost four or five so i don t know how that adds up to domination he said. o driscoll also insisted ireland were happy to handle the pressure of being considered favourites to win the six nations title. this season for the first time we have been able to play with the favourites tag he said. hopefully we have proved that today and can continue to keep doing so. as for my try it was a move we had worked on all week. there was a bit of magic from geordan murphy and it was a great break from denis hickie.

nhs waiting time target is cut hospital waiting times for patients in wales are to be cut but not to the same extent as those in england. welsh health minister jane hutt said no patient would wait more than 12 months for an outpatient appointment by march 2006 against a current target of 18 months. but she said the target for an inpatient appointment would remain at 12 months for march 2006. the announcement came as new monthly waiting figures showed a drop. this current inpatient target was set when the assembly government extended its second offer guarantee scheme which gives patients the option of having their treatment outside wales. details about funding to resource the new targets are expected in the new year. in england the current target for inpatients - seeing a consultant to having an operation - is six months. dr richard lewis welsh secretary of the british medical association (bma) welcomed the new targets to make further and faster progress on waiting lists . however much remains to be done on waiting lists and waiting times because wales still lags a long way behind england he said. capacity must be built into the system with sustained investment to ensure that welsh patients don t receive a worse service than patients over the border. health analyst tony beddow from the welsh institute for health and social care called the new targets reasonably impressive . on wednesday ms hutt also announced £264m for health services will be spent reducing waiting times improving key areas and modernising staff pay structures in wales. ms hutt said major achievements had been made in cutting unacceptably long waits for treatment over the past year . we are turning the corner on long waits in wales. now we need to see those reductions in long waiters being improved again she said. she added the targets intended to ensure no-one waits more than a year for treatment or to see a consultant. but let us not forget two thirds of those waiting for treatment now are waiting less than six months and these targets affect the small minority of patients in wales that are waiting far too long. rhodri glyn thomas plaid cymru health spokesman said: it s exactly the same target she set in 1999 with the qualification that it s dependent on a second offer. it s a failed target from a failed minister..with a failed policy. for the welsh liberal democrats kirsty williams called the new target hugely unambitious . it leaves patients in wales still waiting two years before they re treated. conservative health spokesman jonathan morgan said: we re spending more money but waiting lists have gone through the roof. the audit commission has said that the money is not being spent efficiently or effectively and that s quite a criticism. meanwhile the latest monthly waiting list figures showed the total number of people waiting more than 18 months as an inpatient in wales has fallen by 9.8%. statistics to the end of november showed a decline since october from 785 to 708. the number waiting over 12 months also fell from 7 613 to 6 630 or 12.9%. ms hutt said they were excellent figures . there are 305 775 people on a waiting list of some kind down from 311 764 last month.

gallery unveils interactive tree a christmas tree that can receive text messages has been unveiled at london s tate britain art gallery. the spruce has an antenna which can receive bluetooth texts sent by visitors to the tate. the messages will be unwrapped by sculptor richard wentworth who is responsible for decorating the tree with broken plates and light bulbs. it is the 17th year that the gallery has invited an artist to dress their christmas tree. artists who have decorated the tate tree in previous years include tracey emin in 2002. the plain green norway spruce is displayed in the gallery s foyer. its light bulb adornments are dimmed ordinary domestic ones joined together with string. the plates decorating the branches will be auctioned off for the children s charity artworks. wentworth worked as an assistant to sculptor henry moore in the late 1960s. his reputation as a sculptor grew in the 1980s while he has been one of the most influential teachers during the last two decades. wentworth is also known for his photography of mundane everyday subjects such as a cigarette packet jammed under the wonky leg of a table.

winter freeze keeps oil above $50 oil prices carried on rising on wednesday after cold weather on both sides of the north atlantic pushed us crude prices to four-month highs. freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls took crude oil prices past $50 a barrel on tuesday for the first time since november. declines in the dollar have also contributed to the rising oil price. us crude was trading at $51.39 at 0710 gmt in asian electronic trade on wednesday. a barrel of us crude oil closed up $2.80 at $51.15 in new york on tuesday. opec members said on tuesday that given such high prices the cartel saw no reason to cut its output. although below last year s peak of $55.67 a barrel which was reached in october prices are now well above 2004 s average of $41.48. brent crude also rose in london trading adding $1.89 to $48.62 at the close. much of western europe and the north east of america has been shivering under unseasonably low temperatures in recent days. the decline in the us dollar to a five-week low against the euro has also served to inflate prices. the primary factor is the weak dollar said victor shum a singapore-based analyst with purvin and gertz. expectations that a rebound in the dollar would halt the oil price rise were not immediately borne out on wednesday morning as oil prices carried on upwards as the dollar strengthened against the euro the pound and the yen. several opec members said on tuesday that a cut in production was unlikely citing rising prices and strong demand for oil from asia. i agree that we do not need to cut supply if the prices are as much as this fathi bin shatwan libya s oil minister told reuters. i do not think we need to cut unless the prices are falling below $35 a barrel he added.

tv s future down the phone line internet tv has been talked about since the start of the web as we know it now. but any early attempts to do it - the uk s home choice started in 1992 - were thwarted by the lack of a fast network. now that broadband networks are bedding down and it is becoming essential for millions the big telcos are keen to start shooting video down the line. in the face of competition from cable companies offering net voice calls they are keen to be the top iptv dogs. software giant microsoft thinks iptv - internet protocol tv - is the future of television and it sits neatly with its vision of the connected entertainment experience . telcos have been wanting to do video for a long time ed graczyk director of marketing for microsoft iptv told the bbc news website. the challenge has been the broadband network and the state of technology up until not so long ago did not add up to a feasible solution. compression technology was not efficient enough the net was not good enough. a lot of stars have aligned in the last 18 months to make it a reality. last year he said was all about deal making and partnering up; shaping the iptv ecosystem . this year those deals will start to play out and more services will come online. 2006 is where it starts ramping up and expanding to other geographies - over time as broadband becomes more prevalent in south america and other parts of asia it will expand he added. what telcos really want to do is to send the triple-play of video voice and data down one single line be it cable or dsl (digital subscriber line). some are talking about quadruple play too with mobile services added into the mix. it is an emerging new breed of competition for satellite and cable broadcasters and operators. according to technology analysts tdg research there will be 20 million subscribers to iptv services in under six years. key to the appeal of sending tv programmes down the same line as the web data whenever a viewer wants it is that it uses the same technology as the internet. it means there is not just a one-way relationship between the viewer and the broadcaster . this allows for more dvd-like interactivity limitless storage and broadcast space bespoke channel playlists and thousands of hours of programmes or films at a viewer s fingertips. it potentially lets operators target programmes to smaller niche or localised audiences sending films to bollywood fans for instance as well as individual devices. operators could also send high-definition programmes straight to the viewer bypassing the need for a special broadcast receiver. perhaps most compelling - yet some might say insignificant - is instantaneous channel flicking. currently there is a delay when you try to do this on satellite cable or freeview. with iptv the speed is 15 milliseconds. that gets rounds of applause according to mr graczyk. microsoft is one of the companies that started thinking about iptv some time ago. we believe this will be the way all tv is delivered in the future - but that is several years away said mr graczyk. as with music tv has moved to digital formats. the things software can do to integrate media into devices means a whole new generation of connected entertainment experiences that cross devices from the tv to the mobile to the gaming console and so on. the company intends its microsoft s iptv edition software an end-to-end management and delivery platform to let telcos to do exactly that seamlessly. it has netted seven major telcos as customers representing a potential audience of 25 million existing broadband subscribers. its deal with us telco sbc was the largest tv software deal to date said mr graczyk. iptv is about more than telcos though. there are several web-based offerings that aim to put control in the hands of the consumer by exploiting the net s power. jeremy allaire chief of brightcove told the bbc news website that it would be a flavour of iptv that was about harnessing the web as a channel . it is not just niches but about exploiting content not usually viewed he said. we are focussed on the owners of video content who have rights to digitally distribute content and who often see unencumbered distribution. for them to do it through cable and so on is price-prohibitive he said. this type of iptv service might also be a distribution channel for more established publishers who have unique types of content that they cannot offer through cable and satellite operators - history channel archives for instance. what is a clear sign that iptv has a future is that microsoft is not the only player in the field. there are a lot of other middleware players providing similar management services as microsoft like myrio and c-cor. but it will up to the viewer to decide if it really is to be successful.

us trade gap hits record in 2004 the gap between us exports and imports hit an all-time high of $671.7bn (£484bn) in 2004 latest figures show. the commerce department said the trade deficit for all of last year was 24.4% above the previous record - 2003 s imbalance of $496.5bn. the deficit with china up 30.5% at $162bn was the largest ever recorded with a single country. however on a monthly basis the us trade gap narrowed by 4.9% in december to £56.4bn. the us consumer s appetite for all things from oil to imported cars and even wine and cheese reached record levels last year and the figures are likely to spark fresh criticism of president bush s economic policies. democrats claim the administration has not done enough to clamp down on unfair foreign trade practices. for example they believe china s currency policy - which us manufacturers claim has undervalued the yuan by as much as 40% - has given china s rapidly expanding economy an unfair advantage against us competitors. meanwhile the bush administration argues that the us deficit reflects the fact the america is growing at faster rate than the rest of the world spurring on more demand for imported goods. some economists say this may allow an upward revision of us economic growth in the fourth quarter. but others point out that the deficit has reached such astronomical proportions that foreigners many choose not to hold as many dollar-denominated assets which may in turn harm growth. for all of 2004 us exports rose 12.3% to $1.15 trillion but imports rose even faster by 16.3% to a new record of $1.76 trillion. foreign oil exports surged by 35.7% to a record $180.7bn reflecting the rally in global oil prices and increasing domestic demand. imports were not affected by the dollar s weakness last year. we expect the deficit to continue to widen in 2005 even if the dollar gets back to its downward trend said economist marie-pierre ripert at ixis.

cable offers video-on-demand cable firms ntl and telewest have both launched video-on-demand services as the battle between satellite and cable tv heats up. movies from sony pictures walt disney touchstone miramax columbia and buena vista will be among those on offer. the service is similar to sky plus as users can pause fast forward and rewind content but they cannot store programmes on their set top box - yet. it could sound the death knell for some tv channels telewest predicts. it allows us to demonstrate a clear competitive advantage over sky for the first time in many years said telewest chief executive eric tveter. video-on-demand will offer a deeper range of content than currently exists on tv. there will be less compromising around the tv schedule and some of the less popular channels may go by the wayside said philip snalune director of products at telewest. telewest customers in bristol and ntl viewers in glasgow will be the first to test the new service which sees a raft of movies on offer for 24 hour rental. during the year the service will be extended to all cable regions. films will range in price from £1 or £2 for archived movies to £3.50 for current releases. new releases initially on offer will include 50 first dates kill bill: volume 2 gothika and the station agent. in addition ntl is offering children s programmes adult content music video and concerts. telewest will launch similar services later in the year. ntl is also offering viewers the chance to catch up with programmes they have missed. its pick of the week service will offer a selection of bbc programmes from the previous seven days such as eastenders casualty top gear and antiques roadshow. the bbc is trialling a similar service offering broadband users the chance to watch programmes already broadcast on their pc. for telewest it is the beginning of a £20m investment in tv-on-demand which will also see the launch of a personal video recorder (pvr). pvr has been a big success for sky because it gives customers control over programmes. satellite customers without pvr cannot pause rewind or fast forward their programmes. with both services on offer from telewest mr tveter is confident the cable firm can dent not just the viewing figures for terrestrial tv but also gain a huge competitive advantage over sky. we offer the best of both worlds and most households have an interest in having both video-on-demand and pvr he said. video rental stores may also have to watch their back. video-on-demand is better than having a video-store in your living room and is more convenient he said. ntl said it had not ruled out the possibility of offering a pvr but for the moment is concentrating on video-on-demand. pvr is a recording mechanism whereas what we are offering is truly on demand said a spokesman for the company. video-on-demand has the added advantage of not requiring a separate set-top box or extra remote controls he added. adam thomas an analyst at research firm informa media believes the time is ripe for video-on-demand to flourish. while sky will remain the dominant force in uk pay tv for some time to come ntl and telewest seem well placed to successfully ride this second wave of vod enthusiasm and if marketed correctly this could help them eat into sky s lead he said.

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.

tv s future down the phone line internet tv has been talked about since the start of the web as we know it now. but any early attempts to do it - the uk s home choice started in 1992 - were thwarted by the lack of a fast network. now that broadband networks are bedding down and it is becoming essential for millions the big telcos are keen to start shooting video down the line. in the face of competition from cable companies offering net voice calls they are keen to be the top iptv dogs. software giant microsoft thinks iptv - internet protocol tv - is the future of television and it sits neatly with its vision of the connected entertainment experience . telcos have been wanting to do video for a long time ed graczyk director of marketing for microsoft iptv told the bbc news website. the challenge has been the broadband network and the state of technology up until not so long ago did not add up to a feasible solution. compression technology was not efficient enough the net was not good enough. a lot of stars have aligned in the last 18 months to make it a reality. last year he said was all about deal making and partnering up; shaping the iptv ecosystem . this year those deals will start to play out and more services will come online. 2006 is where it starts ramping up and expanding to other geographies - over time as broadband becomes more prevalent in south america and other parts of asia it will expand he added. what telcos really want to do is to send the triple-play of video voice and data down one single line be it cable or dsl (digital subscriber line). some are talking about quadruple play too with mobile services added into the mix. it is an emerging new breed of competition for satellite and cable broadcasters and operators. according to technology analysts tdg research there will be 20 million subscribers to iptv services in under six years. key to the appeal of sending tv programmes down the same line as the web data whenever a viewer wants it is that it uses the same technology as the internet. it means there is not just a one-way relationship between the viewer and the broadcaster . this allows for more dvd-like interactivity limitless storage and broadcast space bespoke channel playlists and thousands of hours of programmes or films at a viewer s fingertips. it potentially lets operators target programmes to smaller niche or localised audiences sending films to bollywood fans for instance as well as individual devices. operators could also send high-definition programmes straight to the viewer bypassing the need for a special broadcast receiver. perhaps most compelling - yet some might say insignificant - is instantaneous channel flicking. currently there is a delay when you try to do this on satellite cable or freeview. with iptv the speed is 15 milliseconds. that gets rounds of applause according to mr graczyk. microsoft is one of the companies that started thinking about iptv some time ago. we believe this will be the way all tv is delivered in the future - but that is several years away said mr graczyk. as with music tv has moved to digital formats. the things software can do to integrate media into devices means a whole new generation of connected entertainment experiences that cross devices from the tv to the mobile to the gaming console and so on. the company intends its microsoft s iptv edition software an end-to-end management and delivery platform to let telcos to do exactly that seamlessly. it has netted seven major telcos as customers representing a potential audience of 25 million existing broadband subscribers. its deal with us telco sbc was the largest tv software deal to date said mr graczyk. iptv is about more than telcos though. there are several web-based offerings that aim to put control in the hands of the consumer by exploiting the net s power. jeremy allaire chief of brightcove told the bbc news website that it would be a flavour of iptv that was about harnessing the web as a channel . it is not just niches but about exploiting content not usually viewed he said. we are focussed on the owners of video content who have rights to digitally distribute content and who often see unencumbered distribution. for them to do it through cable and so on is price-prohibitive he said. this type of iptv service might also be a distribution channel for more established publishers who have unique types of content that they cannot offer through cable and satellite operators - history channel archives for instance. what is a clear sign that iptv has a future is that microsoft is not the only player in the field. there are a lot of other middleware players providing similar management services as microsoft like myrio and c-cor. but it will up to the viewer to decide if it really is to be successful.

off-colour gardener storms to win britain s jason gardener shook off an upset stomach to win the 60m at sunday s leipzig international meeting. gardener clocked 6.56 seconds to equal the meeting record and finished well ahead of germany s marc blume who crossed the line in 6.67 secs. the world indoor champion said: i got to the airport and my stomach was upset and i was vomiting. i almost went home. i felt a little better sunday morning but decided i d only run in the main race. then everything went perfectly. gardener part of the great britain 4x100m quartet that won gold at the athens olympics will now turn his attention to next weekend s norwich union european indoor trials in sheffield. given i am still off-colour i know there is plenty more in the tank and i expect to get faster in the next few weeks he said. it s just a case of chipping away as i have done in previous years and the results will come. scotland s ian mackie was also in action in leipzig. he stepped down from his favoured 400m to 200m to finish third in 21.72 secs. germany s alexander kosenkow won the race in 21.07 secs with dutchman patrick van balkom second in 21.58 secs. there were plenty of other senior british athletes showing their indoor form over the weekend. promising 60m hurdler clocked a new uk record of 7.98 seconds at a meeting in norway. the 24-year-old reached the mark in her heat but had to settle for joint first place with former aaa champion diane allahgreen in the final. who broke onto the international scene at the olympic games last season set an indoor personal best of 16.50m in the triple jump at a meeting in ghent. that leap - 37cm short of brazilian winner jadel gregorio s effort - was good enough to qualify for the european indoor championships. at the same meeting finished third in 7.27 seconds in a high-class women s 60m. the event was won by european medal favourite christine arron of france while belgium rival kim gevaert was second. britain s joice maduaka finished fifth in 7.35. olympic bronze heptathlon medallist made a low-key return to action at an indoor meeting in birmingham. the 28-year-old cleared 1.76m to win the high jump and threw 13.86m in the women s shot put.

russian oil merger excludes yukos the merger of russian gas giant gazprom and oil firm rosneft is to go ahead but will not include yugansk which was controversially bought last year. the merger backed by russian authorities will allow foreigners to trade in gazprom shares. gazprom chief alexei miller confirmed rosneft-owned yugansk was not part of the deal and will instead be spun off. under the agreement the state will get a controlling share of gazprom in exchange for rosneft. the state wanted to control gazprom before allowing foreigners to trade. speaking on ntv television which is controlled by gazprom mr miller added that yugansk which was swallowed up by rosneft late last year will operate as a separate state-owned oil firm headed by current rosneft chief sergei bogdanchikov. according to reports from russian news agency interfax the deal should go through in the next two to three months. obtaining majority control over gazprom is the beginning of the liberalisation of the market in gazprom shares mr miller added. by opening up trading in gazprom to foreigners the firm will become a top emerging market play for traders. currently foreigners can only trade in gazprom via a small issue of london-listed proxy shares. this is positive news for the international investment community global asset management investment chief david smith said. the majority of investors are going to be happy he added. however analysts were disappointed that yugansk would not be included in the deal. yugansk is a heavy cashflow generator and would have been a much better asset for gazprom renaissance capital energy analyst adam landes told reuters news agency. but he said the latest development was simply an interim step to allow foreigners to trade in gazprom. ultimately and industrially gazprom needs yugansk he added. analysts said the deal would give gazprom control of 8% of russia s total oil production an improvement on its current 2.5% but still far less than the 20% share it would have gained had it also taken over yugansk. however the merged group will still remain outside russia s top five oil producers - led by lukoil with 11% of the market followed by tnk-bp which is half owned by bp and surgutneftegaz. instead the merged gazprom-rosneft group will rank alongside sibneft with 7% of the market. yugansk was sold to a little-known shell company in a disputed auction in december following what many thought was a politically-motivated attack on yukos. the shell company was then snapped up by rosneft. yukos unsuccessfully sought to halt the auction by applying for bankruptcy through the us courts. the unit was auctioned by russian authorities to help pay off a $27.5bn back-tax bill.

nadal marches on in mexico rafael nadal continued his run of fine form to beat guillermo canas and reach the mexican open semis in acapulco. eighth seed nadal who picked up his second atp title when he beat alberto martin in last week s brazil open saw off the argentine third seed 7-5 6-3. he now meets argentine wild card mariano puerta who followed up his win over top seed carlos moya by overcoming spain s felix mantilla 6-4 3-6 7-6. czech fifth seed czech jiri novak was eliminated 7-5 6-1 by agustin calleri. the unseeded argentine who won the tournament two years ago now plays spain s albert montanes. montanes advanced to his first semi-final of the year with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 triumph over sixth-seeded italian filippo volandri. argentina s agustin calleri beat fourth seed jiri novak 7-5 6-1 in a battle of former champions at the mexican open. calleri won his only atp title in acapulco two years ago while novak won the singles and doubles titles in 1998. calleri will face albert montanes in the semi-finals after the spaniard ousted sixth seed filippo volandri of italy 4-6 6-3 6-4. argentine wild card mariano puerta continued his improbable run outlasting felix mantilla 6-4 3-6 7-6.

tokyo says deflation controlled the japanese government has forecast that the country s economic growth will slow to 1.6% in the next fiscal year starting in april 2005. while it predicts this fall from the current 2.1% level it said it was making progress on ending deflation. the figures were given by economics minister heizo takenaka who said the economy would grow by 2% in 2006/07. he said the consumer price index (cpi) would rise 0.1% in the next fiscal year the first gain since 2000/01. we are attempting to make real economic conditions better and to overcome deflation. i think we are on track said mr takenaka. deflation - or falling consumer prices - has plagued japan for more than five years. to ease the problem the bank of japan has regularly flooded the money market with excess cash to keep short term interest rates at 0% in an attempt to spur economic activity.

tv future in the hands of viewers with home theatre systems plasma high-definition tvs and digital video recorders moving into the living room the way people watch tv will be radically different in five years time. that is according to an expert panel which gathered at the annual consumer electronics show in las vegas to discuss how these new technologies will impact one of our favourite pastimes. with the us leading the trend programmes and other content will be delivered to viewers via home networks through cable satellite telecoms companies and broadband service providers to front rooms and portable devices. one of the most talked-about technologies of ces has been digital and personal video recorders (dvr and pvr). these set-top boxes like the us s tivo and the uk s sky+ system allow people to record store play pause and forward wind tv programmes when they want. essentially the technology allows for much more personalised tv. they are also being built-in to high-definition tv sets which are big business in japan and the us but slower to take off in europe because of the lack of high-definition programming. not only can people forward wind through adverts they can also forget about abiding by network and channel schedules putting together their own a-la-carte entertainment. but some us networks and cable and satellite companies are worried about what it means for them in terms of advertising revenues as well as brand identity and viewer loyalty to channels. although the us leads in this technology at the moment it is also a concern that is being raised in europe particularly with the growing uptake of services like sky+. what happens here today we will see in nine months to a years time in the uk adam hume the bbc broadcast s futurologist told the bbc news website. for the likes of the bbc there are no issues of lost advertising revenue yet. it is a more pressing issue at the moment for commercial uk broadcasters but brand loyalty is important for everyone. we will be talking more about content brands rather than network brands said tim hanlon from brand communications firm starcom mediavest. the reality is that with broadband connections anybody can be the producer of content. he added: the challenge now is that it is hard to promote a programme with so much choice. what this means said stacey jolna senior vice president of tv guide tv group is that the way people find the content they want to watch has to be simplified for tv viewers. it means that networks in us terms or channels could take a leaf out of google s book and be the search engine of the future instead of the scheduler to help people find what they want to watch. this kind of channel model might work for the younger ipod generation which is used to taking control of their gadgets and what they play on them. but it might not suit everyone the panel recognised. older generations are more comfortable with familiar schedules and channel brands because they know what they are getting. they perhaps do not want so much of the choice put into their hands mr hanlon suggested. on the other end you have the kids just out of diapers who are pushing buttons already - everything is possible and available to them said mr hanlon. ultimately the consumer will tell the market they want. of the 50 000 new gadgets and technologies being showcased at ces many of them are about enhancing the tv-watching experience. high-definition tv sets are everywhere and many new models of lcd (liquid crystal display) tvs have been launched with dvr capability built into them instead of being external boxes. one such example launched at the show is humax s 26-inch lcd tv with an 80-hour tivo dvr and dvd recorder. one of the us s biggest satellite tv companies directtv has even launched its own branded dvr at the show with 100-hours of recording capability instant replay and a search function. the set can pause and rewind tv for up to 90 hours. and microsoft chief bill gates announced in his pre-show keynote speech a partnership with tivo called tivotogo which means people can play recorded programmes on windows pcs and mobile devices. all these reflect the increasing trend of freeing up multimedia so that people can watch what they want when they want.

white prepared for battle tough-scrummaging prop julian white is expecting a resurgent wales to give him a rough ride in england s six nations opener in cardiff on saturday. the leicester tight-head is in the form of his life making the england number three shirt his own. but he knows wales will put his technique under immense scrutiny. the welsh scrum is a force to be reckoned with he told bbc sport. they have made a lot of changes for the better over the last few years. white is also impressed with the welsh pack s strength in depth. gethin jenkins is starting at loose-head for them. he has played a bit at tight-head but i think his favoured position is loose-head and he is very good he added. the 31-year-old has made a massive contribution to the england and leicester cause of late and is arguably the form tight-head prop in the world. he destroyed south africa s os du randt in the scrum at twickenham last autumn to give england the platform for an impressive 32-16 victory. leicester who signed white from bristol when the west country side were relegated from the zurich premiership in the summer of 2003 have also been aided by white s presence this season. the tigers are sitting pretty at the top of the premiership table and have also booked their place in the last eight of the heineken cup. i am pleased with my form he said. but my form is helped by the people i play with at leicester - people like martin johnson and graham rowntree. it s been a good season so far and to be in the starting xv for the first game of the six nations is what every player wants. i am delighted with the way things have gone but we have to get it right this weekend. white is now one of the more experienced members of the england squad which takes to the field on saturday. injuries have taken their toll and coach andy robinson has been deprived of richard hill jonny wilkinson martin corry mike tindall will greenwood and stuart abbott. and with 27 caps and a world cup winner s medal to his name white is now in a position to offer his experience to youngsters such as centres matthew tait and jamie noon. i don t know how much experience a tight-head can give a centre but you are there to give them a pat on the back if things go wrong or to be there if they want to talk in any way he added. when i first came into the squad people like jason leonard and martin johnson were the first to come over and talk through things and help out. it gives you a lot of confidence when people like that speak to you. i was in awe of a lot of them so to sit down and speak with them and realise you are on the same wavelength is good. white missed the vast majority of last year s six nations because of a knee injury and is raring for the 2005 event to get going. and that is despite the opening game taking place amid the red-hot atmosphere in cardiff. i enjoy the atmosphere. the millennium stadium is probably one of the best stadiums in the world he said. to go down there and hear the shouting and the singing - it s one of my favourite places to play. this is probably the most even six nations for a long time. england ireland france and wales are all contenders. on form ireland should be favourites but you just don t know - that s the great thing about this tournament.

ecb holds rates amid growth fears the european central bank has left its key interest rate unchanged at 2% for the 19th month in succession. borrowing costs have remained on hold amid concerns about the strength of economic growth in the 12 nations sharing the euro analysts said. despite signs of pick-up labour markets and consumer demand remain sluggish while firms are eyeing cost cutting measures such as redundancies. high oil prices meanwhile have put upward pressure on the inflation rate. surveys of economists have shown that the majority expect borrowing costs to stay at 2% in coming months with an increase of a quarter of a percentage point predicted some time in the second half of the year. if anything there may be greater calls for an interest rate cut especially with the euro continuing to strengthen against the dollar. the euro land economy is still struggling with this recovery said economist dirk schumacher. the ecb may sound rather hawkish but once the data allows them to cut again they will. data coming out of germany on thursday underlined the problems facing european policy makers. while germany s economy expanded by 1.7% in 2004 growth was driven by export sales and lost some of its momentum in the last three months of the year. the strength of the euro is threatening to dampen that foreign demand in 2005 and domestic consumption currently is not strong enough to take up the slack. inflation in the eurozone however is estimated at about 2.3% in december above ecb guidelines of 2%. ecb president jean-claude trichet has remained upbeat about prospects for the region and inflation is expected to drop below 2% later in 2005. the ecb has forecast economic growth in the eurozone of 1.9% in 2005.

tv s future down the phone line internet tv has been talked about since the start of the web as we know it now. but any early attempts to do it - the uk s home choice started in 1992 - were thwarted by the lack of a fast network. now that broadband networks are bedding down and it is becoming essential for millions the big telcos are keen to start shooting video down the line. in the face of competition from cable companies offering net voice calls they are keen to be the top iptv dogs. software giant microsoft thinks iptv - internet protocol tv - is the future of television and it sits neatly with its vision of the connected entertainment experience . telcos have been wanting to do video for a long time ed graczyk director of marketing for microsoft iptv told the bbc news website. the challenge has been the broadband network and the state of technology up until not so long ago did not add up to a feasible solution. compression technology was not efficient enough the net was not good enough. a lot of stars have aligned in the last 18 months to make it a reality. last year he said was all about deal making and partnering up; shaping the iptv ecosystem . this year those deals will start to play out and more services will come online. 2006 is where it starts ramping up and expanding to other geographies - over time as broadband becomes more prevalent in south america and other parts of asia it will expand he added. what telcos really want to do is to send the triple-play of video voice and data down one single line be it cable or dsl (digital subscriber line). some are talking about quadruple play too with mobile services added into the mix. it is an emerging new breed of competition for satellite and cable broadcasters and operators. according to technology analysts tdg research there will be 20 million subscribers to iptv services in under six years. key to the appeal of sending tv programmes down the same line as the web data whenever a viewer wants it is that it uses the same technology as the internet. it means there is not just a one-way relationship between the viewer and the broadcaster . this allows for more dvd-like interactivity limitless storage and broadcast space bespoke channel playlists and thousands of hours of programmes or films at a viewer s fingertips. it potentially lets operators target programmes to smaller niche or localised audiences sending films to bollywood fans for instance as well as individual devices. operators could also send high-definition programmes straight to the viewer bypassing the need for a special broadcast receiver. perhaps most compelling - yet some might say insignificant - is instantaneous channel flicking. currently there is a delay when you try to do this on satellite cable or freeview. with iptv the speed is 15 milliseconds. that gets rounds of applause according to mr graczyk. microsoft is one of the companies that started thinking about iptv some time ago. we believe this will be the way all tv is delivered in the future - but that is several years away said mr graczyk. as with music tv has moved to digital formats. the things software can do to integrate media into devices means a whole new generation of connected entertainment experiences that cross devices from the tv to the mobile to the gaming console and so on. the company intends its microsoft s iptv edition software an end-to-end management and delivery platform to let telcos to do exactly that seamlessly. it has netted seven major telcos as customers representing a potential audience of 25 million existing broadband subscribers. its deal with us telco sbc was the largest tv software deal to date said mr graczyk. iptv is about more than telcos though. there are several web-based offerings that aim to put control in the hands of the consumer by exploiting the net s power. jeremy allaire chief of brightcove told the bbc news website that it would be a flavour of iptv that was about harnessing the web as a channel . it is not just niches but about exploiting content not usually viewed he said. we are focussed on the owners of video content who have rights to digitally distribute content and who often see unencumbered distribution. for them to do it through cable and so on is price-prohibitive he said. this type of iptv service might also be a distribution channel for more established publishers who have unique types of content that they cannot offer through cable and satellite operators - history channel archives for instance. what is a clear sign that iptv has a future is that microsoft is not the only player in the field. there are a lot of other middleware players providing similar management services as microsoft like myrio and c-cor. but it will up to the viewer to decide if it really is to be successful.

supercomputer breaks speed record the us is poised to push japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with ibm s prototype blue gene/l machine. it is being assembled for the lawrence livermore national laboratory a us department of energy (doe) lab. doe test results show that blue gene/l has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. the current top machine japan s nec earth simulator clocks up 35.86. due next week the top 500 list officially charts the fastest computers in the world. it is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially recognised mathematical speed test called linpack which measures calculations per second. the speeds will most likely make it the fastest computer system on the planet yet the chip technology powering the machine is the kind which can be found in familiar devices such as games consoles. the us secretary of energy spencer abraham confirmed that the machine had reached the breakneck speed according to the linpack benchmark. until the official list is published however blue gene/l s position will not be confirmed and there are expected to be some other new entries. but the test results raise the bar of supercomputing enormously and signal a remarkable achievement. surpassing the 40 trillion calculations per second (teraflop) mark has been considered a landmark for some time. the ibm blue gene/l is only a prototype and is one 5th the speed of the full version due to be completed for the livermore labs in 2005. its peak theoretical performance is expected to be 360 teraflops and will fit into 64 full racks. it will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power a big problem for supercomputers. the final machine will help scientists work out the safety security and reliability requirements for the us s nuclear weapons stockpile without the need for underground nuclear testing. the earth simulator has held on to the top spot since june 2002. it is dedicated to climate modelling and simulating seismic activity. but in september ibm said that another blue gene/l machine clocked up 36.01 teraflops marginally surpassing the earth simulator s performance. this was achieved during internal testing at ibm s production facility in rochester minnesota though so was not an official record. another giant to enter the fray is silicon graphics columbia supercomputer based at nasa s ames research center in california. it would be used to model flight missions climate research and aerospace engineering. the linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of 42.7 teraflops in october. supercomputers are hugely important for working out very complex problems across science and society. their massive simulation and processing power means they can improve the accuracy of weather forecasts help design better cars and improve disease diagnosis. ibm s senior vice president of technology and manufacturing nick donofrio believes that by 2006 blue gene will be capable of petaflop computing. this means it would be capable of doing 1 000 trillion operations a second. when you get a computer as large as a petaflop you can start to think of simulations that might complement the physical world mr donofrio recently told the bbc news website. you can start to be more proactive more interactive and more innovative. one area where mr donofrio sees supercomputing - and blue gene machines in particular - as crucial is health. he believes the machines can help scientists understand one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century: protein folding. health is one of the most important problems not just mapping the human genome but also protein structures. we are a great believer in simulation. it gives you another tool he said. once the structures of proteins are understood fully then drugs can be tailor-made to fight diseases more effectively. compared with the current fastest supercomputers blue gene is designed to consume one 15th the power and be 10 times more compact. since the first supercomputer the cray-1 was installed at los alamos national laboratory in 1976 computational speed has leaped 500 000 times. the cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). the blue gene/l machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster. started in 1993 the top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science academics from around the world. it is presented at the international supercomputer conference in pittsburgh.

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

uk needs true immigration data a former home office minister has called for an independent body to be set up to monitor uk immigration. barbara roche said an organisation should monitor and publish figures and be independent of government. she said this would counter so-called independent groups like migration watch which she described as an anti-immigration body posing as independent. migration watch says it is not against all immigration and the government already publishes accurate figures. sir andrew green chairman of the organisation says there is no need for an independent body because office of national statistics data are accurate. he says he opposes large-scale immigration both on the grounds of overcrowding and culture . he said: for example over the next 20 years one household in three will be due to immigration. we are already more overcrowded than india and we are four times more overcrowded than france. ms roche labour mp for hornsey and wood green believes legal migration is something we should welcome. she said her proposals mean we wouldn t have so-called independent experts like migration watch who come into this debate from an anti-immigration point of view. she went on: what i would like to see is there being a body which actually looked at the figures published them and was independent of government. i think that would go a long way to allaying some of the fears that are sometimes whipped up during this debate.

asylum children to face returns the uk government is planning to return asylum seeker children without parents to albania. the trial scheme which could start in weeks may be extended to apply to children from other countries. children s charities have reacted with alarm saying the policy amounts to forcible removal and may not guarantee the safety of those affected. but the home office says it may be in the children s best interests if it reunites them with their communities. the pilot included in the government s five-year immigration plan aims to return unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from albania who have failed in their asylum claims. since 2002 at least 9 000 under-18s have arrived in the uk to seek asylum without other family members. these children automatically become the responsibility of social services. up to now ministers have held back from final removal orders against unaccompanied children until after they are legally adults at 18. at least a dozen albanian-born teenagers are thought to have been identified for return according to sources although there is no public confirmation of numbers. those selected could either be returned to their families should they be traced or placed in the care of other albanian authorities. separate negotiations to establish a family tracing and returns scheme are believed to be underway with another country. under the 1989 children act public bodies have a duty to act in the best interest of a child in their care. laura brownlees of save the children said there were grave concerns not least because of the well-documented trafficking of children into crime and prostitution in albania. if children are going to be returned then there should be proper assessments and decisions on a case by case basis she said. we do not think there are structures in place [to receive returning children in albania]. if these decisions are not in the best interests of the child then that is a forced removal because the child will not have any choice in the final decision. in its five-year immigration plan announced on tuesday the government said it was addressing the difficult issue of returning unaccompanied asylum seeking children. a spokesman for the home office said it was wholly wrong to suggest that the plan was to return children and leave them to rot . we are developing a returns programme for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children whose asylum and humanitarian protection claims have been refused said the spokesman. we have been exploring how we can establish reception and longer-term care arrangements in countries of origin and believe that it s possible to return children in a way that is in their best interests and is safe and sustainable. we do not believe that it is right or in keeping with children s legislation that children who can return should remain in the uk indefinitely separated from their families and communities. the spokesman stressed the uk would abide by its international human rights obligations. only those children who could be provided with a carefully planned reintegration package would be returned he said. but andrew hogg spokesman for the medical foundation for the care of victims of torture said ministers had so far failed to reassure agencies. from what is so far known we strongly oppose the scheme because the welfare and best interests of the child will not properly be taken into account said mr hogg. in albania particularly there is no statutory child care or protection structure. the medical foundation has many serious concerns including the assessment process for suitability for return the degrading of best interests of the child principles and of child welfare and the lack of safeguards in the chosen countries. a spokesman for the albanian embassy in london said it was the first it had heard of a scheme but did not rule out that there had been an agreement between the two countries.

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.

funding cut hits wales students the wales students rugby side has become a casualty of the welsh rugby union s reorganisation at youth level. an amalgamated under-18 side formed from separate schools and national youth teams plays its first match on thursday against italy at the gnoll. but that move has seen the wru decide to end its funding of representative sides such as wales students. as a result traditional international fixtures against england and france in the new year have been cancelled. the welsh students rugby football union feels that it is unable to properly prepare for or stage the matches. the secretary of the welsh students rugby football union reverend eldon phillips said: it is a shame that fixtures cannot be maintained this year. the competition provided by the strong english and french teams has enabled the welsh students to test themselves in high quality matches. the increasing number of young rugby players entering higher education look for the biggest challenge that is representative rugby but this year that opportunity will be denied them. players who have played for wales students before going on to win full senior representative honours include robert jones rob howley jon humphreys darren morris martyn williams and ceri sweeney.

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.

african double in edinburgh world 5000m champion eliud kipchoge won the 9.2km race at the view from great edinburgh cross country. the kenyan who was second when newcastle hosted the race last year was in front from the outset. ethiopian duo gebre gebremariam and dejene berhanu made last-gasp efforts to overtake him but kipchoge responded and a burst of speed clinched victory. gavin thompson was the first briton in 12th place while nick mccormick held of his british rivals to win the 4km race. the morpeth harrier led from the end of the first lap and ended mike skinner and andrew baddeley s hopes with a surge in the lasp lap. my training has gone so well i wasn t really worried about the opposition asi knew i was in great shape said mccormick who now hopes to earn a 1 500m place in the british team for the world championships in helsinki. in the women s race ethiopia s tirunesh dibaba won a battle with world cross country champion benita johnson to retain her title. australian johnson who shocked her african rivals in brussels last march looked to be on course for another win in the 6.2km race. but world 5000m champion dibaba make a telling strike for the finishing line in the final 20 metres. britons kathy butler and hayley yelling were out of contention early on.

uk firm faces venezuelan land row venezuelan authorities have said they will seize land owned by a british company as part of president chavez s agrarian reform programme. officials in cojedes state said on friday that farmland owned by a subsidiary of the vestey group would be taken and used to settle poor farmers. the government is cracking down on so-called latifundios or large rural estates which it says are lying idle. the vestey group said it had not been informed of any planned seizure. the firm whose agroflora subsidiary operates 13 farms in venezuela insisted that it had complied fully with venezuelan law. prosecutors in the south of the country have targeted hato el charcote a beef cattle ranch owned by agroflora. according to reuters they plan to seize 12 900 acres (5 200 hectares) from the 32 000 acre (13 000 hectare) farm. officials claim that agroflora does not possess valid documents proving its ownership of the land in question. they also allege that areas of the ranch are not being used for any form of active production. the legal boundaries did not match up with the actual boundaries and there is surplus state prosecutor alexis ortiz told reuters. as a consequence the government has taken action. controversial reforms passed in 2001 give the government the right to take control of private property if it is declared idle or ownership cannot be traced back to the 19th century. critics say the powers - which president chavez argues are needed to help the country s poorest citizens and develop the venezuelan economy - trample all over private property rights. the vestey group said it had owned the land since 1920 and would co-operate fully with the authorities. but a spokesman added: agroflora is absolutely confident that what it has submitted will demonstrate the legality of its title to the land. the company pointed out that the farm which employs 300 workers provides meat solely for the venezuelan market. last month the government said it had identified more than 500 idle farms and had yet to consider the status of a further 40 000. the authorities said landowners whose titles were in order and whose farms were productive had nothing to fear . under president chavez the venezuelan government has steadily expanded the state s involvement in the country s economy. it recently said all mining contracts involving foreign firms would be examined to ensure they provided sufficient economic benefits to the state.

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.

hodgson relishes european clashes former blackburn boss roy hodgson says the premiership should follow the rest of europe and have a winter break - but insists that a gruelling domestic schedule will not damage the english elite s bid for champions league glory. hodgson - now in charge at viking stavanger - was at liverpool s clash with bayer leverkusen at anfield on tuesday as a member of uefa s technical committee. hodgson is a fierce advocate of the winter break employed throughout europe although not in england - where the champions league contenders have ploughed through a heavy fixture list. but hodgson told bbc sport that while he believes the premiership should embrace the idea he does not expect it to cost the english representatives in the last 16 of the champions league. i just feel it is very difficult to say with certainty that teams who have had the break will have a definite edge. i am a fervent supporter of the break. it gives players the chance to recharge their batteries midway through the season which some suggest will give teams an advantage in the champions league. the other school of thought suggests having a break then coming back to it puts you at a disadvantage. the bigger discussions around the winter break should be to do with the nature of football today the needs of football players and the way the premiership has developed rather than one or two matches in the champions league in february. hodgson believes a winter break carries many advantages explaining: as i said it is the perfect chance to recharge batteries. and certainly if i was still a manager in england i would be supporting any calls for its introduction. in pre-season you get a lot of enthusiasm and energy but by the time you get towards christmas many players having also played plenty of international matches for club and country and travelled a lot find themselves getting very jaded. the break gives them a chance to recover that energy and enthusiasm and perhaps more importantly recover their mental strength during the break and get ready for the games ahead. the mental side is by far the most important thing. hodgson added: the length of breaks can vary. in italy the break was very short. you just took christmas and new year. it was so short you didn t do anything. you gave the players a week or 10 days off then you were training for a week or 10 days and then went into a game. if it is longer it is important those responsible for physical fitness give the players a programme to follow to ensure the physical strength they have accumulated stays with them. and hodgson believes a winter break would be a positive step in the premiership. he said: if we talk about football at elite level which the premiership is then i would support a winter break. if you examine the demands of the premier league and in particular on players who play international football for their club and country then a break would do them the world of good - physically and mentally.

stormy year for property insurers a string of storms typhoons and earthquakes has made 2004 the most expensive year on record for property insurers according to swiss re. the world s second biggest insurer said disasters around the globe have seen property claims reach $42bn (£21.5bn). 2004 reinforces the trend towards higher losses said swiss re. tightly packed populations in the areas involved in natural and man-made disasters were to partly to blame for the rise in claims it said. some 95% of insurance claims were for natural catastrophes with the rest attributed to made-made events. the largest claims came from the us which was struck by four hurricanes and japan which suffered the highest concentration of typhoons for decades plus a major earthquake. europe suffered fewer natural disasters but 191 people were killed and more than 2 000 injured in march after the terrorist attack on train stations in madrid. the damages claimed in 2004 eclipsed previous years including 2001 when the 11 september attacks pushed claims up to $37bn. swiss re said it had registered about 300 natural and man-made disasters around the world in 2004. twenty-one thousand people lost their lives in the catastrophes with a cost to the global economy of around $105bn (£54bn).

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

gsk aims to stop aids profiteers one of the world s largest manufacturers of hiv/aids drugs has launched an initiative to combat the smuggling of cheaper pills - supplied to poorer african countries - back into europe for resale at far higher price. the company glaxosmithkline is to alter the packaging and change the colour of the pills currently provided to developing nations under a humanitarian agreement. it is estimated that drugs companies are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year as a result of the diversion of their products in this way. this is a very sensitive area for the big drugs companies. they want to maintain their profits but have been put under tremendous pressure to provide cheap anti-aids drugs to the world s poorest nations. the result is that drugs supplied to africa are now more than thirty times cheaper than those sold in europe; bringing these medicines within the reach of millions of hiv-positive africans through their government s health care systems. but the wide difference in price also means that there are big gains to be made from illegally diverting these cheaper drugs back into wealthier countries and re-selling them at a higher price. glaxosmithkline believes that by coating the pills destined for africa in a red dye and adding new identification codes both onto the pills and on the packaging then this trade can be substantially reduced. the company says that it will then be possible to identify specific distributors in africa who have re-sold humanitarian drugs for profit as well as those suppliers in europe that have also been involved in the trade. glaxo says distribution of the new-look drugs has already begun and that their chemical content is identical to those currently being sold in europe.

mcclaren eyes uefa cup top spot steve mcclaren wants his middlesbrough team to win their uefa cup group by beating partizan belgrade. boro have already qualified for the knockout stages alongside partizan and villareal at the expense of lazio. but boss mcclaren is looking for a victory which would mean they avoid a team that has played in the champions league in friday s third-round draw. to need a win to finish top is fantastic but it is going to be a tough one mcclaren said. when the draw was made i thought it was the toughest group of them all - and so it has proved. lazio were favourites villarreal have been semi-finalists and partizan have fantastic experience in europe. the pleasing thing is we did the business in the first two games. winning those two has put us in a great position and it has been a fantastic experience playing these teams.

adriano s chelsea link rejected adriano s agent gilmar rinaldi has insisted that he has had no contact with chelsea over the striker. chelsea were reported to have made inquiries about inter milan s 22-year-old brazilian star. rinaldi told bbc sport from rio de janeiro: i can assure you that chelsea have had no dealings whatsoever with either me or adriano. parma and real madrid are interested but there s nothing new there. their interest has been known for some time. adriano has scored 14 goals in 20 serie a appearances this season. and chelsea boss jose mourinho had claimed that he was in milan talking to adriano on the day he is alleged to have held a clandestine meeting with arsenal defender ashley cole. mourinho said he was just practising my portuguese with him because i don t need strikers . rinaldi told bbc sport: i have to say that nobody from chelsea or any other london club has contacted me. if they want to that s fine. i can tell them what the situation is. if chelsea are interested then they must make an offer. inter are reported to have slapped a price tag in the region of £40m on the head of adriano who joined them just over a year ago from parma. real madrid view him as a natural replacement for compatriot ronaldo. but rinaldi said: i cannot give you a price that inter would accept for adriano. that s something that would have to be negotiated between the interested clubs.

bening makes awards breakthrough film actress annette bening is up for an oscar for her starring role in the award-winning film being julia. bening who was born in texas in 1958 has gained prominence for a string of key roles. although an oscar has so far eluded her her status as one of hollywood s favourite actresses remains solid. one of the biggest oscars buzzes in recent years was for bening s role as troubled carolyn burnham in 1999 s american beauty. but her deliciously neurotic portrayal of surburban life turning sour was overlooked in favour of hilary swank s leading role in boys don t cry. after opening her career in the theatre - and gaining a tony award nomination in 1986 - bening had a low-key spell in television. she then made her film debut as a sex-starved wife in 1988 s the great outdoors opposite comics dan akroyd and john candy. following a cameo in postcards from the edge bening s breakthrough role came in 1990 playing seductive con artist myra langtry in the grifters - a role that won her an oscar nomination. despite some rave reviews bening did not win the best supporting actress academy award. however the high-profile performance enabled bening to capture roles in a number of big budget hollywood productions co-starring with some of hollywood s greatest players including robert de niro and harrison ford. but it was her role opposite warren beatty in 1991 gangster flick bugsy which had the greatest impact. bening played virginia hill another role which won her high critical acclaim but the film only picked up two of a staggering 12 oscar nominations. bugsy was the start of a very significant liaison for bening - she married beatty with whom she had a child as the couple promoted the film in europe. the couple now have four children together. a pair of contrasting yet successful performances peppered bening s career in the mid-1990s. she played michael douglas opposite number in romantic comedy the american president and as a fiery queen elizabeth i in a contemporary adaptation of shakespeare s richard iii. bening was the first choice to play the female lead in american beauty director sam mendes film debut which was a critical and commercial success - but the actress had to be content with a bafta award for her strong performance. but current film being julia has made bening an award-winning actress rather than the perennial nominee with success at the golden globes. the witty tale of revenge and love set in 1930s london sees the eponymous theatrical diva - played by bening - grow tired of her success and fall for a young american - and could be the role which finally wins her the coveted academy award.

khodorkovsky ally denies charges a close associate of former yukos boss mikhail khodorkovsky has told a court that fraud charges levelled against him are false . platon lebedev has been on trial alongside mr khodorkovsky since june in a case centring around the privatisation of a fertiliser firm. the pair claim they are being punished by the authorities for the political ambitions of mr khodorkovsky. mr lebedev said there were absurd contradictions in the case. opening his defence he said he could not see the legal basis of the charges he faced which also include allegations of tax evasion. to my embarrassment i could not understand the file of complaints against me he told a moscow court. mr lebedev headed the menatep group the parent company of yukos. mr lebedev and mr khodorkovsky who each face a possible 10 year jail sentence if convicted will be questioned by a judge over the next few days. mr khodorkovsky began his testimony last week telling the court that he objected to the way that the running of a normal business has been presented as a work of criminal fiction . the charges are seen by supporters as politically motivated and part of a drive by russian president vladimir putin to rein in the country s super-rich business leaders the so-called oligarchs. yukos has been presented with a $27.5bn (£13bn) tax demand by the russian authorities and its key yugansk division was auctioned off to part settle the bill. the company s effort to gain bankruptcy protection in the us - in a bid to win damages for the sale - were dismissed by a court in texas.

brazil buy boosts belgium s inbev belgian brewing giant inbev has seen its profits soar thanks to its acquisition of brazil s biggest beer firm ambev last year. inbev which makes stella artois said pre-tax profits for 2004 rose 56% to 1.16bn euros ($1.5bn; £800m) and said it expected solid growth in 2005. the performance comes on sales up 21% at 8.6bn euros. the firm formerly interbrew became the world s biggest brewer by volume when it bought ambev in august 2004. the acquisition meant its sales by volume grew 57% in 2004 with four months of ambev sales accounting for almost all of the increase. us beermaker anheuser-busch sells less beer by volume than inbev but is bigger in terms of the value of its sales. continuing demand for inbev s products in the south american markets where its brazilian arm is most popular means it expects to keep boosting its turnover. it s the brazil business that s doing it said ing analyst gerard rijk of inbev s strong performance. ambev boosted its share of brazil s beer market from 62% at the end of 2003 to more than 68% by december 2004 inbev reported. in contrast inbev s european business saw volume sales fall 2.5% although central and eastern european sales rose 12%. overall net profits were up 42% to 719m euros.

old firm pair handed suspensions celtic s henri camara and nacho novo of rangers have both been suspended for offences missed by the referee in a recent old firm game. both were given automatic one-match bans and 12 additional disciplinary points for their actions. that means novo will miss a further two games because of his prior record. camara will miss one additional game. novo was found guilty of stamping on celtic s stephen pearson. camara was punished for kicking gregory vignal. i m extremely disappointed. i don t know if there s a lot to add to that said rangers manager alex mcleish of novo s punishment. but what i will say is that i m at a loss as to why that incident should be picked up and highlighted when there were so many other incidents during the game. both players will miss this weekend s games when celtic host dundee united and rangers visit kilmarnock unless they decide to appeal. the additional bans come into effect from 28 december meaning camara will also be unavailable for the home game against livingston while novo will miss the meetings with dundee united and dunfermline. an sfa spokesman said: they have seven days to appeal but with matches coming along at the weekend they would need to do so before friday. but if they do appeal it won t be heard before this weekend because it takes a bit of time to seat up an appeals tribunal. meanwhile bob malcolm and rangers have been informed by letter as to the outcome of the hearing regarding his reaction to rangers being awarded a penalty in the same game. malcolm a substitute on the day was taken from the rangers dug-out and spoken to by police about an alleged gesture he made. but the sfa would not detail what if any punishment malcolm would receive. once rangers receive our letter we will be in a position to make a comment on the findings added the spokesman.

newcastle line up babayaro newcastle manager graeme souness is closing in on signing chelsea defender celestine babayaro when the transfer window reopens. souness is bidding to bolster his defence and according to reports contract negotiations are at an advanced stage with the player. babayaro has been in the premiership since 1997 when he moved to chelsea for £2.25m from anderlecht. but the 26-year-old has been surplus to requirements this season. souness would not be drawn on specifics over individual players. but he said: all i can tell you is that the chairman has worked really hard in the last couple of months to try to do deals. we have said from day one we want to strengthen and that is what we are hoping to do in the coming weeks.

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.

russia wto talks make progress talks on russia s proposed membership of the world trade organisation (wto) have been making good progress say those behind the negotiations. but the chairman of the working party ambassador stefan johannesson of iceland warned that there was still a lot of work has to be done . his comments came as president george w bush said the us backed russian entry. but he said for russia to make progress the government must renew a commitment to democracy and the rule of law . his comments come three days before he is due to meet president vladimir putin. russia has been waiting for a decade to join the wto and hopes to finally become a member by early 2006. a decision could be reached in december when the wto s 148 current members gather for a summit in hong kong. that would allow an earliest date for membership of january 2006 if the hong kong summit gave its approval. while pinpointing several areas in which there are difficulties in the bilateral and multilateral work with russia the us said the meeting was much more efficient than we ve seen for some time . and australia said it was one of the best (meetings) we can recall in terms of substance . mr johannesson also said progress on the bilateral market access side is accelerating . sticking points to membership have included limits on foreign ownership in the telecommunications and life insurance businesses as well as issues surrounding counterfeiting piracy and data protection. some wto members also dislike russia s energy price subsidies which competitors say give russian businesses an unfair advantage.

brazil buy boosts belgium s inbev belgian brewing giant inbev has seen its profits soar thanks to its acquisition of brazil s biggest beer firm ambev last year. inbev which makes stella artois said pre-tax profits for 2004 rose 56% to 1.16bn euros ($1.5bn; £800m) and said it expected solid growth in 2005. the performance comes on sales up 21% at 8.6bn euros. the firm formerly interbrew became the world s biggest brewer by volume when it bought ambev in august 2004. the acquisition meant its sales by volume grew 57% in 2004 with four months of ambev sales accounting for almost all of the increase. us beermaker anheuser-busch sells less beer by volume than inbev but is bigger in terms of the value of its sales. continuing demand for inbev s products in the south american markets where its brazilian arm is most popular means it expects to keep boosting its turnover. it s the brazil business that s doing it said ing analyst gerard rijk of inbev s strong performance. ambev boosted its share of brazil s beer market from 62% at the end of 2003 to more than 68% by december 2004 inbev reported. in contrast inbev s european business saw volume sales fall 2.5% although central and eastern european sales rose 12%. overall net profits were up 42% to 719m euros.

housewives lift channel 4 ratings the debut of us television hit desperate housewives has helped lift channel 4 s january audience share by 12% compared to last year. other successes such as celebrity big brother and the simpsons have enabled the broadcaster to surpass bbc two for the first month since last july. bbc two s share of the audience fell from 11.2% to 9.6% last month in comparison with january 2004. celebrity big brother attracted fewer viewers than its 2002 series. comedy drama desperate housewives managed to pull in five million viewers at one point during its run to date attracting a quarter of the television audience. the two main television channels bbc1 and itv1 have both seen their monthly audience share decline in a year on year comparison for january while five s proportion remained the same at a slender 6.3%. digital multi-channel tv is continuing to be the strongest area of growth with the bbc reporting freeview box ownership of five million including one million sales in the last portion of 2004. its share of the audience soared by 20% in january 2005 compared with last year and currently stands at an average of 28.6%.

tsunami debt deal to be announced chancellor gordon brown has said he hopes to announce a deal to suspend debt interest repayments by tsunami-hit nations later on friday. the agreement by the g8 group of wealthy nations would save affected countries £3bn pounds a year he said. the deal is thought to have been hammered out on thursday night after japan one of the biggest creditor nations finally signed up to it. mr brown first proposed the idea earlier this week. g8 ministers are also believed to have agreed to instruct the world bank and the international monetary fund to complete a country by country analysis of the reconstruction problems faced by all states hit by the disaster. mr brown has been locked in talks with finance ministers of the g8 which britain now chairs. germany also proposed a freeze and canada has begun its own moratorium. the expected deal comes as foreign secretary jack straw said the number of britons dead or missing in the disaster have reached 440.

big guns ease through in san jose top-seeded americans andy roddick and andre agassi survived minor scares to reach the last eight of the sap open. agassi endured early problems against left-handed dane kenneth carlsen before sealing a 7-5 6-1 victory. and world number three roddick dropped a set to korean player hyung-taik lee before pulling out a 6-3 3-6 6-2 win in san jose california. seventh seed jurgen melzer came through 6-3 6-3 against xavier malisse - winner in delray beach last week. frenchman cyril saulnier meanwhile fired 19 aces to secure a 6-1 7-6 win over czech qualifier tomas zib. roddick broke a racket in frustration in the third game of the second set. and afterwards was unimpressed with his form. i m not playing great he said. but i m through and i m going to keep battling. a lot of people are under the assumption that it s easy to play well every week and it s not. it is the 12th time in 13 appearances at the event that agassi now 34 has progressed to the quarter-final stage. he came from 0-40 down in the opening game to hold serve and gradually wore carlsen down after attacking his backhand. agassi also employed several lobs and charged to the net to unsettle the 31-year-old dane ranked 88th in the world. as the match went on i got real patient and waited for my opportunities and felt pretty good said agassi.

halo 2 sells five million copies microsoft is celebrating bumper sales of its xbox sci-fi shooter halo 2. the game has sold more than five million copies worldwide since it went on sale in mid-november the company said. halo 2 has proved popular online with gamers notching up a record 28 million hours playing the game on xbox live. according to microsoft nine out of 10 xbox live members have played the game for an average of 91 minutes per session. the sequel to the best-selling need for speed: underground has inched ahead of the competition to take the top slot in the official uk games charts. the racing game moved up one spot to first place nudging gta: san andreas down to second place. halo 2 dropped one place to five while half-life 2 fell to number nine. last week s new releases goldeneye: rogue agent and killzone both failed to make it into the top 10 debuting at number 11 and 12 respectively. record numbers of warcraft fans are settling in the games online world. on the opening day of the world of warcraft massive multi-player online game more than 200 000 players signed up to play. on the evening of the first day more than 100 000 players were in the world forcing blizzard to add another 34 servers to cope with the influx. the online game turns the stand alone warcraft games into a persistent world that players can inhabit not just visit europe s gamers could be waiting until january to hear when they can get their mitts on nintendo s handheld device nintendo ds says gamesindustry.biz. david yarnton nintendo uk general manager told a press conference to look out for details in the new year. its us launch was on sunday and it goes on sale in japan on 2 december. nintendo has a 95% share of the handheld gaming market and said it expected to sell around five million of the ds by march 2005.

wales get williams fitness boost wales are hopeful that openside flanker martyn williams could be fit for saturday s rbs 6 nations championship opener against england in cardiff. williams was expected to miss the match with a disc problem in his neck but has been making a speedy recovery. he will have tests in the next 48 hours and we are pretty optimistic he is getting there wales team physiotherapist mark davies said. it has been frustrating but he is on the mend he has made good progress. last week williams along with fellow flanker colin charvis - who is unlikely to play for at least a month while he recovers from a foot injury - was all but ruled out of the millennium stadium clash. with williams initially thought to be struggling the signs pointed towards wales coach mike ruddock handing a first cap to former wales under-21 skipper richie pugh. cardiff blues flanker williams 29 offers considerable experience and if he is declared fit then ruddock might be tempted to include him in the back row. charvis will be reviewed by the wales medical staff next monday but davies admitted that there was only an outside chance of him being fit to face france in wales third championship game on 26 february. wales other injury concern is pugh s fellow neath-swansea ospreys player sonny parker as the centre has a trapped nerve in his neck. sonny s injury is still an issue davies said. it is still painful and irritable. we will run the rule of thumb over him in the next couple of days. ruddock will name his starting line-up for the england game at 1830 gmt on tuesday evening as wales target their first victory in cardiff over the world champions since 1993.

jones files lawsuit against conte marion jones has filed a lawsuit for defamation against balco boss victor conte following his allegations that he gave her performance-enhancing drugs. the sydney olympic gold medallist says conte damaged her reputation and she is seeking $25m (£13m) in the suit. conte whose company is at the centre of a doping investigation made the claims in a us television programme. he and three others were indicted in february by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offences. in an email to the associated press on wednesday conte said: i stand by everything i said . jones won three gold medals and two bronzes in sydney in 2000. her lawsuit filed in the us district court in san francisco said the sprinter had passed a lie detector test and that she has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs . conte s statements the suit added were false and malicious . after the abc television program earlier this month jones lawyer richard nicholls said: marion has steadfastly maintained her position throughout: she has never ever used performance-enhancing drugs. victor conte is a man facing a 42-count federal indictment while marion jones is one of america s most decorated female athletes. mr conte s statements have been wildly contradictory. mr conte chose to make unsubstantiated allegations on television while marion jones demanded to take and then passed a lie detector examination. mr conte is simply not credible. we challenge him to submit to the same lie detector procedure that marion jones passed. the sport s ruling body the iaaf is taking a cautious approach to conte s allegations but contacted the us anti-doping agency. communications director nick davies said the iaaf would seek to contact conte for further information . but davies stressed it would be up to the american authorities to decide whether they will take action against jones in light of conte s television interview and the world governing body would monitor the situation closely. if it is felt there is case to answer it would be for its national governing body (usa track and field) to take the appropriate disciplinary action he added. the us anti-doping agency has proved itself to be very diligent in its anti-doping war. and i am sure like ourselves they will be watching the television programme with great interest. jones who is under investigation for steroid use by the us anti-doping agency has continually denied ever taking illegal substances since being investigated in the balco scandal although she praised a zinc supplement conte marketed. jones who did not win any medals in athens in august has never failed a drugs test. meanwhile conte who has been charged along with three other men of distributing illegal steroids and money laundering is due to face trial in march.

bbc to pour £9m into new comedy the bbc is to invest £9m in developing new comedy and entertainment programmes outside london. the changes come as part of a shake-up of several departments to create shows that appeal to a wider range of people. changes are also being made to teams in the factual and daytime departments outside london. director of television jana bennett said the changes were about getting the best ideas on screen as efficiently and effectively as we can . the new structure in each genre is designed to ensure that happens she said. a number of new roles are being created in each department including a head of comedy commissioning based in glasgow. the new person will be in charge of the £9m budget and their role will be to develop shows outside the capital both within the bbc and with independent production companies. jane lush controller of entertainment commissioning said entertainment and comedy are incredibly important to our audiences; i m confident these changes will help us get the very best programmes on screen. similar positions will also be created in the other departments with the new commissioning editor for documentaries based in bristol and the daytime commissioning editor in birmingham. ms bennett said the new roles would benefit those making programmes within the bbc as well as those making shows for the channel independently. a strong independent sector and a flourishing in-house production base are not mutually exclusive and will stimulate the competition that will deliver the best ideas to the audience she said.

uk helps raped rwandan women britain is to give a £4m grant to help women survivors of the rwandan genocide who were raped and often deliberately infected with hiv/aids. an estimated 25 000 girls and women were raped during the 1994 genocide. about 800 000 tutsis and moderate hutus were killed by hutu militias after the assassination of an ethnic hutu leader. the five-year department for international development funding will enable more survivors to have access to anti-retroviral treatment. the plight of the infected women was overshadowed for a long time. it was overshadowed by rwanda s emergence from the 100 days of slaughter during which time the mass killings took place and the women s fate was largely a taboo subject. but many of the women were widowed and they now not only have their own children to care for but in many cases orphans too. as the women die the number of rwanda s orphans rises. until recently very few of the women have had access to anti-retroviral treatment. that is now starting to change. this funding is intended to make anti-retrovirals and other care available for some 2 500 women. mary kayitesi blewitt founder of the survivors fund (surf) one of the organisations through which the funds are being channelled said it was a recognition before it was too late that the survivors should be a priority for help.

new consoles promise big problems making games for future consoles will require more graphic artists and more money an industry conference has been told. sony microsoft and nintendo will debut their new consoles at the annual e3 games expo in los angeles in may. these so-called next generation machines will be faster than current consoles and capable of displaying much higher-quality visuals. for gamers this should make for better more immersive games. in a pre-recorded video slot during microsoft s keynote address at the game developers conference held last week in san francisco famed director james cameron revealed he is making a game in tandem with his next film - believed to be battle angel alita. the game s visual quality would be like a lucid dream said mr cameron. but numerous speakers warned that creating such graphics will require more artists and so next generation console games will be much more expensive to develop. the first new console microsoft s xbox 2 is not expected to reach the shops until the end of 2005. games typically take at least 18 months to create however so developers are grappling with the hardware today. according to robert walsh head of brisbane-based game developer krome studios next generation games will cost between $10-25m to make with teams averaging 80 staff in size taking two years to complete a title. such sums mean it will be difficult for anyone to start a new game studio said mr walsh. if you re a start-up i doubt that a publisher is going to walk in and give you a cheque for $10m however good you are he said. mr walsh suggested that new studios should make games for mobile phones and handheld consoles like the sony psp and the nintendo ds since they are cheaper and easier to create than console games. one developer bucking the trend towards big art teams is will wright the creator of the best-selling the sims games. the founder of california s maxis studio surprised the conference with a world exclusive preview of his next game spore. spore will allow players to experiment with the evolution of digital creatures. starting with an amoeba-sized organism the player will guide the physical development of their creature by selecting how its limbs jaws and other body parts evolve. eventually the creature will become capable of establishing cities trading and fighting and even building space ships. advanced players will visit the home planets of creatures created by other spore players. these worlds will be automatically swapped across the internet. mr wright said that enabling players to devise and share their creatures would make them care more about the game. i don t want to put the player in the role of luke skywalker or frodo baggins - i want them to be george lucas or dr seuss explained mr wright. few games have hinted at the scope of spore but mr wright explained that he has nevertheless kept his development team small by hiring expert programmers. instead of employing lots of artists to create 3d models of the digital creatures spore generates and displays the creatures according to rules devised by the programmers. the thing i am coming away with [from the conference] is that next generation content is going to be really expensive and creating it will drive the smaller players out of the market said mr wright. i d like to offer an alternative to that. new development tools will be another important aid in making next generation games and dozens of companies demonstrated their latest products at the conference. oxford-based natural motion launched endorphin v2.0 which enables artists to direct a 3d virtual actor . the actor is realistically modelled according to the laws of physics. endorphin simulates how the actor falls down stairs for instance or crumples up after a gunshot. artists can blend together these visual sequences and include the results in their games. the process is much quicker than having an artist animate each movement by hand and so lessens the need for larger art teams. another british company aiming to reduce the workload of artists is manchester start-up genemation. its latest tool gencrowd enables artists to create unique photo-realistic human faces for games involving lots of people. gencrowd works by blending together elements of an in-built supply of stock faces of differing ages and ethnicities. the software can create up to 2 000 new heads an hour. one area not yet dominated by graphical blockbusters is mobile phone games. even the latest phones are not as powerful as the consoles of a decade ago so smaller teams of half a dozen people can still create complete games for the devices. the game developers conference included a special two-day summit dedicated to creating mobile games. a niche attraction for a few dozen conference attendees when it began five years ago gdc s mobile summit this year drew several hundred delegates. mobile games are a fast-growing sector because newer phones have better graphics and sound and are thus more suitable for playing games. furthermore the adoption of mobile phones continues to spread across the world. it s predicted that by 2006 two billion people will own a mobile phone. the growing importance of mobile gaming was reflected by a keynote given by john batter general manager at ea mobile. ea mobile is a division of electronic arts the biggest games publisher. until recently electronic arts had been dismissive of games for phones. the last time you checked ea wasn t in this business mr batter admitted. but he said ea now planned on dominating the market by releasing mobile versions of its most popular franchises. ea plans to release up to 20 mobile games over the next 12 months. the first will be a version of its need for speed racing game created by ea mobile s 30-person development team. mr batter predicted that by 2006 mobile phones would be capable of running games of comparable quality to those on sony s upcoming psp handheld console. owain bennallack is the editor of develop magazine.

goodrem wins top female mtv prize pop singer delta goodrem has scooped one of the top individual prizes at the first australian mtv music awards. the 21-year-old singer won the award for best female artist with australian idol runner-up shannon noll taking the title of best male at the ceremony. goodrem known in both britain and australia for her role as nina tucker in tv soap neighbours also performed a duet with boyfriend brian mcfadden. other winners included green day voted best group and the black eyed peas. goodrem green day and the black eyed peas took home two awards each. as well as best female goodrem also took home the pepsi viewers choice award whilst green day bagged the prize for best rock video for american idiot. the black eyed peas won awards for best r n b video and sexiest video both for hey mama. local singer and songwriter missy higgins took the title of breakthrough artist of the year with australian idol winner guy sebastian taking the honours for best pop video. the vh1 first music award went to cher honouring her achievements within the music industry. the ceremony was held at the luna park fairground in sydney harbour and was hosted by the osbourne family. artists including carmen electra missy higgins kelly osbourne green day ja rule and natalie imbruglia gave live performances at the event.

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.

podcasters look to net money nasa is doing it 14-year-old boys in bedrooms are doing it couples are doing it gadget lovers - male and female - are definitely doing it. it is podcasting - diy radio in the form of downloadable mp3 audio files. they can done by anyone who has a microphone simple software the net and something to say. some liken them to talking audioblogs because many complement text-based weblogs - diary-like sites where people share their thoughts. they are essentially amateur radio shows on the net on demand and the movement is at very early stages. it s about real people saying real things and communicating says adam curry former mtv vj and the pied piper of podcasting. he was one of a community of people who created ipodder a small computer program known as an aggregator . it collects and automatically sends mp3 files to any digital music-playing device that can play wmp formats. those with digital music players can select which podcasts they like and subscribe - for free - to that show s feed . when a new podcast is available it is automatically sent to the device when connected to a computer. it is totally going to kill the business model of radio thinks curry. i just did a tour of madison avenue where all the big brands and advertising agencies of the world are he says. and they are scared to death of the next generation - like my daughter who is 14 - who don t listen to radio. they are on msn they ve got their ipod their mp3 player they ve got their xbox - they are not listening to radio. so how are they going to reach these audiences it is the distribution that is changing and the barriers are being brought down so everyone can be part of it. it is a fledgling movement but it is gaining momentum now that people have started thinking about how to make a business from it. ian fogg jupiter research analyst thinks there could be potential for business but it could take an interesting turn if big companies like apple and microsoft get involved. it is a nascent area but quite exciting. it is yet another area that demonstrates the move to a digital lifestyle and digital home is not over he says. podcasting is one of those interesting areas that bridges what you do at home and what you do out and about - a classic hybrid. it is another aspect of the time-shifting of content - the latest industry buzzword for being able to listen to what you want when and wherever you want. audiences are in the 10s 100s and 1 000s rather than millions. more than 4 300 podcasts are currently listed. curry s daily source code - which he committed to doing daily to inspire the community - has 10s of thousands of listeners. but dave winer is doubtful. he designed the format called rss (really simple syndication) which gives web users an easy way to keep updated automatically on sites they like. podcasts rely on his technology because it is the way they are distributed. he is also writer of the longest-running weblog on the net scripting news. he thinks its power lies in its democratising potential not in its over-hyped business promise. we re the sources the people doing stuff and podcasting is a way to tell people who care what we re doing. no matter how you look at it commercialising this medium isn t going to make very much money he says. podcasting is going to be a medium of niches with audiences measured in the single digits like e-mail or blogs. maybe in a few years maybe six or seven digits. but it will have to sustain interest beyond the hype balloon. curry and associate ron bloom s new venture called podshow is to help ordinary people produce post distribute and market their podcasts. because of the way podcasts work based on rss the latest podcasts which people can select mean that they are ready-made targets. when you look at podcasting - wow this is a pretty interesting audience. the audience is pre-selected. they have decided to subscribe to your program explains curry. advertising in his eyes can be tailored to podcasts to make it more imaginative and unobtrusive. how i believe this will work is to create a network that in aggregation will have enough numbers to support a return on investment for the advertisers and for the podcasters. i have 50 60 70 000 listeners. i could make a couple of bucks off that but not much. if you are talking a million podcasters and then you can kind of divide that amongst ourselves then that is kind of interesting. essentially he says if you are doing a bass fishing podcast someone who is selling bait and tackle will probably want to advertise on your show. he is clear the ads will not be the traditional in-your-face type familiar to commercial radio now. we are really going to see these microcosms and commerce will be all over the place. it is happening already. coffee-loving curry has sold $4 000 worth of coffee machines through a referral link to amazon from his site. others use in-show promotions like the dawn and drew show. one eric rice has won sponsorship from warner bros. he can now legally play the music of a band warner bros wants to push. some commentators on the net say it has a similar feel to the dotcom days. others say it is just another element of setting media free from big companies and letting people be creative. one thing is for sure; they are not about to disappear in a hurry. the creative forces behind radio are elated says curry. for now he tunes out the negative comments within the podcasting community. i should be knighted for this he adds with a wry chuckle people are going to be so happy to sit at home make their podcast and make a little money.

bp surges ahead on high oil price oil giant bp has announced a 26% rise in annual profits to $16.2bn (£8.7bn) on the back of record oil prices. last week rival shell reported an annual profit of $17.5bn - a record profit for a uk-listed company. bp added that it was increasing its fourth-quarter dividend by 26% to 8.5 cents and that it would continue with share buybacks. bp chief executive lord browne said the results were strong both operationally and financially. the company is earning about $1.8m an hour. despite the record annual profits figure bp s performance was below the expectations of some city analysts. however bp s share price rose 4p or nearly 1% in morning trading to 548p. its profit rise for the year included profits of $3.65bn (£1.97bn) for the final three months of 2004 - up from $2.89bn a year ago but below its third quarter. speaking on the bbc s today programme on tuesday lord browne said the profits were not solely down to the high oil price alone. the profits are up more than the price of oil is up he said. lord browne pointed out that bp was reaping the benefits of its investment in oil exploration. we have spent many years buying (assets) when the price is low he said. the company has made new discoveries in egypt the gulf of mexico and angola. however lord browne rejected calls for a windfall tax on his company s huge profits saying that in the north sea it paid progressively more tax the more profits it made. lord browne believes oil prices will remain quite high. currently above $40 a barrel he said: the price of oil will be well supported above $30 a barrel for the medium term. bp put production for the year at 3.997 billion barrels of oil up 10% on 2003 but slightly lower than the four billion barrels it had initially aimed for.

thousands join strike in wales thousands of civil servants were on strike across wales on friday in protest at planned job cuts. a range of services in wales were affected as civil servants in wales joined the uk-wide strike. the strike called by the public and commercial services union was the biggest by civil servants in a decade. the action follows chancellor gordon brown s announcement in july that 104 000 jobs would be cut with around 6 000 of those expected in wales. the worst-affected area in wales will be the department of work and pensions where 2 000 jobs are threatened. across wales pickets were held by striking civil servants with protests in towns and cities including cardiff bangor aberystwyth and wrexham. gordon brown issued a defiant statement about the strike saying the action would not affect the government s determination to make savings in order to increase investment in healthcare education transport and the fight against crime. our decisions mean more police more teachers more doctors and more nurses he said. we will provide help with information relocation and retraining to help staff move into frontline work within the public sector but we will not be diverted from these necessary changes so that we can make this essential investment. the uk-wide action hit jobcentres benefit agencies pensions offices and driving test centres. the strike also affected the welsh assembly building in cardiff bay where only pass-holders were allowed in. pickets were in place across wales with protests around the country. pcs union spokesman jeff evans said: in wales the civil service is major employer there are more civil servants employed in wales proportionately than in any other part of the country. our protest is about defending jobs and also local services across the country. parts of objective one areas and welsh-speaking areas will be particularly affected by these cuts. the chancellor has said that the cuts will allow funding for more teachers and police. piers freelove is senior benefit officer on the picket line at companies house in cardiff. he said: the majority of people have decided not to come in because of the threat to their jobs. i joined the civil service to provide services as well as get a decent pension as we thought and pay and it s those services that are being threatened as well as our jobs. people like pensioners need a face-to-face service not an impersonal service on the phone which is what they want to impose. pcsu deputy general secretary hugh lanning who was on the same picket line said: we re asking for them to negotiate not just to make announcements. there s a sensible way to do things and at the moment they re not even talking about how to go about it sensibly. the ballot was for one day s action. no further action is anticipated without a further ballot of staff. the welsh assembly government said: this is a strike about national civil service issues. it is not about specific issues local to wales or the assembly.

kraft cuts snack ads for children kraft plans to cut back on advertising of products like oreo cookies and sugary kool-aid drinks as part of an effort to promote healthy eating. the largest us food maker will also add a label to its more nutritional and low-fat brands to promote the benefits. kraft rival pepsico began a similar labelling initiative last year. the moves come as the firms face criticism from consumer groups concerned at rising levels of obesity in us children. major food manufacturers have recently been reformulating the content of some calorie-heavy products. kraft s new advertising policy which covers advertising on tv radio and in print publications is aimed at children between the ages of six and 11. it means commercials for some of its most famous snacks and cereals shown during early morning cartoon shows on tv will now be replaced by food and drink qualifying for kraft s new sensible solution label. but the firm said it would continue to advertise all its products in media seen by parents and all family audiences. we re working on ways to encourage both adults and children to eat wisely by selecting more nutritionally balanced diets said lance friedmann kraft senior vice president.

double eviction from big brother model caprice and holby city actor jeremy edwards have both left the celebrity big brother house in a surprise double eviction on friday. caprice who left in the scheduled fourth eviction having gained just 5% of the public vote afterwards said: i am so happy i am so glad i m out. edwards then left in a surprise eviction with 12% of the vote. nineteen-year-old blazin squad singer kenzie is currently favourite to win the £50 000 charity prize. caprice had been the pre-show favourite to be voted out of the house with bookmakers ladbrokes offering odds of 1/5 on her departure. ladbrokes spokesman warren lush had said she was the hottest eviction favourite so far this series . odds on kenzie s victory have been slashed from 4/6 to 1/2 although bookmakers have said they are not ruling out a late rally from former happy mondays star bez. the other remaining housemate is actress brigitte nielsen. dj lisa i anson became the third housemate to be voted out on wednesday when she became the victim of a surprise eviction during a game of hide-and-seek on the channel 4 show. i anson said she was glad to be out and predicted that kenzie would emerge as the winner. the winner is due to be announced on sunday night.