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blair ready to call election tony blair seems certain to end weeks of phoney war on monday and announce there will be a general election on 5 may. the date has been pencilled into the diaries of politicians and political journalists for many months and despite occasional panics that the prime minister was on the verge of calling a snap poll it has not shifted. over the weeks there have been any number of signs that 050505 was going to be the day mr blair would go for an historic third term. and the calling of a special political cabinet meeting has only added to the belief that the announcement is imminent. the prime minister and his campaign boss alan milburn have already insisted the election will be fought on the economy and what they claim is a stark choice between labour s stability and investment against tory cuts and boom and bust. and chancellor gordon brown has stepped into the front line of the campaign - to the relief of many of his supporters in westminster - to underline that economic message. and it is certain one of the big arguments at the centre of the election battle will be around the big parties tax and spend policies. during the phoney campaign labour got into trouble over its central claim that michael howard was planning £35 bn cuts in public services. the prime minister found himself struggling to explain how a smaller slower increase in spending planned by the tories compared to labour s plans was a cut. and it looked like the labour campaign - which was already being criticised for being thrown into defensive mode by mr howard on issues such as immigration and health - was on the rocks. then deputy conservative chairman howard flight was reported to have suggested mr howard was secretly planning even bigger cuts . he was sacked for his gaffe but the damage had been done and the faltering labour campaign was back on track. a second central argument will be over taxation with the tories claiming the chancellor has to fill a black hole at the centre of his finances and will be forced to raise taxes if labour wins again. mr brown slaps that aside claiming his forecasts are accurate and that previous claims of looming economic disaster have proved inaccurate. as usual the liberal democrats will have to fight to get their voice heard over the sounds of battle between the two big parties. but leader charles kennedy believes he has set out a distinctive manifesto with plans for a tax rise for the wealthiest to finance extra spending and the abolition of the council tax in favour of a local income tax. other issues are certain to play a part - immigration and asylum the war on iraq law and order and education for example. but as ever it will be the economy that will almost certainly decide the outcome. and whatever that outcome 2005 is set to be a far more lively even bitter campaign than 2001 s non-event.

politics

new rules tackle sham weddings new rules on marriage for foreign nationals living in the uk are coming into force. from tuesday most non-eu citizens will need home office approval to marry. the home office says the new rules are aimed at reducing the number of sham marriages of which there are estimated to be up to 15 000 a year. but immigrants group the joint council for the welfare of immigrants (jcwi) says the rules breach human rights law and it may mount a legal challenge. when the changes were unveiled last year immigration minister des browne said: our aim is to avoid unnecessary disruption of genuine marriages while providing firm controls to prevent abuse. under the previous regulations anybody wishing to get married in the uk only had to produce evidence they had been resident in the country for a week and give 15 days notice of the wedding at the local register office. but from tuesday all non-eu nationals apart from citizens of switzerland liechtenstein iceland or norway intending to wed in the uk must either obtain a visa allowing them to get married before they enter the country or apply for a home office certificate of marriage approval . to get a certificate costing £135 applicants will have to send proof that they have a legal right to be in the uk. those without a settled status such as asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their application will have no right to marry in the uk. once they have the necessary documentation those subject to immigration controls wishing to get married in england or wales must register their intention to marry at one of 76 specially-designated register offices. they can however marry at the register office or church of their choice. rhian beynon of the jcwi said the new rules were not proportionate and discriminatory . these rules means in some cases the home secretary is going to be a marriage registrar of last resort. we re currently taking a legal opinion on this. we ll be looking for people whose right to marry is breached and we ll be looking at taking a case on this to the human rights court ms beynon said. the new rules have also been called into question by the parliamentary joint committee on human rights. in a report published last july the cross-party committee stated there was a significant risk the new procedures were incompatible with the right to marry because they introduced restrictions which were disproportionate . the committee believed the new laws might be incompatible with the human rights act on the grounds of religion belief and nationality the report added. over the last year immigration service operations against marriages of convenience have been stepped up resulting in a growing number of convictions. in january 25 people who took part in a sham marriage network based in leicester were jailed for a total of 35 years. and last november samuel amoah a belgian national who set up two sham weddings for couples who wanted to remain in the uk was jailed for three years. several other cases are currently going through the courts. the role of registrars who under the asylum and immigration act 1999 were obliged to report suspected sham marriages to the home office has been key in many prosecutions. registrars spokesman mark rimmer said they welcomed the new marriage regulations and believed they would be an significant deterrent. they will effectively remove most of the blatant cases. certainly those who are illegals in this country of which we had quite a few will no longer be getting married mr rimmer said. mr rimmer the service director for registrations of marriages at brent council in north-west london said he did not consider the new law to be an infringement of civil liberties. it may be seen to be far more draconian than it has been but certainly it s still not as difficult to marry in the uk than it is to marry for example in holland germany or france. i think it s a proportionate response by government to what was a very large problem mr rimmer said.

politics

mcconnell details scots wave toll at least three people from scotland died in the tsunami disaster and a further three are on the missing list the first minister has told msps. the figures came out during a statement by jack mcconnell to the scottish parliament on wednesday. he formally expressed scotland s sympathy for the victims of the indian ocean tidal wave which killed 150 000. mr mcconnell went on to promise that scotland would play its part in the reconstruction effort. he said the provisional figures on the dead and lost had been provided by the police. mr mcconnell said the tragedy should persuade everyone to step up the fight against global poverty and change the world for the better. he said he was proud of the generous response of people in scotland to the disaster appeal which is expected soon to top £20m. the first minister also praised scottish water for immediately flying bottled water and five large generators to the disaster zone. the scottish executive has seconded 11 staff to the aid agencies. but he said scotland was in it for the long term with help planned for fishing communities for children s services and for the aid charities. he said 2005 must be the year that scotland showed clearly it cared for what happened to people elsewhere in the world whether in asia or in africa. mr mcconnell went on to signal that the executive would play its part in the make poverty history campaign being mounted by a variety of aid charities trade unions and churches in the run-up to the g8 summit in gleneagles in july. edinburgh architect dominic stephenson became the first scot to be confirmed as a victim of the asian tsunami. the 27-year-old was holidaying on the thai island of koh phi phi with eileen lee 24. she is still missing.

politics

classy henman makes winning start tim henman opened his 2005 campaign with a 6-1 7-5 victory over argentine david nalbandian at the kooyong classic exhibition tournament on wednesday. the british number one will next play roger federer at the australian open warm-up event on friday. the world number one beat gaston gaudio 5-7 6-1 6-4 before andre agassi saw off chilean olympic gold medalist nicolas massu 6-1 7-6 (7-4). andy roddick beat ivan ljubicic who replaced paradorn srichaphan 6-1 6-4. henman made an impressive start to the year only faltering against nalbandian when serving for the match at 5-4. but the briton regained his composure to win the next two games for only his second win in six matches against the argentine. it s a great start to the year - just what i was looking for henman told his website. over the years i ve found david very difficult to play against. he returns serve very well and he s deceptively effective from the baseline so sometimes it can be difficult to execute my gameplan well enough against him to get the right result. beating somebody of his stature is always good for the confidence and it bodes well at the beginning of the year. henman also revealed the extent of the back problems he suffered in the off-season. i m not the most flexible and at the end of the year i was pretty exhausted and wanted to have a couple of weeks where i didn t do anything said henman. when i started training again it really really seized up. as much as i enjoyed the two weeks off i don t think it s so productive. federer dropped a tight first set against 2004 french open champion gaudio but was content with his game. it was about getting used to the surface he said. the conditions are much quicker than doha my timing was ok but i could have served better. all in all i m happy with the match and i won it - that s a good sign. now i have a day off and hopefully play better the next match. agassi was delighted with victory over massu in his first match for over two months. i felt pretty good said the american. i liked the way the match played out and maybe excluding a few second serve returns i felt like i was doing most things pretty darn well for the first match.

sport

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

business

newry to fight cup exit in courts newry city are expected to discuss legal avenues on friday regarding overturning their ejection from the nationwide irish cup. the ifa upheld its original decision to throw newry out of the cup following the andy crawford registration row. a law firm will put a case forward for newry fc and see what the legal implications of all this is are said newry boss roy mccreadie. this is a big issue now that we have an appeal pending on wednesday a fresh ifa hearing into crawford registration saga ruled that last week s original verdict had been correct. it meant that bangor beaten 5-1 by newry on the field will take on portadown in the sixth round. newry had claimed they had uncovered fresh evidence in respect of the dates relating to the registration. but mccreadie is not further annoyed that full details of wednesday s meeting was not relayed to the club. even to this day we have as much information about what happened during the meeting on wednesday as that told to the media. we are being kept in the dark mccreadie told the news letter . we want an explanation. there is no good sending us the same fax message the press people received. it s a real sad case. if we are not back in the irish cup after our appeal and guided by our legal advise we will seek to lodge an injunction in the courts to stop bangor playing portadown.

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melzer shocks agassi in san jose second seed andre agassi suffered a comprehensive defeat by jurgen melzer in the quarter-finals of the sap open. agassi was often bamboozled by the austrian s drop shots in san jose losing 6-3 6-1. defending champion and top seed andy roddick rallied to beat sweden s thomas enqvist 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5. but unseeded cyril saulnier beat the fourth seed vincent spadea 6-2 6-4 and tommy haas overcame eighth seed max mirnyi 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2. melzer has now beaten agassi in two of their three meetings. i had a good game plan and i executed it perfectly he said. it s always tough to come out to play andre. i didn t want him to play his game. he makes you run like a dog all over the court. and agassi who was more than matched for power by his opponent s two-handed backhand said melzer was an example of several players on the tour willing to take their chances against him. a lot more guys are capable of it now said the american. he played much better than me. that s what he did both times. i had opportunities to loosen myself up agassi added. but i didn t convert on the big points.

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quiksilver moves for rossignol shares of skis rossignol the world s largest ski-maker have jumped as much as 15% on speculation that it will be bought by us surfwear firm quiksilver. the owners of rossignol the boix-vives family are said to be considering an offer from quiksilver. analysts believe other sporting goods companies may now take a closer look at rossignol prompting an auction and pushing the sale price higher. nike and k2 have previously been mentioned as possible suitors. rossignol shares touched 17.70 euros before falling back to trade 7.8% higher at 16.60 euros. european sporting goods companies have seen foreign revenues squeezed by a slump in the value of the us dollar making a takeover more attractive analysts said. companies such as quiksilver would be able to cut costs by selling rossignol skis through their shops they added. the boix-vives family is thought to have spent the past couple of years sounding out possible suitors for rossignol which also makes golf equipment snowboards and sports clothing.

business

argentina closes $102.6bn debt swap argentina is set to close its $102.6bn (£53.51bn) debt restructuring offer for bondholders later on friday with the government hopeful that most creditors will accept the deal. the estimated loss to bondholders is up to 70% of the original value of the bonds yet the majority are expected to accept the government s offer. argentina defaulted on its debt three years ago the biggest sovereign default in modern history. yesterday argentina s economy minister roberto lavagna said that he estimated that the results of the restructuring would be ready around next thursday (3 march). argentina s president nestor kirchner said on friday: a year ago when we started the swap (negotiations) they told us we were crazy that we were irrational. but he added that his government was close to achieving: the best debt renegotiation in history. the country has been in default on the $102.6bn - based on an original debt of $81.8bn plus interest - for the past three years. if the offer does not go ahead international lawsuits on behalf of aggrieved investors could follow but analysts are optimistic that it will go through despite the tough terms for bondholders. about 70% to 80% of bondholders are expected to accept the terms of the offer. by 18 february creditors holding $41bn - or 40% of the total debt - had accepted the offer. sorting out its debt would enhance the country s credibility on international markets and enable it to attract more foreign investment. of argentina s bondholders 38.4% reside in argentina 15.6% in italy 10.3% in switzerland 9.1% in the united states 5.1% in germany and 3.1% in japan. investors in the uk holland and luxembourg have about 1% each and the remainder were not broken down by country. the deal is likely to be taken up most enthusiastically by domestic investors who will benefit if argentina s economy becomes more stable.

business

brown calls for £5.5bn aids fund gordon brown has called on rich nations to fund a £5.5bn ($10bn) plan to fight the aids epidemic and find a vaccine. on the fourth day of his six-day tour of africa the uk chancellor predicted a vaccine could be found by 2012 if the world stepped up its funding pledges. doubling the £400m being spent yearly on finding such a vaccine could advance it by three years and save six million lives mr brown said on thursday. he hopes to use the uk s g8 presidency to push the issue forward. i believe that the generation that provided the finance to combat cure and eradicate the world s deadliest disease of today - and today the world s least curable disease - hiv/aids - will rightly earn the title the great generation mr brown said in a speech during his african tour. the problems of hiv/aids were inseparable from poverty he added. at least $10 billion per annum (£5.5bn) is needed to address the hiv/aids crisis in low and middle income countries. existing financial commitments on their own will not stop the pandemic. the uk s proposal for an international finance facility is so important - increasing world aid flows by over $50 billion (£27bn). a doubling of world aid to halve world poverty. mr brown also said he had agreed with the italian finance minister domenico siniscalco to push forward with plans for the world-wide sharing and co-ordination of research into the disease. currently the private sector was only spending £60m a year on seeking an inoculation and the market needed boosting mr brown said. he called on industrialised nations to commit themselves to buying the first 300m vaccines at a cost of $20 each thereby boosting the market for inoculations. this would be a large enough inducement to create much stronger interest from both large and small pharmaceutical firms mr brown added. more must also be done to finance the treatment and care of those living with hiv/aids and their families he said. but aid charity actionaid criticised mr brown s preoccupation with finding a vaccine and called on g8 nations to fund hiv/aids treatments. the charity s head of hiv/aids in britain simon wright said: while encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to discover an hiv vaccine is important a failure to provide any funding for hiv treatments condemns a generation of people to death. hiv is decimating african countries killing the most productive adults who should be working caring for children and building the economy. an hiv vaccine is probably at least 10 years away. treatments are needed now. on wednesday mr brown visited slums in the kenyan capital nairobi . he will visit an hiv/aids orphanage in tanzania and a women s credit union in mozambique before chairing a meeting of the commission for africa in cape town. the chancellor has already unveiled proposals for a g8 aid package which he has likened to the marshall plan used by the united states to rebuild europe after world war two.

politics

galloway targets new labour mp george galloway is to stand against pro-iraq war labour mp oona king at the next general election. mr galloway who on thursday won £150 000 in libel damages from the daily telegraph said he would contest bethnal green in london for respect. the glasgow kelvin mp who was expelled from labour over his anti iraq war stance accused ms king of being a new labour stooge . ms king said she was delighted at the chance to take on mr galloway. mr galloway s current constituency is set to disappear under planned boundary changes in scotland. the 50-year-old mp launched respect the unity coalition in january along with 1 000 anti-war activists and the muslim association of britain. the party s declared aims are an end to the occupation of iraq the repeal of anti-union laws and the end of privatisation. speaking from a cafe in brick lane east london mr galloway said he had accepted the party s invitation to stand with great honour and pride . he added: here in this constituency of bethnal green and bow there is a new labour stooge mp. a stooge who will sing any song make any speech do any dance do anything she is told to by tony blair - irrespective of how her constituents are adversely affected or how strongly they feel to the contrary. ms king has represented the constituency since 1997. she said: i m delighted i ve been given the chance to finish him (mr galloway) off and believe me i will. i know many people around the country will be grateful not least his constituents in scotland who he has shamelessly abandoned. in june s european parliament elections respect failed to gain enough votes for an mep but did come first in tower hamlets borough most of which is covered by the commons constituency of bethnal green and bow. a month later it gained a council seat in a by-election in st dunstan s and stepney green ward tower hamlets. mr galloway said that in next year s expected general election and local elections a year later the party would turn the east end of london into a fortress . both the conservatives and the liberal democrats have chosen prospective parliamentary candidates for bethnal green and bow from the bangladeshi population which makes up almost half the electorate. the telegraph was sued for libel by mr galloway after the newspaper claimed he received money from saddam hussein s regime in iraq. the newspaper said it was in the public interest to publish the claims based on documents found in baghdad. mr justice eady said he was obliged to compensate mr galloway... and to make an award for the purposes of restoring his reputation .

politics

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

business

thanou desperate to make return greek sprinter katerina thanou says she is eager to compete again after being cleared of missing a drugs test by an independent greek tribunal. thanou 30 was provisionally suspended for missing a test before the olympics but the decision was overturned. the iaaf will decide if we can compete again in greece and abroad thanou told to vima newspaper in her first interview since the athens olympics. if given the green light i will run again - that s the only thing i want. thanou 30 and her compatriot kostas kenteris were provisionally suspended by the iaaf in december for missing three drugs tests. the third was alleged to have been on the eve of the opening ceremony of the athens olympics. but an independent tribunal of the greek athletics federation overturned the provisional ban on 18 march. the iaaf - which said it was very surprised by the decision of the greek tribunal - is deciding whether to appeal against the decision at the court of arbitration for sport. however dick pound the chairman of the world anti-doping authority has said he will appeal against the decision if the iaaf does not. and thanou and kenteris face a criminal trial later this year for allegedly avoiding the test and then faking a motorcycle accident. thanou said: i can see how people can think the accident seemed like a childish excuse. i cannot deny that we made a lot of mistakes during that time. i always said we needed a pr person. an athlete would have to be very stupid to take illegal substances when he or she knows that they will undergo tests at any given moment. i am a champion. i cannot risk everything i ve achieved in such a silly way.

sport

bomb threat at bernabeu stadium spectators were evacuated from real madrid s bernabeu stadium on sunday following a bomb scare during the game between the hosts and real sociedad. more than 70 000 people abandoned the ground with the score at 1-1 and only three minutes left to play. the basque newspaper gara apparently received a telephone call saying a bomb was due to explode at 2100 local time. but after searching the stadium with sniffer dogs the police said that no explosive device had been found. the police have said they have completed their search and have not found anything said real madrid president florentino perez. the best thing we can all do now is to put this nightmare behind us. madrid midfielder guti told private spanish radio station cadena ser: i have never seen this before and sport should be above it all. real took the lead just before the break when brazilian striker ronaldo cracked home with his left foot. sociedad levelled the match midway through the second half when turkish striker nihat kahveci smashed home with an acrobatic finish. it is not yet clear if the remaining three minutes of the game will be played at a later date or if the result will be allowed to stand. if the result remains at 1-1 real will drop to third place in the standings 11 points behind leaders barcelona who snatched a late 2-1 win at albacete on saturday. initial reports suggested the basque separatist group eta may be responsible for the bomb threat after issuing similar warnings before a series of small explosions in recent days. the bernabeu was targeted by eta on 1 may 2002 when madrid were about to play fc barcelona in a champions league semi-final. a car bomb exploded in a street outside the stadium and 17 people were slightly injured.

sport

burglar defence guidelines issued householders who injure or even kill intruders are unlikely to be prosecuted - providing they were acting honestly and instinctively new guidelines say. the law also protects those who use something to hand as a weapon. the leaflet published by police and prosecutors aims to combat confusion about current legislation which lets people use reasonable force . the guidance relating to england and wales follows a recent decision by ministers not to change the law. doing what you honestly and instinctively believed was necessary would be the strongest evidence of acting lawfully the guidance said. and the law protects those who use something to hand as a weapon said the leaflet published jointly by the crown prosecution service (cps) and association of chief police officers (acpo). as a general rule the more extreme the circumstances and fear felt the more force can be used lawfully in self-defence it said adding that householders do not have to wait to be attacked before defending themselves. but knocking someone unconscious then killing them or hurting them further or setting a trap for an intruder without involving the police were given as examples of excessive and gratuitous force. the tories have called for a change in the law so householders are only prosecuted if they use grossly disproportionate force. their demands have been backed by former metropolitan police commissioner sir john stevens. tory frontbencher patrick mercer is now pursuing the proposal through a private member s bill in parliament. the government instead mounted a publicity campaign to clear up public uncertainty after a review concluded no law change was necessary. home secretary charles clarke said: i believe in that old adage an englishman s home is his castle . that s exactly what should be the case and i believe the current law provides that. an informal trawl of cps records found 11 people had been prosecuted after attacking intruders in the past 15 years five of whom were convicted. they included a man who laid in wait for a burglar on commercial premises in cheshire before beating him up throwing him into a pit and setting him on fire. a cps spokesperson said the figures were not definitive because prosecutions are not listed according to whether they were committed by a householder on an intruder. in one of britain s highest profile cases norfolk farmer tony martin was jailed for life for murdering 16-year-old burglar fred barras in 1999. the conviction was later reduced to manslaughter on appeal and the sentence cut to five years. mr martin was freed from prison in july 2003. the guidance published on tuesday said the police had a duty to investigate all incidents involving a death or injury. in cases involving householders attacking intruders prosecutors and police were determined they would be dealt with as swiftly and as sympathetically as possible it said.

politics

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

tech

poles play with gameboy blip-pop a group of artists in poland has taken the cacophony of blips boops and beeps created as players bash buttons on nintendo s handheld gameboy console to a new level. the gameboyzz orchestra project has taken the game sounds to put together music tunes they have dubbed blip-pop. think of it as donkey kong meets norman cook or maybe tetris takes on kraftwerk. any way you slice it the sound is distinct. all the sounds are made by six nintendo gameboys with a mixture of older models and newer advance sp handhelds. the gameboyzz orchestra project tweaks the software a bit and then connects the units through a mixing board. jarek kujda one of the project s founding members has been into electronic music and video games for a while now. i was playing some experimental music and three four years ago when i first used a gameboy in my band as a drum machine said kujda. he realised that the console could be used as a rudimentary synthesizer. he wondered if one gameboy can make music what would happen if he put six of them together kujda found five other people who were interested and the gameboyzz orchestra project was born. gameboyzz orchestra project is more of an improvisational project said kudja. we prepare some patterns before a concert and then improvise during the concert. the group plays maybe four or five shows a year. malgorzata kujda jarek s younger sister and a fellow band member describes a gameboyzz orchestra project concert as a lot of noise. for example i make music with more hard beats and noises she said. but each of us makes another music a different sound. and then in the concert we just improvise and that i think is more fun for us. the gameboyzz orchestra project admits they get mixed reactions from audiences. some love the group s music and others are not quite sure what to make of it. in the world of electronic music these purveyors of blip-pop are not unique. but jarek kujda says they try to be unique. we have lots of people making music on old school stuff electronic old school stuff like commodore atari spectrum he said. we want to play only experimental music not cover songs. we re something like an electronic jam session. the gameboyzz orchestra project s tracks are available online and the group hopes to make a cd next year. and they have sponsorship courtesy of the polish distributor of nintendo products. the members of the gameboyzz orchestra project do not expect serious competition anytime soon. a gameboy advance costs about us $200 in poland these days which is still way beyond the reach of most polish gamers or musicians. clark boyd is technology correspondent for the world a bbc world service and wgbh-boston co-production

tech

slimmer playstation triple sales sony playstation 2 s slimmer shape has proved popular with uk gamers with 50 000 sold in its first week on sale. sales have tripled since launch outstripping microsoft s xbox said market analysts chart-track. the numbers were also boosted by the release of the ps2-only game grand theft auto: san andreas. the title broke the uk sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677 000 copies. it is obviously very very encouraging for sony because microsoft briefly outsold them last week john houlihan editor of computerandvideogames.com told bbc news. and with halo 2 [for xbox] out next week it really is a head-to-head contest between them and xbox. although xbox sales over the last week also climbed ps2 sales were more than double that. the figures mean sony is reaching the seven million barrier for uk sales of the console. edinburgh-based developer rockstar which is behind the gta titles has seen san andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. in comparison blockbuster films like harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the uk box office. the lord of the rings: the return of the king took nearly £10m over its opening weekend although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets. gangster-themed gta san andreas is the sequel to grand theft auto vice city which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. the xbox game halo 2 released on 11 november in the uk is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. the original title won universal acclaim in 2001 and sold more than four million copies. mr houlihan added that sony had done well with the ps2 but it definitely helped that the release of san andreas coincided with the slimline ps2 hitting the shelves. the run-up to christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. microsoft s xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. the sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand since gta san andreas has an 18 certificate. sony and microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales said mr houlihan.

tech

strong quarterly growth for nike nike has reported its best second-quarter earnings helped by strong demand for its athletic shoes and converse sneakers. the global sports giant said it posted a profit of $261.9m (£135.6m) for the three months to 30 november up from $179.1m in the same period last year. revenues increased 11% to $3.1bn from $2.8bn for the same period in 2003. nike whose products are endorsed by tiger woods among other sports stars said demand continues to grow . the results came after a strong first quarter of the year for the firm based in beaverton oregon. philip knight chairman and chief executive said: nike s second-quarter revenues and earnings per share reached all-time high levels as a result of solid performance across our global portfolio. our businesses in the united states and emerging markets such as china russia and turkey combined with favourable european exchange rates helped drive much of this growth. he added: with the first half of our fiscal year in the books we remain confident that our business strategy and consistent execution will allow us to deliver on our goals of healthy profitable growth. the firm reported worldwide futures orders for athletic footwear and gear scheduled for delivery from december 2004 to april 2005 of $4.9bn. that is 9.1% higher than such orders reported for the same period last year.

business

the future in your pocket if you are a geek or gadget fan the next 12 months look like they are going to be a lot of fun. the relentless pace of development in the hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors particularly among mobile phone firms all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year. to begin with 2005 will be the year that third-generation (3g) mobile phones become inescapable. the 3 network launched in 2003 vodafone launched its consumer service in november orange followed in early december and t-mobile and o2 are due to launch in 2005. the main result of these launches will likely be a slew of good deals for consumers as operators try to poach new customers from rivals and convince existing users to trade up. already the extra capacity in 3g networks lets 3 offer good deals on voice calls at rates that will probably have to be matched by the other operators. but the shift in technology and low cost of voice calls means that operators lose a significant chunk of their revenue. show me an operator that believes their voice business can sustain them and i ll write their obituary said niel ransom chief technology officer at alcatel. instead operators are likely to push all other things that 3g phones can do such as video messaging and other multimedia capabilities. already camera phones look set to challenge digital cameras and are likely to win more fans as multi-megapixel devices go on sale. but 3g will not have everything its own way. it will face competition from emerging technologies such as wimax. this wireless technology can boost data transmission speeds up to 75 megabits per second and works over distances of up to 30 miles. kent is likely to be the site of the uk s first wimax network which is due to go live in 2005 and it could be the way that rural areas get high-speed net access. analyst firm telecom view predicts that wimax will steal a lot of market share from 3g and will be a clear winner. bob larribeau principal analyst at telecom view said the better return on investment offered by technologies such as wimax could dent the possible returns of 3g networks. and the growing ubiquity of wi-fi must not be forgotten either. the technology is popping up in more places than ever and its wider use is only held back by the price differences across countries and suppliers. moves to unite mobile and fixed phones look set to get more emphasis in 2005 too. for a start bt looks set to roll out its bluephone project during the next 12 months. the service revolves around a hybrid device that uses the mobile networks when you are out and about but switches back to the fixed line when you are at home. fixed line phones will also start to get much more serious competition from a technology that has the formidable name of voice over ip (voip). voip routes calls via the net instead of the fixed line phone network. anyone with a broadband connection which is now more than 50% of the uk s net using population can use voip and could slash their monthly phone bills if they used it. telecommunications regulator ofcom has declared 056 to be the area code for voip calls and 2005 is likely to see a lot more consumer-focused voip call services starting up. home broadband services will also start to increase in speed as dwindling numbers of new users signing force the pace of competition. if 2004 has been the year of the portable music player they 2005 looks like it will be the year of the portable media player. motorola has just announced a deal with apple to produce a phone that works with the itunes service and other hybrid gadgets that sport a big memory and lots of other functions will become commonplace. the pace of advancement in storage media will continue mean that the cost per megabyte of memory will plummet. some of those devices will sport huge hard drives letting you store more data than you ever wanted or knew you had. convergence could mean that single-function devices start to dwindle in number. instead every gadget will be able to do almost anything and communicate almost any way you want. the only downside is that consumers will face a series of tough choices as they are confronted by a bewildering array of gadgets each with an enormous numbers of features and vast data holding capacities. but that is the kind of problem most gadget fans can live with.

tech

karachi stocks hit historic high the karachi stock exchange (kse) has recorded its largest single day gain surging 3.5% to a new high. the index rose 225.79 points in four hours of furious trading with many investors optimistic that political stability could bring an economic boom. the kse index closed at 6709.93 - an overall gain of nearly 400 points in the first two trading days of the week. energy and telecommunication stocks performed particularly well recording an 8%-10% rise since monday morning. in 2002 the kse was the world s best performing stock market with the index rising 112%. pakistani investors are expecting the kse to repeat if not improve on its 2002 performance. jubilant investors danced on the streets as the market closed for the day on tuesday confident that the boom will continue at least until the public holiday on 22 january. others however who had stayed out fearing an imminent collapse because of prices overheating continued to warn that the bubble may burst any time . that s rubbish kse chairman yaseen lakhani told the bbc news website. whenever the market reflects pakistan s true economic reality it is described as a bubble. mr lakhani feels that the market has risen on the basis of solid economic growth and its current level rests on sound foundations. market analysts are inclined to agree with mr lakhani arguing that there are a number of major factors behind the kse s performance. analysts argue that a steady improvement in pakistan s credit ratings by international credit rating agencies has finally begun to register in the market. standard & poor s upgraded pakistan a few weeks ago. there are indications of yet another upgrade by the end of february. then say analysts there is corporate profitability in the current fiscal year which has gone up by 27% from last year. coupled with the 7% gdp growth expected by june this year i am least surprised at the market s performance says mr lakhani. one leading karachi broker said the real reasons may be political. if you file a $1.3 trillion case against saudi money after 9/11 arab money will not go to the us any more. a lot of arab money he says has already gone to malaysia and indonesia. pakistanis are now hoping that energy and telecoms two of the strongest sectors in pakistan draw some of the arab money to the kse. locally too say analysts recent political developments have worked to the market s advantage. an anti-musharraf campaign threatened by the mma a countrywide alliance of religious parties has fizzled out. the release of asif zardari former prime minister benazir bhutto s husband has eased political tensions between the military-backed government and the opposition pakistan people s party. most importantly say analysts the failure of talks between india and pakistan on the baglihar dam in indian-administered kashmir has not automatically led to heightened tensions. this they say indicates that neither country is interested in raising the temperature at this stage irrespective of the state of their disagreements. the market is abuzz with speculation that substantial investment may now start to flow in from the us a country seen locally as deeply interested in defusing tensions between the south asian neighbours. you can call it a peace dividend smiles one broker. let us see how long one can reap its benefits.

business

china bans new tobacco factories the world s biggest tobacco consumer china has said it will not allow any new tobacco factories to be built. china already has more than enough cigarette-making capacity according to a spokesman for the tobacco industry regulator quoted in china daily. the ban threatens to reignite tensions between the regulator and british american tobacco which plans to become china s first foreign cigarette maker. a spokeswoman for bat declined to comment on the report. china won t allow any new tobacco factories to be built including joint ventures said xing wangli a spokesman for the state tobacco administration monopoly quoted in china daily. he also said that the state would retain its monopoly on cigarette distribution. china has 350 million smokers who consumer 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year. smoking is fashionable in china where it is seen as an essential - and manly - sociable touch for some jobs such as salesmen. more young urban woman are taking up smoking too. in july 2004 bat announced it had won approval for to build a $1.5bn (£800m) joint venture factory in china which would make it the first foreign cigarette maker to manufacture there. the state tobacco monopoly administration said a week later that it had not approved the deal leading to an embarrassing public row. bat told the bbc at that time that it had not negotiated with the stmc and secured approval from the highest levels of government . since then the row has flared occasionally most recently at a forum in november. bat consistently declines to comment. xing s statement comes as especially bad news for british american tobacco the china daily newspaper said of the latest development. the bat spokeswoman said: there is nothing for us to add...since our announcement in july last year. the central government of china is the authority that approved our strategic investment. the decision to ban further tobacco factories does not apply to deals made before 2005 according to the french news agency afp. the joint venture factory was expected to take till 2006 to build. the bat spokeswoman would not comment on its progress. however if the stma continues to take a tough stance expansion opportunities could be limited. china s tobacco market is increasingly valuable as anti-smoking campaigners target public smoking in the west. china daily said the market was currently enjoying steady growth making more than 210bn yuan ($25.4bn) in pre-tax profits last year almost double the figure in 2000. the paper made no mention of health concerns. the stma is trying to restructure the domestic tobacco industry closing some factories though such moves can be unpopular with local governments.

business

barclays shares up on merger talk shares in uk banking group barclays have risen on monday following a weekend press report that it had held merger talks with us bank wells fargo. a tie-up between barclays and california-based wells fargo would create the world s fourth biggest bank valued at $180bn (£96bn). barclays has declined to comment on the report in the sunday express saying it does not respond to market speculation. the two banks reportedly held talks in october and november 2004. barclays shares were up 8 pence or 1.3% at 605 pence by late morning in london on monday making it the second biggest gainer in the ftse 100 index. uk banking icon barclays was founded more than 300 years ago; it has operations in over 60 countries and employs 76 200 staff worldwide. its north american divisions focus on business banking whereas wells fargo operates retail and business banking services from 6 000 branches. in 2003 barclays reported a 20% rise in pre-tax profits to £3.8bn and it has recently forecast similar gains in 2004 predicting that full year pre-tax profits would rise 18% to £4.5bn. wells fargo had net income of $6.2bn in its last financial year a 9% increase on the previous year and revenues of $28.4bn. barclays was the focus of takeover speculation in august when it was linked to citigroup though no bid has ever materialised. stock market traders were sceptical that the latest reports heralded a deal. the chief executive would be abandoning his duty if he didn t talk to rivals but a deal doesn t seem likely reuters quoted one trader as saying.

business

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.

business

amnesty chief laments war failure the lack of public outrage about the war on terror is a powerful indictment of the failure of human rights groups amnesty international s chief has said. in a lecture at the london school of economics irene khan said human rights had been flouted in the name of security since 11 september 2001. she said the human rights movement had to use simpler language both to prevent scepticism and spread a moral message. and it had to fight poverty not just focus on political rights for elites. ms khan highlighted detentions without trial including those at the us camp at guantanamo bay in cuba and the abuse of prisoners as evidence of increasing human rights problems. what s a new challenge is the way in which this age-old debate on security and human rights has been translated into the language of war she said. by using the language of war human rights are being sidelined because we know human rights do not apply in times of war. ms khan said such breaches were infectious and were now seen in almost very major country in the world. the human rights movement faces a crisis of faith in the value of human rights she said. that was accompanied by a crisis of governance where the united nations system did not seem able to hold countries to account. the amnesty secretary-general said a growing gap between the perceived influence of human rights group and what they could actually achieve was fuelling scepticism. public passivity on the war against terror is the single most powerful indictment on the failures of human rights groups she said. ms khan said the movement had failed to mobilise public outrage about what was happening to the human rights system. there needed to be a drive to use simpler language talking about the basic morality of the issues rather than the complexity of legal processes. such efforts could make the issues more relevant to people across the world she said. the human rights groups also had to recognise there were new groups which had to be tackled in new ways as power dripped away from state governments. al-qaeda for example was not going to be impressed by a traditional amnesty letter writing campaign. more also needed to be done to develop a human rights framework for international business corporations. amnesty international members voted in 2001 to extend the organisation s work from political and civil rights to cover social and economic rights too. ms khan said the human rights movement would make itself irrelevant if it turned away from the suffering caused by economic strife. we would be an elitist bunch working for the elites for those who cannot read the newspaper of their choice rather than those who cannot read she said. despite her concerns ms khan dubbed herself a hope-monger saying she was confident the passions of the human rights movement could overcome the new challenges.

politics

water firm suez in argentina row a conflict between the argentine state and water firm aguas argentinas controlled by france s suez is casting doubt on the firm s future. the firm which serves the province of buenos aires wants a tariff rise of 60% to fund water-supply improvements. the government has rejected the 60% rise and wants aguas argentinas to make an annual investment of 400m pesos ($136m; £72.3m) in improvements. planning minister julio de vido has offered state help but not for free . mr de vido said that the argentine state would not make a contribution in the form of a subsidy . he has said a contribution could be made in return for a seat on the company s board. he added that the government is in discussions with aguas argentinas about what role it might take in the event that a state contribution is agreed. however aguas argentinas told the argentine newspaper clarin it would not accept any change to its legal structure and in practice this rules out state participation on its board. the planning minister didn t rule out the possibility of cancelling aguas argentinas water concession. yet he added that he didn t like to do futurology . but last week argentine economic minister roberto lavagna told the french media in paris that the government was considering allowing a 16% increase in tariffs and the possibility of a state contribution to aguas argentinas infrastructure investments. speaking in buenos aires mr de vido later denied the possibility of any tariff increase and insisted that the annual investment in water infrastructure was at the centre of the discussions. he added that in the coming weeks the future of aguas argentinas would be decided. suez owns 40% of aguas argentinas (39.9%) while spain s aguas de barcelona is its second biggest shareholder with 25.01%. recently suez lost a water concession in bolivia after mass protests in the city of el alto (the poorest in the country) with citizens complaining of unfair water charges. this forced the government to cancel the contract. in argentina suez s subsidiary which has been fined for cutting the supply of water during a recent heat wave and allegedly failing to keep up investment to meet the demand for water has maintained a tense relationship with the argentine government. during the last financial crisis in argentina the firm sued the state alleging that converting its tariffs from us dollars to pesos and then freezing them during devaluation had affected the company and made it difficult for it to meet its contractual obligations. when president nestor kirchner of argentina arrived in power he began to negotiate a solution to the disagreements with international utilities operating in argentina. but he has rejected any tariff increases alleging this will impoverish citizens further. he has also asked for more investments to meet the growing demand for water. on may 2004 aguas argentinas and the government signed an agreement to renegotiate its buenos aires water-concession contract. the firm agreed to invest 242m pesos. the issue has attracted european interest. last week in paris president kirchner discussed this problem and other issues with french president jacques chirac. the argentine government is also under pressure from european union countries and the international monetary fund (imf) to raise utilities tariffs because most of the utilities operating in argentina are european.

business

fox attacks blair s tory lies tony blair lied when he took the uk to war so has no qualms about lying in the election campaign say the tories. tory co-chairman liam fox was speaking after mr blair told labour members the tories offered a hard right agenda . dr fox told bbc radio: if you are willing to lie about the reasons for going to war i guess you are going to lie about anything at all. he would not discuss reports the party repaid £500 000 to lord ashcroft after he predicted an election defeat. the prime minister ratcheted up labour s pre-election campaigning at the weekend with a helicopter tour of the country and his speech at the party s spring conference. he insisted he did not know the poll date but it is widely expected to be 5 may. in what was seen as a highly personal speech in gateshead on sunday mr blair said: i have the same passion and hunger as when i first walked through the door of 10 downing street. he described his relationship with the public as starting euphoric then struggling to live up to the expectations and reaching the point of raised voices and throwing crockery . he warned his supporters against complacency saying: it s a fight for the future of our country it s a fight that for britain and the people of britain we have to win. mr blair said that whether the public chose michael howard or mr kennedy it would result in a tory government not a labour government and a country that goes back and does not move forward . dr fox accused mr blair and other cabinet ministers of telling lies about their opponents policies and then attacking the lies. what we learned at the weekend is what labour tactics are going to be and it s going to be fear and smear he told bbc news. the tory co-chairman attacked labour s six new pledges as vacuous and said mr blair was very worried voters would take revenge for his failure to deliver. dr fox refused to discuss weekend newspaper reports that the party had repaid £500 000 to former tory treasurer lord ashcroft after he said the party could not win the election. we repay loans when they are due but do not comment to individual financial matters he said insisting he enjoyed a warm and constructive relationship to lord ashcroft. meanwhile lib dem leader charles kennedy is expected to attack mr blair s words as he begins a nationwide tour on monday. mr kennedy is accelerating lib dem election preparations this week as he visits manchester liverpool leicester somerset basingstoke shrewsbury dorset and torbay. he said: this is three-party politics. in the northern cities the contest is between labour and the liberal democrats. in southern and rural seats - especially in the south west - the principal contenders are the liberal democrats and the conservatives who are out of the running in scotland and wales. the lib dems accuse mr blair of making a touchy-feely speech to labour delegates which will not help him regain public trust.

politics

bush to get tough on deficit us president george w bush has pledged to introduce a tough federal budget next february in a bid to halve the country s deficit in five years. the us budget and its trade deficit are both deep in the red helping to push the dollar to lows against the euro and fuelling fears about the economy. mr bush indicated there would be strict discipline on non-defence spending in the budget. the vow to cut the deficit had been one of his re-election declarations. the federal budget deficit hit a record $412bn (£211.6bn) in the 12 months to 30 september and $377bn in the previous year. we will submit a budget that fits the times mr bush said. it will provide every tool and resource to the military will protect the homeland and meet other priorities of the government. the us has said it is committed to a strong dollar. but the dollar s weakness has hit european and asian exporters and lead to calls for us intervention to boost the currency. mr bush however has said the best way to halt the dollar s slide is to deal with the us deficit. it s a budget that i think will send the right signal to the financial markets and to those concerned about our short-term deficits mr bush added. as well we ve got to deal with the long-term deficit issues.

business

monsanto fined $1.5m for bribery the us agrochemical giant monsanto has agreed to pay a $1.5m (£799 000) fine for bribing an indonesian official. monsanto admitted one of its employees paid the senior official two years ago in a bid to avoid environmental impact studies being conducted on its cotton. in addition to the penalty monsanto also agreed to three years close monitoring of its business practices by the american authorities. it said it accepted full responsibility for what it called improper activities. a former senior manager at monsanto directed an indonesian consulting firm to give a $50 000 bribe to a high-level official in indonesia s environment ministry in 2002. the manager told the company to disguise an invoice for the bribe as consulting fees . monsanto was facing stiff opposition from activists and farmers who were campaigning against its plans to introduce genetically-modified cotton in indonesia. despite the bribe the official did not authorise the waiving of the environmental study requirement. monsanto also has admitted to paying bribes to a number of other high-ranking officials between 1997 and 2002. the chemicals-and-crops firm said it became aware of irregularities at a jakarta-based subsidiary in 2001 and launched an internal investigation before informing the us department of justice and the securities and exchange commission (sec). monsanto faced both criminal and civil charges from the department of justice and the sec. companies cannot bribe their way into favourable treatment by foreign officials said christopher wray assistant us attorney general. monsanto has agreed to pay $1m to the department of justice adopt internal compliance measures and co-operate with continuing civil and criminal investigations. it is also paying $500 000 to the sec to settle the bribe charge and other related violations. monsanto said it accepted full responsibility for its employees actions adding that it had taken remedial actions to address the activities in indonesia and had been fully co-operative throughout the investigative process.

business

more power to the people says hp the digital revolution is focused on letting people tell and share their own stories according to carly fiorina chief of technology giant hewlett packard. the job of firms such as hp now she said in a speech at the consumer electronics show (ces) was to ensure digital and physical worlds fully converged. she said the goal for 2005 was to make people the centre of technology. ces showcases 50 000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in 2005. the tech-fest the largest of its kind in the world runs from 6 to 9 january. the digital revolution is about the democratisation of technology and the experiences it makes possible she told delegates. revolution has always been about giving power to the people. she added: the real story of the digital revolution is not just new products but the millions of experiences made possible and stories that millions can tell. part of giving people more control has been about the freeing up of content such as images video and music. crucial to this has been the effort to make devices that speak to each other better so that content can be more easily transferred from one device such as a digital camera to others such as portable media players. a lot of work still needs to be done however to sort out compatibility issues and standards within the technology industry so that gadgets just work seamlessly she said. ms fiorina s talk also touted the way technology is being designed to focus on lifestyle fashion and personalisation something she sees as key to what people want. special guest singer gwen stefani joined her on-stage to promote her own range of hp digital cameras which ms stefani has helped design and which are heavily influenced by japanese youth culture. the digital cameras which are due to go on sale in the us by the summer are based on the hp 607 model. the emphasis on personalisation and lifestyle is a big theme at this year s ces with tiny wearable mp3 players at every turn and rainbow hues giving colour to everything. ms fiorina also announced that hp was working with nokia to launch a visual radio service for mobiles which would launch in europe early this year. the service will let people listen to radio on their mobiles and download relevant content like a track s ringtone simultaneously. the service is designed to make mobile radio more interactive. among the other new products she showcased was the digital media hub a big upgrade to hp s digital entertainment centre. coming out in the autumn in the us the box is a networked high-definition tv cable set-top box digital video recorder and dvd recorder. it has a removable hard drive cartridge memory card slots and light scribe labelling software which lets people design and print customised dvd labels and covers. it is designed to contain all a household s digital media such as pre-recorded tv shows pictures videos and music so it can all be managed in one place. the hub reflects the increasing move to re-box the pc so that it can work as part of other key centres of entertainment. research suggests that about 258 million images are saved and shared every day equating to 94 billion a year. eighty per cent of those remain on cameras. media hubs are designed to encourage people to organise them on one box. ms fiorina was one of several keynote speakers who also included microsoft chief bill gates to set out what major technology companies think people will be doing with technologies and gadgets in the next 12 months. in a separate announcement during the keynote speech ms fiorina said that hp would be partnering mtv to replace this year s mtv asia music award. mtv s asia aid will be held in bangkok on 3 february and is aimed at helping to raise money for the asian tsunami disaster.

tech

roxy music on isle of wight bill roxy music will appear at june s isle of wight music festival along with morrissey supergrass and idlewild. rem have already been confirmed as headliners for the three-day event which takes place from 10-12 june. original band members bryan ferry phil manzerana andy mackay and paul thompson will take to the stage on the saturday night of the festival. the band are also working in the studio on new material their first since the 1982 album avalon. roxy music were formed in 1971 by ferry mackay and brian eno with manzanera joining the following year. their first hit was 1972 s virginia plain with other hits including street life love is the drug and the 1981 john lennon cover jealous guy. roxy music s back catalogue was re-released in 2000 leading to the band undertaking a world tour in 2001. morrissey will also play on saturday at the festival while supergrass and idlewild have been confirmed for the friday.

entertainment

fears raised over ballet future fewer children in the uk are following in the dainty footsteps of dancers like darcey bussell and carving out potential careers as ballet dancers. new research from the royal academy of dance (rad) has found fewer children over the age of 10 are attending ballet classes and taking exams in the discipline. the organisation blames the growing popularity of computer games and other changes in lifestyle. and there are fears that if the trend is not reversed there could be fewer british ballet stars in the future. the rad found that the number of youngsters taking their ballet exams drops by almost 70% after the age of 10 or 11. dance teacher eve trew who has taught ballet for over 48 years told bbc news she had seen a vast change over the years. she blamed modern lifestyles for the fall in ballet attendance. i think the children of many years ago did not have as many hobbies she said. the trouble now is that they are wide open to computers gameboys and everything else children have got. as a result there is less time being spent on ballet lessons. hazel gilbert 23 an information manager from newcastle gave up ballet at the age of 10 and is typical of the problem. it s not a very cool thing to do when you go to big school and i think you have to be very focused on ballet to want to carry on doing it she said. i used to love it but after a certain age it becomes much more disciplined and i didn t want that. i started getting into other things like swimming and kickboxing and ballet just wasn t something i wanted to do any more. ms trew who runs a dance school in gateshead admitted it would be very difficult to reverse the trend and said many young ballet dancers were no longer willing to make the sacrifices to succeed. you have to be very dedicated and you have to be very disciplined. it is a career that you have got to really want to do because it is such hard work. children these days have not got the time to spend perfecting it... that is very sad. currently only two out of 16 principal dancers at the royal ballet - darcey bussell and jonathan cope - are british compared to 16 of the 21 principals in 1985. but a spokesman for the english national ballet told bbc news that although only two out of their 12 principal dancers were british around a quarter of the company s dancers were from the uk. he said competition at open auditions in london was fierce between talented dancers from all over the world. the rad have launched a new competition to try and reverse the decline in british ballet. dame antoinette sibley president of the rad launched the fonteyn nureyev young dancers competition earlier this week. aimed at children aged 10 to 13 it is hoped the contest will help keep british ballet evolving. a spokeswoman for the rad said: it is our responsibility to re-ignite the passion and nurture young dancers for the long-term future of ballet. we need to provide them with a framework and a goal to work towards with constant support and coaching in an environment where they can work with their peers and possibly leading artists and choreographers. perhaps more importantly provide them with the opportunity to experience performance themselves. what better way to reignite a passion for ballet than to let them experience the thrill of performance

entertainment

no election tv debate says blair tony blair has said he will not take part in a tv debate with his political rivals ahead of the next election. 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. in october tory leader michael howard said mr blair would be running scared if he refused calls to go head-to-head. in recent years the leader of the opposition has always called for a debate although it has never happened. before the 2001 election plans for a debate between mr blair william hague and charles kennedy collapsed. in 1997 a debate between mr blair and john major was also cancelled when a format could not be agreed. televised debates have become the high point of the us presidential election campaigns.

politics

brentford v southampton griffin park tuesday 1 march 1945 gmt barry knight (kent) home to manchester united in the quarter-finals midfielder andrew frampton and striker deon burton are both slight doubts with hamstring injuries but should be fit saints are missing their entire first-choice midfield of jamie redknapp graeme le saux nigel quashie and david prutton. anders svensson and matt oakley are likely replacements with kevin phillips also scheduled to start with henri camara rested. - brentford boss martin allen: after conceding eight goals in our last three matches i have to admit i m not very confident. there s no doubt we re the underdogs and after defending so poorly recently it s not looking good. southampton have just drawn with the premiership champions and that makes our task harder than it was already. - southampton boss harry redknapp: we know they can give us problems. brentford have done well but we are the premiership side and should have the better players. staying in the premiership is our priority. we want to win of course we do. we ll battle but if it comes to a football match i think we ll win. key match stats - brentford are the lowest ranked club left in the fa cup. they re on their best run in the competition since reaching the quarter-finals for the fourth time in their history 16 years ago. now they have the carrot of the plum draw in the last eight dangling before them. victory over premiership strugglers southampton would bring the mighty manchester united to griffin park and a gigantic pay day for the sole league one survivors. - martin allen s brave side came back from two goals down at st mary s to earn a deserved replay. southampton striker henri camara scored twice from close range to put the saints in command but isaiah rankin hit back just before half time and sam sodje headed past a creaky defence on 58 minutes. - the londoners have conceded six goals in their two subsequent league outings - three each in losing away to hartlepool and drawing at home to sheffield wednesday. but they haven t lost in six league and cup games on home turf - winning three and drawing three since the reverse to torquay on boxing day. - southampton go into this tie on the back of an eventful premiership match with arsenal on saturday. an angry david prutton pushed referee alan wiley after being shown the red card but his side still came back to draw 1-1. it was saints fourth stalemate in succession in all competitions but didn t lift them out of the relegation zone. the retention of their ever present premier league status must be the number one priority irrespective of the rewards that success against brentford would bring. - victory here would set up a repeat of the 1976 final when saints astounded the football world by defeating tommy docherty s manchester united courtesy of bobby stokes famous winner. they also knocked out the red devils in 1991 on penalties in the fourth round. but to write another chapter in their fa cup history the solent side must avoid succumbing to lower division opposition for the first time since rotherham from the second level beat them 2-1 in a third round tie at millmoor on 16 january 2002. southampton were last humbled by a club from the third tier six years ago. fulham were then in the second division when they won a third round replay at craven cottage 1-0 on 13 january 1999. - to get to within two matches of a second visit to the millennium stadium in three years for the final harry redknapp must guide his side past a club 36 places inferior on the league ladder and a manager 19 years his junior who played under him at west ham. head to head 10th league one quarter-finals (four times) 18th prem winners (once)

sport

musical treatment for capra film the classic film it s a wonderful life is to be turned into a musical by the producer of the controversial hit show jerry springer - the opera. frank capra s 1946 movie starring james stewart is being turned into a £7m musical by producer jon thoday. he is working with steve brown who wrote the award-winning musical spend spend spend. a spokeswoman said the plans were in the very early stages with no cast opening date or theatre announced. a series of workshops have been held in london and on wednesday a cast of singers unveiled the musical to a select group of potential investors. mr thoday said the idea of turning the film into a musical had been an ambition of his for almost 20 years. it s a wonderful life was based on a short story the greatest gift by philip van doren stern. mr thoday managed to buy the rights to the story from van doren stern s family in 1999 following mr brown s success with spend spend spend. he later secured the film rights from paramount enabling them to use the title it s a wonderful life.

entertainment

deutsche telekom sees mobile gain german telecoms firm deutsche telekom saw strong fourth quarter profits on the back of upbeat us mobile earnings and better-than-expected asset sales. net profit came in at 1.4bn euros (£960m; $1.85bn) a dramatic change from the loss of 364m euros in 2003. sales rose 2.8% to 14.96bn euros. sales of stakes in firms including russia s oao mobile telesystems raised 1.17bn euros. this was more than expected and helped to bring debt down to 35.8bn euros. a year ago debt was more than 11bn euros higher. t-mobile usa the company s american mobile business made a strong contribution to profits. it s a seminal achievement that they cut debt so low. that gives them some head room to invest in growth now said hannes wittig telecoms analyst at dresdner kleinwort wasserstein. the company also said it would resume paying a dividend after two years in which it focused on cutting debt.

business

clarke to press on with id cards new home secretary charles clarke has vowed to plough on with plans for id cards despite a call for him to pause for thought from charles kennedy. the lib dem leader said david blunkett s resignation was a good opportunity to question whether the legislation was necessary. but mr clarke said he had supported the plans when mr blunkett argued for them in cabinet and he supported them now. id cards are a means to creating a more secure society he said. mr clarke acknowledged how the measure was introduced remained a matter for debate but he said legislation had already been significantly influenced by the recommendations of the commons home affairs committee. the issue would be debated in parliament next monday as scheduled he insisted. earlier mr kennedy whose party opposes the id cards plan as deeply flawed said with christmas coming up the new home secretary had time to think again. he told bbc radio 4 s today programme that mr clarke had been reported to be less enthusiastic about id cards than his predecessors. wouldn t this be a good opportunity for a new home secretary a new broom to sweep clean in this respect and why do we need this legislation in the first place he asked. earlier this week the tories announced they would back the government s plans although michael howard was forced to deny the shadow cabinet was split over its decision. they had decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror crime and illegal immigration. among those reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members david davis oliver letwin and tim yeo. the chairman of the bar council guy mansfield qc has warned there is a real risk that people on the margins of society would be driven into the hands of extremists. what is going to happen to young asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere they are going to be stopped. if they haven t [id cards] they are going to be detained. the home office says people will pay £85 for a passport and id card together or a undecided fee for a separate id card. the first cards would be issued in 2008 and when he was introducing the bill mr blunkett suggested parliament could decide in 2011 or 2012 whether to make it compulsory for everybody to own the cards although not to carry them. the new bill will also create new criminal offences on the possession of false identity documents. and there will be civil penalties including a fine of up to £1 000 fine for people who fail to say they have moved house or changed other details and of up to £2 500 for failing to sign up if the cards become compulsory. the scheme will be overseen by a new independent watchdog.

politics

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

politics

hotspot users gain free net calls people using wireless net hotspots will soon be able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net. wireless provider broadreach and net telephony firm skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots around the uk this week. users will need a skype account - downloadable for free - and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net access. skype allows people to make free pc-based calls to other skype users. users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. the system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. its paid service - dubbed skype out - has so far attracted 940 000 users. it plans to add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing voice mail and skype in a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from landlines and mobiles. london-based software developer connectotel has unveiled software that will expand the sms functions of skype allowing users to send text messages to mobile phones from the service. broadreach networks has around two million users and hotspots in places such as virgin megastores the travelodge chain of hotels and all london s major rail terminals. the company is due to launch wi-fi on virgin trains later in the year. skype s success at spreading the world about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free access to skype users in our hotspots commented broadreach chief executive magnus mcewen-king.

tech

reaction from spanish press england s 1-0 defeat to spain on wednesday dominated the back and front pages of the country s press on thursday. controversy was in no short supply with racist abuse of england s black players wayne rooney s petulance and england s inept performance. but what did the spanish press make of the affair bbc sport looks at the reaction. there is little coverage of the racist chanting on wednesday night s game. but as does cover the english reaction to the pre-match comments from spain coach luis aragones who highlighted britain s colonial past when probed about his own remarks regarding thierry henry in october. journalist guillem balague writes: in our country where multi-culturalism is a new thing we are in nappies dealing with these things and have a naivety which makes the english nervous. marca refers in passing to the booing of england s black players - but only after referring to the cheers of ole which greeted the long periods of spanish possession. aragones no comment to questions about racism after the match is also highlighted as marca focuses on the spanish coach s praise for his players. serbia & montenegro s 2-0 world cup qualifying win in belgium - which could make qualification tougher for spain - seems to be of greater importance. elsewhere the spanish media criticises its english counterparts for stoking up the racism issue. were there racist chants against some players this hasn t happened in the spanish league and spain for many years said spanish federation press officer fernando garrido. so you (english reporters) should ask yourselves what you have done to contribute to all this. and spanish daily abc accuses english reporters of launching a witch-hunt against aragones. perhaps it was because their team had played so poorly and they wanted to divert attention towards this muddled issue the paper says. what the boy in the bernabeu did was odd... rooney seemed intent to kick any spanish player who approached him. yet rooney is seen only as the worst example of many england miscreants with gary neville criticised for continuing the feud between manchester united and arsenal for his tackles on jose reyes. ashley cole s treatment of joaquin and a frank lampard foul on reyes are also lambasted for their ugliness . marca s headline says it all: wayne rooney se volvió loco en el bernabéu (wayne rooney became crazy in the bernabeu) rooney s display alarms the writer in particular three chilling fouls on joaquin casillas and marchena which could well have left them in the infirmary. and like as marca criticises gary neville for leaving a message on reyes ankle to remind him of the manchester united-arsenal clash this month. spain s first-half performance is showered with praise with xavi singled out as the biggest star. xavi did things on wednesday which were worthy of maradona the paper beams adding what a work-rate what dynamism what vision what leadership what a midfield player! on a controversial evening as offers one seemingly undeniable viewpoint: spanish football players played better football than the english. more plaudits are given to the home team with jaime vargas lauding the manner in which spain dominated england with order and quality . the paper adds: the bad thing about spain v england was that it lasted only 65 minutes after which a succession of changes prevented any real competition. vargas does not mention england s two galacticos simply adding in a ps: i have not forgotten to speak of beckham and owen. they forgot to play.

sport

commons hunt protest charges eight protesters who stormed the house of commons chamber during a debate on the hunting bill have been charged with disorderly conduct. the men were arrested in september after bursting into the chamber causing a hunting ban debate to be halted. those charged included otis ferry the 22-year-old son of rock star bryan ferry and luke tomlinson 27 a close friend of princes william and harry. they were charged under section 5 of the public order act police said. five of the eight men held an impromptu news conference outside charing cross police station on monday evening after the charges were formerly put to them. the men s solicitor matthew knight said that at no time had it occurred to the men that they were committing a criminal offence. there is no offence of trespassing in the house of commons - it is not a criminal offence he said. if parliament wanted to make entering the house of commons chamber on foot a criminal offence it should have done so but it can t do so retrospectively. we are not prosecuted for that. we are prosecuted for a public order act offence. we are not guilty of it. they will appear at bow street magistrates court on 21 december a police spokesman said. otis ferry a former eton pupil and joint leader of the south shropshire hunt said: i have no regrets. we have done nothing wrong beyond the obvious which was to stand up for our rights and not act like a sheep like the rest of the country. one of the men david redvers 34 from hartpury gloucestershire said he and the other seven protesters would plead not guilty to the charges. the other protesters are john holliday 37 a huntsman from ledbury herefordshire robert thame 34 who plays polo with princes charles in team highgrove auctioneer andrew elliot 42 from bromesberrow near ledbury point-to-point jockey richard wakeham 34 from york and former royal chef nick wood 41. the 15 september protest came on the same day as a huge pro-hunting demonstration in parliament square. four of the men ran out from behind the speaker s chair while another wrestled past a doorkeeper from a different entrance. the five tried to confront mps before they were bundled out of the chamber and later led away handcuffed by police. three others had been intercepted by security staff as they tried to join the five in the chamber. speaker michael martin later said the men had used a forged letter to gain access to the house of commons and had been helped to get close to the chamber by a parliamentary pass holder. in november the use of the parliament act meant a total ban on hunting with dogs in england and wales. however many pro-hunt activists remained defiant after the law was passed saying they would ignore the ban and continue to hunt. last week the countryside alliance said more than 250 hunts would meet legally the day after the ban on hunting with dogs comes into force. the alliance said the 19 february meets would show the new law was impossibly difficult to determine and open to different interpretations.

politics

the year search became personal the odds are that when you fire up your browser you go straight to your favourite search engine rather than type in a web address. some may see this as the height of laziness but in an era of information overload search has become a vital tool in navigating the net. it is symptomatic of how the way we use the internet is changing. and as google has shown there is money in offering a service that people cannot live without. there is no shortage of companies vying for the loyalty of web searchers offering a wealth of different services and tools to help you find what you want. over the past 12 months giants of the technology world such as microsoft and yahoo have sought to grab a slice of the search action. user experience has contributed to people searching more said yonca brunini of yahoo. as people become more familiar with the internet they tend to spend more time online and ask more queries she said. the other second thing is broadband ms brunini told the bbc news website. this will do to internet what colour has done to tv. but search is hardly a new phenomenon. it has been around since the early days of the net. veteran surfers will remember old-timers like hotbot and altavista. search was always important said urs holzle google vice-president of operations. we trumpeted that in 1999. it is even truer now as there are more users and more information. people didn t realise that search was the future. the financials have something to do with it. google has shown web commerce can work through its targeted small adverts which appear at the top and down the right-hand side of a page and are related to the original search. these small ads helped google reach revenues of $805.9m for the three months to september. others have woken up to the fact that you can make money out of web queries. once you see there is a market microsoft is bound to step to it. if microsoft sees search as important then nobody queries it said mr holzle. microsoft is just one of the net giants muscling in on search. yahoo ask jeeves amazon and a handful of smaller outfits are all seeking to capture eyeballs. web users face a plethora of choices as each company tries to outflank google by rolling out new search products such as desktop search. it reflects how the battlefield has shifted from the net to your pc. search is not just about finding your way around the web. it is now about unlocking information hidden in the gigabytes of documents images and music on hard drives. for all these advances search is still a clumsy tool often failing to come up with exactly what you had in mind. in order to do a better job search engines are trying to get to know you better doing a better job of remembering cataloguing and managing all the information you come across. personalisation is going to be a big area for the future said yahoo s yonca brunini. whoever cracks that and gives you the information you want is going to be the winner. we have to understand you to give you better results that are tailored to you. this is perhaps the holy grail of search understanding what it is you are looking for and providing it quickly. the problem is that no one yet knows how to get there.

tech

healthsouth ex-boss goes on trial the former head of us medical services firm healthsouth overstated earnings and assets to boost the company s share price it was claimed in court. richard scrushy 52 is accused of directing a $2.7bn (£1.4bn) accounting fraud at the company he co-founded in alabama in 1984. prosecutors said he was motivated by wealth - spending about $200m between 1996 and 2002 while earning much less. defence lawyers said mr scrushy had been deceived by other executives. several former healthsouth employees have already pleaded guilty to fraud and are expected to give evidence against mr scrushy. we will present evidence that richard scrushy knew about the conspiracy that he participated in the conspiracy and that he profited prosecutor alice martin told the court. mr scrushy is the first chief executive to be tried for breaching the sarbanes oxley act - a law introduced in the wake of the enron and worldcom frauds which obliges corporate bosses to vouch for the accuracy of their companies results. among the charges he faces are conspiracy to commit fraud filing false statements and money laundering. after federal agents raided healthsouth s offices in march 2003 the company said none of its past financial statements could be relied on. the firm has since reorganised its board and management team and currently operates about 1 400 health clinics.

business

mexican in us send $16bn home mexican labourers living in the us sent a record $16.6bn (£8.82bn) home last year. the bank of mexico said that remittances grew 24% last year and now represent the country s second-biggest source of income after oil. better records and greater prosperity of mexican expatriates in the us are the main reasons behind the increase. about 10 million mexicans live in the us where there are 16 million citizens of mexican origin. remittances now represent more than 2% of the country s gdp according to the bank of mexico s figures. last year there were 50.9 million transactions with an average value of $327 per remittance the bank said. according to standard & poor s which has recently upgraded mexico s sovereign debt rating the rise in remittances helps protect the mexican economy against a potential fall in the international oil prices. the growth in remittances has sparked fierce competition between banks. bank of america announced last week that it planned to eliminate transfer fees for some customers. remittance charges are estimated to have dropped by between 50 and 60% reports from the us treasury and the inter-american development bank have said. the inter-american development bank estimates that remittances to latin america and the caribbean reached $45bn in 2004.

business

continental may run out of cash shares in continental airlines have tumbled after the firm warned it could run out of cash. in a filing to us regulators the airline warned of inadequate liquidity if it fails to reduce wage costs by $500m by the end of february. continental also said that if it did not make any cuts it expects to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in 2005 in current market conditions. failure to make cutbacks may also push it to reduce its fleet the group said. shares in the fifth biggest us carrier had fallen 6.87% on the news to $10.44 by 1830 gmt. without the reduction in wage and benefit costs and a reasonable prospect of future profitability we believe that our ability to raise additional money through financings would be uncertain continental said in its filing to the us securities and exchange commission (sec). airlines have faced tough conditions in recent years amid terrorism fears since the 11 september world trade centre attack in 2001. but despite passengers returning to the skies record-high fuel costs and fare wars prompted by competition from low cost carriers have taken their toll. houston-based continental now has debt and pension payments of nearly $984m which it must pay off this year. the company has been working to streamline its operations - and has managed to save $1.1bn in costs without cutting jobs. two weeks ago the group also announced it would be able to shave a further $48m a year from its costs with changes to wage and benefits for most of its us-based management and clerical staff.

business

euronext joins bid battle for lse pan-european stock market euronext has approached the london stock exchange (lse) about a possible takeover bid. the approach is at an early stage and therefore does not require a response at this point lse said. talks with the european stock market and with rival bidder deutsche boerse will continue the lse said. last week the group rejected a £1.3bn ($2.5bn) takeover offer from deutsche boerse claiming that it undervalued the business. lse saw its shares surge 4.9% to a new high of 583p in early trade following the announcement on monday. the offer follows widespread media speculation that euronext would make an offer for lse. experts now widely expect a bidding war for europe s biggest stock market which lists stocks with a total capitalisation of £1.4 trillion to break out. commentators say that a deal with euronext which owns the liffe derivatives exchange in london and combines the paris amsterdam and lisbon stock exchanges could potentially offer the lse more cost savings than a deal with deutsche boerse. a weekend report in the telegraph had quoted an unnamed executive at euronext as saying the group would make a cash bid to trump deutsche boerse s offer. because we already own liffe in london the cost savings available to us from a merger are far greater than for deutsche boerse the newspaper quoted the executive as saying. euronext chief executive jean-francois theodore is reported to have already held private talks with lse s chief executive clara furse. further reports had suggested that euronext could make an offer in excess of the lse s 533p a share closing price on friday. however euronext said it could not guarantee at this stage that a firm offer would be made for lse. there has been extensive speculation about a possible takeover of the company since an attempted merger with deutsche boerse failed in 2000.

business

steel firm to cut 45 000 jobs mittal steel one of the world s largest steel producers could cut up to 45 000 jobs over the next five years its chief executive has said. the netherlands-based company is due to complete its $4.5bn acquisition of us firm isg next month making it one of the largest global firms of its kind. however lakshmi mittal has told investors the combined company will have to shed thousands of jobs. the indian-born magnate did not say where the job losses would fall. mr mittal told us investors that once the acquisition of international steel group was completed the company would aim to reduce its workforce by between 7 000 and 8 000 annually. this could see its workforce trimmed from 155 000 to 110 000 staff by 2010. we are investing in modernisation so employees will go down mr mittal told the conference in chicago. mittal steel was formed last year when mr mittal s lnm holdings merged with dutch firm ispat. a combination of mittal steel and isg would have annual sales of $32bn (£16.7bn; 24.1bn euros) and a production capacity of 70 million tonnes. a mittal steel spokeman said that no decisions on job cuts have been made yet. we are trying to create a sustainable steel industry and if we want to do that we have to invest in new technology a spokesman said. mittal steel has operations in 14 countries. many of its businesses - particularly those in eastern europe - were previously state owned and have huge workforces. it employs 50 000 staff in kazakhstan alone and has large operations in romania the czech republic south africa and the united states.

business

ivanovic seals canberra victory serbia s ana ivanovic captured her first wta title with a straight-sets victory over hungarian melinda czink in the final of the canberra classic. the 17-year-old took 83 minutes to take the match 7-5 6-1. ivanovic beat czink in the last round of qualifying but the hungarian made the main draw as a lucky loser after katarina srebotnik withdrew injured. ivanovic said: i was really nervous in the beginning but i pulled through and didn t do too much wrong. a junior wimbledon finalist last year she added: it s my first wta title and to win it has really given me more energy to practice and improve. ivanovic will play 32nd seed iveta benesova of the czech republic in the first round.said of the australian open in melbourne.

sport

tories unveil quango blitz plans plans to abolish 162 quangos have been unveiled by the conservatives as part of their effort to show how government red tape can be cut. six government units would also be scrapped under proposals which the tories say would save more than £4.3bn. among the targets are strategic health authorities and the new fair access regulator for universities. tory frontbencher john redwood said britain needed a slimmer government and lower taxes to be competitive. the plans would abolish regional assemblies and other regional bodies such as boards tackling industrial development and housing. their powers would be returned to elected local councils or national government. the tories say the strategic health authorities are not needed as it is better that local people rather than officials run hospitals and surgeries. announcing the plans mr redwood said: mr blair has forgotten the interests of taxpayers and has broken the pledges he made. far from improving public services spending taxpayers money on quangos has led only to more bureaucrats more regulation and higher taxes. his party leader michael howard argued a change in direction was needed to get a grip on spending. labour are creating two britains: the britain of the forgotten majority and bureaucratic britain he said. in the real world people are working harder just to stand still. they ve seen their pensions knocked for six. they re being squeezed by extra taxes. the forgotten majority are paying the price of bureaucratic britain. the government has announced plans to cut 100 000 civil servants as part of its efficiency drive. but chief secretary to the treasury paul boateng attacked the tory plans. the conservatives are committed to cutting labour s public spending plans by a massive £35 billion he said. cuts on this scale cannot be found from cutting bureaucracy but would require massive cuts to front-line public services such as schools hospitals and the police. the liberal democrats have said they would cut the number of whitehall departments to make sure money reaches frontline services.

politics

brown comes out shooting labour may have abolished hunting - but that didn t stop chancellor gordon brown using his budget to fire both barrels at some of the opposition parties core election foxes. specifically it saw him attempting to slaughter the council tax as an election issue and to tear limb from limb their wider policies for pensioners and families. in a relatively short speech he kept the best for last and was clearly out to give exactly that pre-election boost everyone had been predicting. so if you are a couple with children a pensioner a patient or a youngster there was something pulled from mr brown s red box in an attempt to persuade you to stick with or switch to a new labour government. like a surgeon he attempted to target his handouts with absolute precision onto exactly the groups the government needs to appeal to in the election campaign. the announcements brought great cheers from his own mps who are now in full-on election mode and had been looking to their man to give them ammunition for the doorsteps. they obviously believed he had done that for them and coincidentally given his own image as a prime minister-in-waiting another little boost. labour mps for example will undoubtedly now engage in a debate over exactly how redistributive - a lovely old labour word - this chancellor really is. but gordon brown is never going to put on a show and even as he was out to cast himself as the man who will win labour an historic third term his demeanour remained quiet confident and reassuring. prudence made an appearance albeit towards the end of his address as he assured voters he would do nothing to mess up the economic stability he had brought to britain and which he claimed would be thrown away by anyone else. according to the opposition parties however it is all one big con trick. as always they accused him of glossing over the facts of the black hole at the centre of his finances which they claim would ensure tax increases after the election. he did it most obviously with his increase in national insurance contributions after the 2001 election campaign during which he had pledged not to increase income tax. as liberal democrat leader charles kennedy claimed for most families the distinction between income tax and a tax on income is meaningless. tory leader michael howard said the chancellor was up to his old trick of deliberately re-casting his forecasts to give the illusion that everything in the treasury larder is as fresh as the day it was first stored away for future use. he branded it a dodgy vote now pay later budget based on dodgy figures from a dodgy government that gave britain the dodgy dossier. where the chancellor mostly avoided direct electioneering mr howard felt no such constraint with attacks like comparing mr brown s forecasts to the prime minister s forecasts on iraq s weapons of mass destruction. as ever there will now be a period of frantic activity by the opposition parties treasury specialists as they pore over the chancellor s red book which sets out the fine detail of his budget in an attempt to spot the flaws. in particular there will be an argument over precisely whose policies on the council tax will offer people the best deal. and in labour circles there will undoubtedly be an argument over just how good a prime minister gordon brown will make at some point after the next election.

politics

bets off after big brother leak a bookmaker has stopped taking bets on celebrity big brother after claiming sensitive information about the channel 4 show had been leaked. william hill made the move after four people tried to place bets on friday s surprise double eviction. this is highly unlikely to have been an inspired guess william hill spokesman rupert adams said. however a big brother spokeswoman was satisfied that sensitive information about the show remained confidential. the bookmaker said its suspicions had been aroused by betting for the last two contestant evictions when people were still trying to place large sums despite odds as short as 1/14. but william hill s overwhelming evidence came on friday when four unknown callers asked to place bets on the show s surprise double eviction. shortly afterwards model caprice and actor jeremy edwards left the show. mr adams believed someone had gained access to figures which revealed how viewers were voting and was using them to predict which celebrity would be evicted next. we think somebody somewhere has got them and has been trying very hard to take us to the cleaners he said. the bets were not taken. mr adams did not believe anyone from channel 4 or big brother producer endemol had tried to place the queried bets. but he added: they need to look at how many people are privy to the sensitive information. big brother s spokeswoman said: only a handful of senior production executives are privy to any sensitive information regarding eviction voting and there are strict procedures in place to keep this information strictly confidential. we do not feel the need to investigate this further as we are satisfied that these measures are effective. the show s independent adjudicator - the electoral reform services - was also satisfied she added. the current series of celebrity big brother ends on sunday with happy mondays star bez actress brigitte nielsen and blazin squad rapper kenzie competing for a £50 000 charity prize. bookmaker ladbrokes said it would continue to accept bets on the final with kenzie its favourite at 2/9. we felt no need whatsoever to close the book spokesman warren lush said. we ve seen absolutely no suspicious betting patterns. mr lush added that people sometimes vote on short odds because they think it s like buying money . you do have to risk quite a lot of money for a very small gain but if they think there s no chance of an upset they will still do it he said.

entertainment

howard and blair tax pledge clash tony blair has said voters will have to wait for labour s manifesto to see if the party has plans to increase tax. the premier was responding to a challenge from tory leader michael howard who said labour would raise taxes in its post-election budget. mr blair derided tory claims they could cut £35bn in wasteful spending saying the party had got its sums wrong. the two political leaders clashed just days after the opening salvoes of the pre-election period. mr howard told mps that every independent expert from the international monetary fund to the institute of fiscal studies had suggested the government was spending more than it is raising and a labour chancellor would have to put up taxes . mr blair replied: i think they are wrong for this very simple reason: that the treasury forecasts on the economy have been proven right. the tories on monday highlighted their plans for tax cuts worth £4bn although the specific taxes to be cut have not been announced. they also spelled out their plans for reduced government borrowing and more spending on key services. labour and the liberal democrats have said the party s sums do not add up and claim it would cut frontline services. but mr howard said voters faced a clear choice at the next election between more waste and more tax under labour and tory value for money and lower taxes. the liberal democrats have also launched their pre-election platform with leader charles kennedy saying his party was the authentic opposition particularly on the iraq war council tax and university tuition fees. labour hit back at the tory proposals even before their publication with election coordinator alan milburn accusing mr howard of producing a fraudulent prospectus .

politics

lopez misses uk charity premiere jennifer lopez cancelled an appearance at the uk charity premiere of her new movie saying she was too ill to fly. the actress and singer dropped out at the last minute and has now cancelled all european promotion of the film shall we dance and her new album. she said: i very much wanted to be in london but unfortunately i m not well. at the advice of my doctors i m unable to travel. co-star richard gere attended the event held in aid of the tsunami appeal. thousands braved the cold weather to see the stars in london s leicester square. the red carpet boasted waltzing dancers in honour of the film s ballroom dancing theme. the film s director peter chelsom said he was disappointed that lopez did not attend. it s a shame. i know it s true that she s not well because she has also cancelled her promotional tour. i ve heard she has swollen glands. gere 55 greeted the crowd and signed autographs accompanied by his wife carey lowell. other stars who turned out on the night included honor blackman strictly come dancing presenter tess daly and actress anita dobson. lopez issues a statement apologising for her absence. i m so proud of shall we dance and was looking forward to visiting london she said. this film was a labour of love for me and i want to thank everyone involved in bringing it to you from the cast to the film director to the crew. lopez appeared at the grammy awards on sunday singing a duet with her third husband marc anthony.

entertainment

beckham rules out management move real madrid midfielder david beckham has no plans to become a manager when his playing career is over. i am not interested in being a coach but i would like to have football schools the england captain said on television station canal plus. i have wanted to do that since i went to the bobby charlton school. i m going to open one in london and one in la. my second passion is charity work - i am an ambassador for unicef and it gives me great pride. but beckham revealed that his immediate priority was winning the spanish league title with real madrid. real slipped to 13 points behind leaders barcelona with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of sevilla on wednesday. beckham admitted: it s disappointing and frustrating to see the results considering the team we have. i would really like to win la liga with real madrid - i have been here two years and we still have not done it. in a wide-ranging interview beckham also revealed that his sending-off against argentina - and the resulting media storm - had been the most significant moment in his career. asked for his worst memory he said: to be sent off against argentina - it was not for the sending-off but for what happened afterwards. i was lucky because i had a manager sir alex ferguson who supported me and a strong family behind me but i believe that changed me. i believe it changed me for the better.

sport

open source leaders slam patents the war of words between microsoft and the open source movement heated up this week as linux founder linus torvalds led an attack on software patents. in a panel discussion at a linux summit in california mr torvalds said software patents were a problem for the open source movement. mitchell kapor chairman of the mozilla foundation warned that microsoft could use patent lawsuits in the future. linux is a freely-available alternative to microsoft s windows. it relies on a community of programmers for its development and is based on open source principles which allow others to use and modify it without having to pay licence fees. the attack on software patents comes at a time when ibm has made 500 of its patents freely available. other companies are expected to follow suit. there are between 150 000 and 300 000 registered software patents in the us and open source developers argue that many should never have been granted. this is a view corroborated by the uk patent office. some of the patents have dubious validity and are being wielded by some big companies to force smaller companies to buy licenses in the knowledge that they can t afford to take them to court said dr jeremy philpott of the uk patent office. some panel members are worried that microsoft would issue a series of patent lawsuits in the future. if totally pushed to the wall - because their business model no longer holds up in an era in which open source is an economically superior way to produce software...of course they re going to unleash the wmds mr kapor is reported as saying. microsoft did not want to comment directly referring the issue instead to trade body intellect of which it is a member. as far as intellect is concerned open source and patents have co-existed for many years without problems said spokeswoman jill sutherland. the industry respects the open source movement and in fact many of the members we represent use the open source system to develop software we think the important point to make is that companies should be able to choose between patents copyrights and open source as to the treatment of their intellectual discoveries and not be forced into using one or the other she added.

tech

mystery surrounds new yukos owner the fate of russia s yuganskneftegas - the oil firm sold to a little-known buyer on sunday - is the subject of frantic speculation in moscow. baikal finance group emerged as the auction winner agreeing to pay 260.75bn roubles (£4.8bn; $9.4bn). russia s newspapers claimed that baikal was a front for gas monopoly gazprom which had been expected to win. the sale has destroyed yukos once the owner of yuganskneftegas said founder mikhail khodorkovsky. yuganskneftegas has been sold in the best traditions of the 90s. the authorities have made themselves a wonderful christmas present - russia s most efficient oil company has been destroyed the interfax news agency quoted mr khodorkovsky as saying via his lawyers. gazprom had been expected to win the auction but is thought to have failed to get finance for the deal after a us court injunction barred it from taking part. last week yukos filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the us in a last-ditch attempt to hang on to yuganskneftegas which accounts for 60% of its output. a us judge banned gazprom from taking part in the auction and barred international banks from providing the firm with cash. they screwed up the financing said ronald smith an analyst at renaissance capital in moscow. and gazprom doesn t have this sort of money lying around. gazprom has denied that it is behind the purchase. it is a front for somebody but not necessarily for gazprom said oleg maximov an analyst at troika dialog in moscow. we don t know if this company is linked 100% to gazprom. we tried to find it but we couldn t and as far as i know the papers had the same result. the sale has however bought time for gazprom to raise the money needed for the purchase analysts said. one scenario is that baikal will not pay when it is supposed to in two weeks time putting yuganskneftegas back in the hands of bailiffs and back within the reach of gazprom. yukos is not planning on letting go of its unit without a fight and has threatened legal action against any buyer. menatep yukos main shareholders group has also threatened legal action. yukos claims that it is being punished for the political ambitions of its founder mikhail khodorkovsky who is now in jail facing separate fraud charges. it has been hit with more than $27bn in taxes and fines and many observers now say that the break up of the firm that accounts for 20% of russia s oil output is inevitable.

business

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

sport

a year to remember for irish there used to be one subliminal moment during a year in irish rugby that stood out more than most. well at least there used to one. now there is a handful to look back with a mixture of satisfaction and sorrow. it has been quite a year for the irish and not just with eddie o sullivan s triple crown winning international outfit either. right down through the ranks irish rugby is creating waves and upsetting the more established teams in the game. but most of the kudos will go to o sullivan and his merry band of warriors who not only collected their first triple crown for 29 years but also finished their autumn campaign with a 100% record. for the second year in succession they also finished in the runners-up spot in the rbs six nations. but in the three games in november which included a victory over tri-nations champions and grand slam chasing south africa ireland finsihed the year on a high. the 18-12 victory at lansdowne road was only their second victory over the boks after the initial success back in 1965. that success was revenge for the consecutive defeats in blomefontein and cape town in the summer. those two reverses and the 35-17 flop against france were the only dark patches in an otherwise excellent 12 months. but the big one of course was the 19-13 defeat of world cup champions england on their precious twickenham turf. the winning try was conceived in o sullivan s mind perfectly executed by the team and finished immaculately by girvan dempsey. for me the try of the championship. o sullivan s career is now in vertical take-off mode. it is no wonder that sir clive woodward has elevated the galway-based coach to head the lions test side. not only that but a fair majority of the present ireland side will be wearing red next june in new zealand. there can be no doubt that ireland s representation will be the biggest ever albeit in a proposed 44-man squad. in brian o driscoll and paul o connell ireland have now the two front-runners for the captaincy. gordon d arcy whose career began as a teenager back in 1999 finally arrived when he was named the six nations player of the tournament. but it was not only the senior squad that brought kudos to ireland the youngsters strutted their stuff on the big stage as well. the under-21 squad confounded the doubters as they went all the way to the world cup final in scotland only to be beaten by a powerful all black side in the decider. the young irish boys had stated their intentions earlier in the season when they finished runners-up to england in the six nations under-21 tournament. on the provincial front leinster for second year in succession blew it when the heineken cup looked a good wager. while ulster finished runners-up in their very tight group for the second season in succession it was munster again flying the flag for the irish. looking to reach their third final they went down 37-32 to eventual winners wasps in what many beileve was the most competitive and thunderous game ever witnessed at lansdowne road. how wasps recovered from that energy-sapping duel and then go onto to defeat toulouse in the final was anybody s guess. ulster meanwhile just lost out to adding the inaugural celtic cup in winning the celtic league when they were pipped at the post by the scarlets in the final game. ulster however took time to start the new season under new coach mark mccall. the once famous ravenhill fortress was breached four times as ulster only manged five wins from their first 12 outings in the celtic league. leinster are again looking the most potent outfit going into 2005 but whether they can take that final step under declan kidney is another thing. on the down side irish rugby was hit by a number of tragedies. teenage star john mccall died while playing for the ireland against new zealand in the under-19 world cup game in durban. that happened only 10 days after he led royal armagh to their first ulster schools cup success since 1977. the death of former ireland coach and lions flanker mike doyle in a car crash in northern ireland shocked the rugby fraternity a larger than life character doyle had coached ireland to the triple crown in 1985 the last time that goal had been achieved before this season. ulster rugby also suffered the sudden deaths of well-known londonderry ym player jim huey coleraine s jonathan hutchinson and belfast harlequins lock johnny poole. they all passed away long before the full-time whistle.

sport

clarke to unveil immigration plan new controls on economic migrants and tighter border patrols will be part of government plans unveiled on monday. home secretary charles clarke wants to introduce a points system for economic migrants and increase deportations of failed asylum seekers. tony blair has said people are right to be concerned about abuses of the system but there is no magic bullet . the tories say labour is acting too late while the lib dems say the plans may not produce an efficient system. the government s new five-year plan is designed to show how labour would reform immigration and asylum controls if it wins the election expected to be held in may. ministers deny they have been spurred into action by tory campaigning or because the prime minister is worried too little has been done. instead they say the plans are part of an evolving process aimed at winning public confidence. mr clarke is expected to announce an end to the automatic right to settle for immigrants families and the introduction of fingerprinting for all visa applicants. the prime minister on sunday said immigration would be toughened up to ensure only those immigrants with skills the uk really needs will be granted work permits. but he rejected the tories call for a quota on economic migrants saying no arbitrary figure could reflect the uk s needs. mr blair told bbc radio 4 s westminster hour: we should cut the number or increase it depending on the country s needs... the public are worried about this they are worried rightly because there are abuses of the immigration and asylum system. but he defended the uk s current regime saying all systems around the world were subject to abuse. tory proposals to cap the number of asylum seekers and process all claims abroad would not work argued mr blair. he said: we will not be... pretending there is some simple easy way of processing britain s asylum seekers in some other country because no such other country exists. conservative shadow home secretary david davis said the government had failed to remove 250 000 failed asylum seekers from the uk and limits on economic migrants had been a shambles . what we are seeing today is a rather panicky response from the government after eight years of failure he said. liberal democrat home affairs spokesman mark oaten said labour was right to reject the tories idea of quotas on asylum. but he said it was yet to be seen if mr clarke could deliver a fair and efficient asylum system .

politics

standoff on deutsche s lse bid deutsche boerse investors unhappy with its london stock exchange bid will have no chance to throw out the exchange s management until may reuters says. the sunday times reported that hedge funds tci and atticus were planning to demand the removal of the group s chairman and chief executive. but deutsche boerse told news agency reuters such a move would have to wait until may s annual general meeting. investors want deutsche to return cash to shareholders rather than bid. we are long-term investors and are experienced in removing management. we are not scared to take this to its conclusion this time atticus david slager told the sunday times. however deutsche boerse told reuters: tci s request for the removal of the supervisory board will be considered at the annual general meeting on may 25. the sunday times reported that tci had been drawing up a list of heavyweight executives to replace deutsche s chairman rolf breuer and chief executive werner seifert. the group owns more than 5% of deutsche - more than enough to demand an extraordinary general meeting to call on shareholders to oust the german exchange s management. under german law deutsche does not need investor backing to make a takeover bid. tci and atticus have opposed the lse bid for some time saying it would destroy shareholder value and would be better spent on a share buyback. deutsche is in competition with pan-european bourse euronext to take over the london exchange. many commentators have suggested a bidding war between the two could break out. however any such move would have to wait until march when the office of fair trading completes an investigation into the competition aspects of the pair s takeover proposals.

business

kluft impressed by sotherton form olympic heptathlon champion carolina kluft was full of admiration for britain s kelly sotherton as the pair prepared to clash in birmingham. both will be in action on friday in the 60m hurdles and long jump ahead of the european indoor championships later this month in madrid. sotherton finished third behind the swede in athens and kluft said: i knew about her she s a great girl. she looked very good early in the season and was competing really well. kluft showed impressive early-season form on tuesday in stockholm s ge galan meeting winning the sprint hurdles the long jump and the 400m. sotherton has also displayed promise with a new high jump personal best in sheffield at the combined norwich union european trials and aaa championships and a second place in the long jump behind jade johnson.

sport

voters don t trust politicians eight out of 10 voters do not trust politicians to tell the truth a new poll conducted for the bbc suggests. and 87% of the 1 000 adults quizzed by icm for bbc news 24 said politicians did not deliver what they promised. the poll comes after foreign secretary jack straw predicted trust would be the key choice at the next election. both the tories and the lib dems are keen to emphasise a perceived lack of trust in tony blair following his claims over iraqi weapons. but according to the bbc poll 61% said the issue of trust made no difference to whether or not they would vote at the next election widely expected on 5 may. the poll also looked at what lay behind the lack of trust in politicians. some 87% said politicians did not keep the promises they made before elections while 92% said they never gave a straight answer . just under three-quarters of respondents (73%) said politicians had shown themselves to be dishonest too often. mr straw told activists in blackburn on thursday that voters would have to decide at the next election which party best deserves their future trust . that in the end is the key choice at the next election. he acknowledged that the public had lost faith in labour but suggested it could persuade people to reinvest their trust with us if the party could overcome tory attempts to spread cynicism in politics. the conservatives are keen to highlight the trust issue. during his response to gordon brown s budget statement on tuesday michael howard compared the chancellor s figures to the prime minister s claims about iraq s weapons of mass destruction. the lib dems are also keen to highlight the trust issue with charles kennedy has claiming voters had a fundamental lack of trust in the prime minister . and the green party unveiled a billboard opposite the palace of westminster accusing the government of lying over the iraq war. former education secretary estelle morris told bbc news 24 that there was a real problem of trust between the public and the politicians. she said she did not feel her own colleagues could be trusted but suggested the three-cornered relationship between the press politicians and the public had a hand in the issue. the public was often turned off by sitting on the sidelines in the battle of words between the politician and the journalist she added. lib dem foreign affairs spokesman menzies campbell said the iraq war had hit trust in politicians hard. issues of war and peace life and death do have a very damaging effect on the credibility of politicians . martin bell who won the tatton seat from tory neil hamilton on anti-corruption platform said politicians often failed to see themselves as others did. we need public figures we trust to tell the truth and who can see themselves as others see them.

politics

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.

tech

turkey knocks six zeros off lira turkey is to relaunch its currency on saturday knocking six zeros off the lira in the hope of boosting trade and powering its growing economy. the change will see the end of such dizzyingly-high denominations as five million lira - enough for a short taxi ride - and the 20m note worth $15. these valuations were the product of decades of inflation which as recently as 2001 was as high as 70%. inflation has since been tamed and economic prospects are improving. the currency - officially to be known as the new lira - will be launched at midnight on 1 january. from that point the one-million lira note will become the new one-lira coin. the government hopes the change will be seen as a promise of growing economic stability as turkey embarks on the long process of trying to join the european union. on an everyday level it is hoped the change will stimulate more international trade and end confusion among foreign investors and turks alike. the transition to the new turkish lira shows clearly that our economy has broken the vicious circle that it was imprisoned in for long years said sureyya serdengecti head of the turkish central bank. the new lira is also the symbol of the stable economy that we dreamed of for long years. the turkish economy teetered on the brink of collapse in 2001 when the lira plunged in value and two million people lost their jobs. turkey had to turn to the international monetary fund for financial assistance accepting a $18bn loan in return for pushing through a wide-ranging austerity programme. these tough measures have borne fruit. inflation fell below 10% earlier this year for the first time in decades while exports are up 30% this year. meanwhile the economy is expanding at a healthy rate with 7.9% growth expected in 2004. the government hopes that the new currency will cement the country s economic progress two weeks after eu leaders set a date for the start of turkey s accession talks. the slimmed-down lira is likely to be widely welcomed by the business community. the turkish lira has been like funny money tevfik aksoy chief turkish economist for deutsche bank told associated press. now at least in cosmetic terms it will look like real currency. however some do not feel quite so happy about seeing the nominal value of their investments reduced. if a person has 10 billion lira in investments this will suddenly decrease shop owner hayriye evren told associated press. this will definitely affect people psychologically.

business

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

politics

uk interest rates held at 4.75% the bank of england has left interest rates on hold again at 4.75% in a widely-predicted move. rates went up five times from november 2003 - as the bank sought to cool the housing market and consumer debt - but have remained unchanged since august. recent data has indicated a slowdown in manufacturing and consumer spending as well as in mortgage approvals. and retail sales disappointed over christmas with analysts putting the drop down to less consumer confidence. rising interest rates and the accompanying slowdown in the housing market have knocked consumers optimism causing a sharp fall in demand for expensive goods according to a report earlier this week from the british retail consortium. the brc said britain s retailers had endured their worst christmas in a decade. today s no change decision is correct said david frost director general of the british chambers of commerce (bcc). but if there are clear signs that the economy slows the mpc should be ready to take quick corrective action and cut rates. dismal reports from the retail trade about christmas sales are worrying if they indicate a more general weakening in consumer spending. mr frost added: the housing market outlook remains highly uncertain. it is widely accepted that if house prices start falling more sharply the risks facing the economy will worsen considerably. cbi chief economist ian mccafferty said the economy had slowed in recent months in response to rate rises but that it was difficult to gauge from the christmas period the likely pace of activity through the summer. the bank is having to juggle the emergence of inflationary pressures driven by a tight labour market and buoyant commodity prices against the risk of an over-abrupt slowdown in consumer activity he said. interest rates are likely to remain on hold for some time. on thursday there was more gloomy news on the manufacturing front as the office for national (ons) statistics revealed british manufacturing output unexpectedly fell in november - for the fifth month in the past six. the ons said manufacturing output dropped 0.1% in november matching a similar unrevised fall in october and confounding economists expectations of a 0.3% rise. manufacturers organisation the eef said it expected the hold in interest rates to continue in the near future. it also said there was evidence that manufacturers confidence may be waning as the outlook for the world economy becomes more uncertain. so far the evidence suggests that last year s rate increases have helped to rebalance the economy without damaging the recovery in manufacturing said eef chief economist steve radley. however should the business outlook start to deteriorate the bank should stand ready to cut rates. some economists have predicted rates will drop later in the year although others feel the bank may still think there is a need for a rise to 5% before that happens. the bank remains concerned about the long-term risks posed by personal debt - which is rising at 15% a year - if economic conditions worsen.

business

relay squad thrilled with honours jason gardener says being made an mbe in the new year honours list underlines the achievement of great britain s 4x100m relay squad at the olympics. gardener darren campbell marlon devonish and mark lewis-francis have all been awarded mbes after beating pre-race favourites usa to gold. i think this award reinforces what we did on that fantastic night he said. this recognition is really inspiring and makes me want to have more success said lewis-francis. the british sprint quartet produced a string of faultless baton changes in the final to put pressure on the americans. and when the usa stumbled with a poor switch between justin gatlin and coby miller at the 300m stage britain edged ahead going into the final bend. then on cue lewis-francis ran a textbook final leg holding off maurice greene to bring team gb home in 38.07 seconds - just one hundredth of a second ahead of their rivals. winning the gold medal was the highlight of my athletics career so far said the birchfield harrier. this award is not just for me but for all my friends family and the people who have helped me to get to this level in my sport. gardener added: all of us had worked very hard for a long long time to carry off what most believed was an impossible task. of course this award is very special but for me nothing will ever take away winning an olympic gold medal. it s all i ever wanted. all my life that is what i dreamed of doing. life since then has been fantastic. campbell agreed receiving the honour capped off what has been a difficult year for the sprinter. i think the mbe is important because the people closest to me know my journey said the newport-based athlete. i ve not just stumbled upon this. it gives me a lot of joy and satisfaction to know the stuff you do for your country does mean something. - there was also recognition for james clarke chairman of the london marathon. he becomes an obe.

sport

text message record smashed again uk mobile owners continue to break records with their text messaging with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent in total in 2004. the figures collected by the mobile data association (mda) showed that 2.4 billion were fired off in december alone the highest monthly total ever. that was 26% more than in december 2003. the records even surpassed the mda s own predictions it said. every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no signs of a slow down. before december s bumper text record the previous highest monthly total was in october 2004 when 2.3 billion were sent. text messaging is set to smash more records in 2005 too said the mda with forecasts suggesting a total of 30 billion for the year. even though mobiles are becoming increasingly sophisticated with much more multimedia applications texting is still one of the most useful functions of mobiles. people are using sms to do much more too. booking cinema tickets text voting and news or sports text alerts are growing popular. mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the disasters emergency committee s (dec) asian tsunami fund by texting donate to a simple short code number. looking further ahead in the year the mda s chairman mike short has predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles estimating 15 billion wap page impressions. handsets with gprs capability - an always on net connection - will rise to 75% while 3g mobile ownership growing to five million by the end of 2005. these third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which means more data like video can be received on the phone. globally mobile phone sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004 according to a recent report from analysts gartner. that was 26% more than the previous year. it is predicted that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005.

tech

rings of steel combat net attacks gambling is hugely popular especially with tech-savvy criminals. many extortionists are targeting net-based betting firms and threatening to cripple their websites with deluges of data unless a ransom is paid. but now deep defences are being put in place by some of the uk s biggest net firms to stop these attacks. increasing numbers of attacks and the huge amounts of data being used to try to bump a site off the web are prompting firms to adopt the measures. net firms are realising that it s not just about anti-virus and firewalls said paul king chief security architect at cisco. there are more things that can be done in the network to protect data centres. mr king said the only way to properly combat these so-called distributed denial-of-service attacks was with intelligent net-based systems. many of the gambling sites suffering ddos attacks are in offshore data and hosting centres so any large scale data flood could knock out access to many more sites than just the one the criminals were targeting said mr king. this overspill effect was only likely to grow as attacks grow in size and scale. malcolm seagrave security expert at energis said the most common types of attacks hit sites with 10 megabytes of data over short periods of time. bigger attacks sending down 200 megabytes of traffic or more were rarely seen he said. it does feel like they are turning the dial because you see this traffic gradually growing he said. so far there have been no attacks involving gigabytes of data said mr seagrave. however he added that it was only a matter of time before such large attacks were mounted. maria capella spokeswoman for net provider pipex said that when ddos attacks were at their height customers were getting hit every four to five days. the defences being put in place constantly monitor the streams of data flowing across networks and pluck out the traffic destined for target sites. it s about understanding what s genuine traffic and keeping attack traffic from going to the site she said. we study the profile of their traffic and as soon as we see an anomaly in the profile that s when we start to get the backbone engineering boys to see if we are going to sustain an attack said ms capella. this traffic can be hard to spot because ddos attacks typically use thousands of computers in many different countries each participating machine only sends a small part of the entire data flood. typically these computers have been infected by a virus or worm which reports its success and the net address of compromised machines back to the malicious hacker or hi-tech criminal that set off the virus. hijacked computers are known as zombies or bots and collections of them are called bot nets. many spammers rent out bot nets to help them anonymously send junk mail. most of the zombies are based outside the country that hosts the target site so getting the attacking pcs shut off can be difficult. often pipex and other net suppliers do get advance notice that an attack is about to happen. the serious players tend to precede an attack with some kind of ransom e-mail said ms capella. we ask as part of the service we provide that customers notify us of anything they have in advance that would give us forewarning. once an attack is spotted dedicated net hardware takes over to remove the attack traffic and ensure that sites stay up. energis took a similar approach said mr seagrave. we have technology out there that allows us to detect attacks in minutes rather than let network engineers spend hours pulling the information together said mr seagrave. also net firms were starting to work more closely together on the problem of ddos attacks and pool information about where they are coming from. information gathered on attacks and where they originated has led to some arrests. he said energis also did its own intelligence work to get in insight into which sites criminal gangs plan to target. we have people in places where they shouldn t be monitoring tech sites he said. sometimes though he said spotting the next victim was easy. you can see them going alphabetically through the list with the gambling sites trying one after another said mr seagrave.

tech

saudi ministry to employ women women will be employed in saudi arabia s foreign ministry for the first time this year foreign minister prince saud al-faisal has been reported as saying. the move comes as the conservative country inches open the door to working women. last year crown prince abdullah the de-facto ruler told government departments to put plans in place for employing women. but progress has been slow reports from the country say. earlier this week the local arab news said labour minister ghazi al-gosaibi had caused uproar when he said his ministry was having difficulty hiring women because they demanded segregated offices. the newspaper said many saudi women found his explanation a pitiful excuse for not employing women . women now make up more than half of all graduates from saudi universities but only 5% of the workforce. our educational reforms have created a new generation of highly-educated and professionally trained saudi women who are acquiring their rightful position in saudi society arab news quoted prince saud as saying. i am proud to mention here that this year we shall have women working in the ministry of foreign affairs for the first time.

business

parker s saxophone heads auction a saxophone belonging to legendary jazz musician charlie parker is expected to fetch up to $1m (£535 000) at an auction of jazz memorabilia next month. the sale at guernsey s auction house in new york will feature instruments from other musicians including john coltrane and benny goodman. other items will include an evening gown belonging to ella fitzgerald. organisers said the auction was the first in the us to be devoted to items belonging to jazz musicians. other items that will be auctioned include unreleased tape recordings of music by parker as well as handwritten sheet music by jazz composers john coltrane and theolonius monk. among the instruments in the sale will be a trumpet which belonged to dizzy gillespie which is expected to fetch around $500 000 (£267 000) as well as jj johnson s trombone and a vibraphone which beloned to lionel hampton. works of art by musicians including miles davis and bruni sablan will also be featured. the proceeds from the auction which will take place on 20 february will go towards several organisations including the john coltrane foundation a foundation set up in memory of benny goodman and the red cross.

entertainment

minister hits out at yukos sale russia s renationalisation of its energy industry needs to be reversed a senior government figure has warned. economy minister german gref told the kommersant newspaper that direct state involvement in oil was unjustified . his comments follow the sale of much of oil giant yukos to cover back taxes - a deal which effectively took most of the firm s assets into public ownership. on 28 december another senior economic adviser called the sale the swindle of the century . yuganskneftegaz the unit which produced 60% of yukos output had been seized and sold in december for less than $10bn to a previously unknown firm called baikal. baikal promptly passed into the hands of state-controlled firm rosneft itself shortly to merge with state gas giant gazprom. we used to see street hustlers do this kind of thing andrei illarionov - then economic adviser to president vladimir putin - told a press conference. now officials are doing it. within days he was stripped of most of his responsibilities. mr gref a well-known opponent of nationalisation in competitive parts of the market was keen to distance himself from mr iliaronov s comments. the privatisation of companies such as yukos in the 1990s had been badly handled he said. but he stressed that the government needed to get out of oil. i think that rosneft and yuganskneftegaz should it become a state-owned company must be privatized he said. today our government is ineffective and state companies as a result are for the overwhelming part ineffective as well. and he warned that using back taxes to deal with firms like yukos - a technique now being applied by the kremlin to several other firms - was a mistake. if we follow that logic we should nationalise all businesses he said. many large russian companies particularly in the energy sector use complex webs of offshore companies to avoid taxes. mr gref also poured cold water on president putin s promises of doubled economic growth within a decade. the assault on yukos assets has been widely blamed for a slowdown in economic growth in recent months. the task is not simply to double gdp; instead it is to use gdp to qualitatively improve people s lives mr gref told kommersant. we don t need simply to increase gdp but to improve its structure. instead of focusing on headline growth figures russia needed to focus on better institutions such as a more efficient - and less corrupt - court system.

business

executive trio leave aer lingus three senior executives of ireland s state-owned airline aer lingus are set to leave early on 28 january after accusations of a conflict of interest. the trio are chief executive willie walsh chief financial officer brian dunne and chief operations officer seamus kearney. the three have refused to confirm reports they plan to launch a private airline in competition with aer lingus. they announced in november they would quit in may but did not give a reason. that decision had followed an announcement by irish prime minister bertie ahern - who is still considering the future of the airline - which ruled out a proposed management buy-out of aer lingus. mr walsh denied they had been forced out early because of the reports claiming they were set to launch a competitor airline. what i do after i leave aer lingus is still too early to say mr walsh told ap news agency on wednesday. i have opportunities open to me. brian and seamus are in the equally fortunate position. he said he had received more than 40 business proposals mostly aviation-related since the trio announced their resignations two months ago. mr walsh said there was no conflict of interest and if he was to launch a rival airline or join an existing competitor this thing happens in every business . there s absolutely no question of a conflict of interest. i ve been completely focused on my responsibilities at aer lingus he told ap. this week opposition politicians had called on the irish government to make an urgent decision on the future of the airline. on wednesday irish transport minister martin cullen said in a statement: a conflict of interest cannot should not and will not be allowed to arise between their current roles at aer lingus and their future career intentions. last friday the minister had announced he was to advertise for three senior executives for aer lingus. mr walsh who took charge in 2000 and his team have earned praise for turning aer lingus around by cutting air fares and staff and re-positioning it as a low-fare airline to rival ryanair. the company is 85% owned by the government and 15% by its staff.

business

long life promised for laptop pcs scientists are working on ways to ensure laptops can stay powered for an entire working day. building batteries from new chemical mixes could boost power significantly say industry experts. the changes include everything from the way chips for laptops are made to tricks that reduce the power consumption of displays. ever since laptops appeared the amount of time they last between recharges has been a frustration for users. a survey carried out in 2000 by forrester research found that the shortness of battery life was the most complained about feature of laptops. the focus back then was more on performance and features said mike trainor chief mobile technology evangelist for chip giant intel. for most of the 90s battery life was stuck on two to 2.5 hours. but now he said laptops can last much longer. it was not just a case of improving battery life by squeezing more out of the lithium ion power packs he explained. other changes are needed to get to the holy grail of a laptop running for about eight hours before needing a recharge. lithium ion is never going to get there by itself he said. the industry has done a great job of wringing all possible energy storage out of that technology that they can. some new battery chemistries promise to cram more power into the same space said mr trainor though work still needed to be done to get them successfully from the lab to manufacturing. he was sceptical that fuel cells would develop quick enough to take over from solid batteries even though they have the potential to produce several times more energy than lithium ion power packs. in fuel cells you need to have pumps and separators and evaporation chambers he said. it s a mini energy plant that needs to be shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. intel has been working with component makers to test energy consumption on all the parts inside a laptop and find ways to make them less power hungry. this work has led to the creation of the mobile pc extended battery life (ebl) working group that shares information about building notebooks that are more parsimonious with power. some of the improvements in power use come simply because components on chips are shrinking said mr trainor. intel has also changed the way it creates transistors on silicon to reduce the power they need. on a larger scale said mr trainor improvements in the way that voltage regulators are made can reduce the amount of power lost as heat and make a notebook more energy efficient. also said mr trainor research is being done on ways to cut energy consumption on displays - currently the biggest power guzzler on a laptop. many laptop makers have committed to creating 14 and 15 inch screens that draw only three watts of power. this is far below the power consumption levels of screens in current notebooks. if we can get close to eight hours that s a place that people see as extraordinarily valuable that s what the industry has to deliver mr trainor said.

tech

millions go missing at china bank two senior officials at one of china s top commercial banks have reportedly disappeared after funds worth up to $120m (£64m) went missing. the pair both worked at bank of china in the northern city of harbin the south china morning post reported. the latest scandal at bank of china will do nothing to reassure foreign investors that china s big four banks are ready for international listings. government policy sees the bank listings as vital economic reforms. bank of china is one of two frontrunners in the race to list overseas. the other is china construction bank. both are expected to list abroad during 2005. they shared a $45bn state bailout in 2003 to help clean up their balance sheets in preparation for a foreign stock market debut. however a report in the china-published economic observer said on monday that the two banks may have scrapped plans to list in new york because of the cost of meeting regulatory requirements imposed since the enron scandal. bank of china is the country s biggest foreign exchange dealer while china construction bank is the largest deposit holder. china s banking sector is burdened with at least $190bn of bad debt according to official data though most observers believe the true figure is far higher. officially one in five loans is not being repaid. attempts to strengthen internal controls and tighten lending policies have uncovered a succession of scandals involving embezzlement by bank officials and loans-for-favours. the most high-profile case involved the ex-president of bank of china wang xuebing jailed for 12 years in 2003. although he committed the offences whilst running bank of china in new york mr wang was head of china construction bank when the scandal broke. earlier this month a china construction bank branch manager was jailed for life in a separate case. china s banks used to act as cash offices for state enterprises and did not require checks on credit worthiness. the introduction of market reforms has been accompanied by attempts to modernise the banking sector but links between banks and local government remain strong. last year china s premier wen jiabao targeted bank lending practices in a series of speeches and regulators ordered all big loans to be scrutinised in an attempt to cool down irresponsible lending. china s leaders see reforming the top four banks as vital to distribute capital to profitable companies and protect the health of china s economic boom. but two problems persist. first inefficient state enterprises continue to receive protection from bankruptcy because they employ large numbers of people. second many questionable loans come not from the big four but from smaller banks. another high profile financial firm china life is facing shareholder lawsuits and a probe by the us securities and exchange commission following its 2004 new york listing over its failure to disclose accounting irregularities at its parent company.

business

tate & lyle boss bags top award tate & lyle s chief executive has been named european businessman of the year by a leading business magazine. iain ferguson was awarded the title by us publication forbes for returning one of the uk s venerable manufacturers to the country s top 100 companies. the sugar group had been absent from the ftse 100 for seven years until mr ferguson helped it return to growth. tate s shares have leapt 55% this year boosted by firming sugar prices and sales of its artificial sweeteners. after years of a sagging stock price and a seven-year hiatus from the ftse 100 one of britain s venerable manufacturers has returned to the vaunted index forbes said. mr ferguson took the helm at the company in 2003 after spending most of his career at consumer goods giant unilever. tate & lyle which was an original member of the historic ft-30 index in 1935 operates more than 41 factories and 20 more additional production facilities in 28 countries. previous winners of the forbes award include royal bank of scotland chief executive fred goodwin and former vodafone boss chris gent.

business

federer breezes into semi-finals roger federer reached the last four of the qatar open with an easy 6-1 6-2 win over seventh seed feliciano lopez. the swiss world number one reeled off a series winners to outclass the spaniard and set up a semi-final match against russian nikolay davydenko. federer who lost in the quarter-final in his last qatar appearance in 2003 was happy with his form. i think i played better than against greg rusedski and i am happy i am playing so well said the top seed. lopez showed glimpses of resolve early in the second set when he held his first service game and came close to breaking federer. but the swiss saved a break point and promptly broke serve in the following game to seize control. davydenko meanwhile upset french third seed sebastien grosjean 2-6 6-3 6-2. fabrice santoro completed a miserable day for france when he was forced to retire when 6-2 3-0 down to albert costa. spaniard costa will next face croatian ivan ljubicic after the sixth seed beat rafael nadal 6-2 6-7 (3/7) 6-3.

sport

parry firm over gerrard listen to the full interview on sport on five and the bbc sport website from 1900 gmt. but parry speaking exclusively to bbc sport also admits gerrard who has been constantly linked with chelsea will have the final say on his future. he told bbc five live: steven is above money. he is the future of liverpool. it doesn t matter if it s £30m £40m or £50m we will not accept offers. but we are also realistic enough to know we can t keep steven against his will. on the subject of liverpool s finances parry also revealed the club is ready to explore the possibility of a sponsorship deal for its proposed new stadium. and responding to criticism from bbc sport pundit and former liverpool stalwart alan hansen he insisted talks on new investment are ongoing but added the door has not closed on shareholder and lifelong fan steve morgan. parry joined liverpool as chief executive in july 1998 from a similar role at the premier league. there have been several highs and lows during his time in charge at anfield - and he had a busy summer overseeing the arrival of new manager rafael benitez and managing to hold on to steven gerrard. on the subject of liverpool s captain and prize asset parry revealed real madrid did ask for an option on the england midfield man during negotiations for striker fernando morientes. he said: they were looking for ways of saying they got more out of the deal for fernando morientes but the response to real madrid was the same - steven is not for sale. but when asked if gerrard would be a liverpool player on the first day of next season parry said: i sincerely hope he will be. steven knows my views. he knows rafa s views. we have re-affirmed recently to steven that we are trying to build a team around him. we crave success as much as he does. we know he s ambitious and nobody can argue with that. i think steven would dearly love to win things with liverpool more than he d like to do anything else. we all want to see progress by next season. he s not alone in that. there are a lot of other players who feel the same so we all have a common aim. it is expected chelsea will test liverpool with a £30m-plus bid in the summer - but parry claims he will be in no mood to listen. there have been a lot of open secrets about steven most of which have been complete myths. it is suggested we had a deal tied up last summer. we didn t had an offer last summer parry explained. we had told chelsea that as far as we were concerned he was not for sale and we didn t want to sell him. in reality it didn t go beyond that. maybe there will be an offer in the summer. maybe there won t. our position is we want steven to stay but we are also realistic enough and have enough respect for steven - and he has enough respect for us - to know that it is his decision that will be crucial. you are not going to keep a player like steven against his will. that just doesn t work but any idea we are going to accept offers for steven and then tell him by the way we ve decided to sell you is not on the agenda. you can forget that. parry is currently in the process of finalising funding for liverpool s new stadium in stanley park which is set to open in 2007. and he confessed arsenal s £100m deal with emirates to sponsor their new ground - complete with naming rights - has given the anfield club serious food for thought. he said: i have to say historically it is something i have been against and i have been on record as saying that but i think the size of the arsenal deal is a real eye-opener. i would say in the past deals have been done frankly far too cheaply and it just hasn t even been worth contemplating. but the arsenal deal is the sort of deal that causes you to draw breath and say wow - that s interesting. my personal point of view is that i would find it a hell of a lot more palatable than a shared stadium. some liverpool fans would find such a move highly controversial but parry countered: i recognise it would be an emotive issue for many supporters but you look at the amount of money available and it could go into the team. if it was the right partner how strong an issue is it time will tell. i think the stadium will always be anfield not least because of where it is but do we need to investigate the possibilities of sponsorship i think it would be remiss not to. that s not to say we have made a decision that we will go down that road but i think it is clearly something we have to explore. on the subject of possible new investment parry revealed liverpool are still in negotiations with a mystery investor with rumours of interest from the middle east. that prompted the withdrawal of tycoon steve morgan who got frustrated by failed bids and what he claimed was indecision by the board. he also accused liverpool of using him as a stalking horse to attract other bids but parry explained: steve has never been used as a stalking horse. there s no need and that is not the way we do business. we had discussions with steve over the course of 2004. i think we came close to concluding a deal in the summer but it didn t happen. quite genuinely the new interest did appear relatively late in the day just prior to the agm in december and as i have said it was of such potential magnitude and that potential is so exciting we felt we had to evaluate it. we are still evaluating it. steve s interest was taken very much on its own merits. his enthusiasm for the club is there for all to see and who knows what the next few months will hold the door isn t closed on anything. we had a perfectly sensible dialogue with steve last year. we have a common interest in making liverpool successful. that s a dream we all share so as far as i m concerned the door is not closed. i would take £50m if we had no investment but if we did keep him. as for the stadium if it gets us cash what difference does it make really £50m for gerrard i don t care who you are the directors would take the money and it is the way it should be. we cannot let that sum of money go despite gerrard s quality. through a cleverly worded statement the club has effectively forced gerrard to publicly make the decision for himself which i think is the right thing to do. critical time for liverpool with regards to gerrard. ideally we would want to secure his future to the club for the long term. i am hoping he doesn t walk out of the club like michael owen did for very little cash. £50m realistically would allow rafa to completely rebuild the squad however if we can afford to do this and keep gerrard we will be better for it. i would however be happy with gerrard s transfer for any fee over £35m. parry s statements are clever in that any future gerrard transfer cannot be construed as a lack of ambition by the club to not try and keep their best players. upping the ante is another smart move by parry. i would keep gerrard. no amount of money could replace his obvious love of the club and determination to succeed. the key is if gerrard comes out and says that he is happy. clearly if he isn t then we would be foolish not to sell. the worrying thing is who would you buy (or who would come) pending possible non-champions league football.

sport

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.

tech

us tv host clark suffers stroke veteran us television host dick clark is in hospital in los angeles after suffering a mild stroke. the 75-year-old presented long-running show american bandstand from 1956-87 and has since hosted game shows and produced award ceremonies. clark is scheduled to welcome in the new year on the abc network a job he has done for 33 years. the presenter said that he is hopeful of getting better in time to lead the festivities in new york s times square. clark s publicist paul shefrin said the television host was recovering and there was no cause for alarm. clark who produces the golden globe and american music awards disclosed last year that he was suffering from diabetes. his popular music show american bandstand was first broadcast in 1952 and attracted an audience of 20 million people after it was picked up by abc in 1957. the long-running weekly series which featured guests including elvis presley buddy holly and aretha frankin came to an end in 1989. clark was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in 1993 for his contribution to the music industry. he has also been responsible for television series such as tv bloopers celebrity boxing and drama american dreams. clark is also expected to act as executive producer for the upcoming golden globe awards ceremony which is taking place on 16 january.

entertainment

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

business

tsunami cost hits jakarta shares the stock market in jakarta has seen its biggest slide in a month after the country doubled the likely cost of rebuilding from the asian tsunami. the fall came as indonesia said it expected debt repayments of up to 30 trillion rupiah ($3.2bn; £1.7bn) to be frozen to help pay for the recovery. by monday s close the jakarta stock exchange was down 2.1% at 1 011.15. bar a slight dip at the new year the jse had risen steadily by 4.7% since the tsunami hit on 26 december. construction and property companies in particular have gained ground although banks were among the main fallers on monday. so far more than 100 000 people are believed to have been killed in indonesia the country closest to the earthquake which triggered the great wave. on friday the government said its five-year estimate of rebuilding costs for banda aceh province - much of which was flattened by the quake and the tsunami - was 20 trillion rupiah ($2.2bn; £1.1bn) twice what it had previously estimated. that cost could be defrayed by temporary debt relief. on monday indonesian economy minister aburizal bakrie told reporters that the paris club group of creditor countries was expected to freeze 20-30bn rupiah in payments due in 2005 and 2006. we hope we can resume the repayments at least from 2007 mr bakrie said. french finance minister herve gaymard said on sunday that the paris club had already agreed to a moratorium on repayments for tsunami-hit countries ahead of its meeting on 12 january.

business

koubek suspended after drugs test stefan koubek says he has been banned for three months by the international tennis federation (itf) after testing positive for a banned substance. the world number 60 failed a routine drugs test at this year s french open but now plans to lodge an appeal. koubek believes an injection given to him by an austrian doctor to treat a wrist injury is to blame for producing traces of the substance in his system. i have acted correctly the 27-year-old austrian said in a statement. koubek who defeated britain s greg rusedski in the decisive rubber of the davis cup in september is now set to miss the start of the season. he said a three-month ban would mean that i not only will miss the australian open but also the davis cup in australia.

sport

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

entertainment

apple makes blogs reveal sources apple has won its legal fight to make three bloggers reveal who told them about unreleased products. the bid to unmask the employees leaking information was launched in december 2004 following online articles about apple s asteroid product. now apple has won the right to see e-mail records from the three bloggers to root out the culprit. a lawyer for the three bloggers said the ruling set a dangerous precedent that could harm all news reporters. apple s lawsuit accused anonymous people of stealing trade secrets about the asteroid music product and leaking them to the powerpage apple insider and think secret websites. all three are apple fan sites that obsessively watch the iconic firm for information about future products. apple is notoriously secretive about upcoming products which gives any snippets of information about what it is working on all the more value. the lawsuit to reveal the names of the leakers was filed against the power page and apple insider sites. the separate legal fight with think secret has yet to be resolved. in the ruling handed down this week by santa clara county superior court judge james kleinberg apple can now get its hands on e-mail records from the bloggers net providers. in making his ruling judge kleinberg said that laws covering the divulging of trade secrets outweighed considerations of public interest. california has so-called shield laws which protect journalists from prosecution if what they are writing about can be shown to be in the public interest. the judge wrote: ...it is not surprising that hundreds of thousands of hits on a website about apple have and will happen. but an interested public is not the same as the public interest . judge kleinberg said the question of whether the bloggers were journalists or not did not apply because laws governing the right to keep trade secrets confidential covered journalists too. the electronic frontier foundation which is acting as legal counsel for power page and apple insider said the ruling had potentially wide implications. anyone who reports on companies or the trade press should be concerned about this ruling said eff lawyer kurt opsahl. mr opsahl said the eff was planning to appeal against the ruling because the bloggers were journalists and us federal laws stop net firms handing over copies of e-mail messages if the owner of that account does not give their consent.

tech

gadgets galore on show at fair the 2005 consumer electronics show in las vegas is a geek s paradise with more than 50 000 new gadgets and technologies launched during the four-day event. top gadgets at the show are highlighted in the innovations showcase which recognises some of the hottest developments in consumer electronics. the bbc news website took an early pre-show look at some of those technologies that will be making their debut in 2005. one of the key issues for keen gadget users is how to store all their digital images audio and video files. the 2.5gb and 5gb circular pocket hard drive from seagate might help. the external usb drive won a ces best innovations design and engineering award and is small enough to slip into a pocket. it is the kind of storage that appeals to people who want their pcs to look cool said seagate. it is all about style but it also has lots of functionality. it is the first time you can say a hard drive is sexy it said. in the centre of the device is a blue light that flashes while data is being written to ensure users do not unplug it when it is busy saving those precious pictures. universal electronics nevosl is a universal controller that lets people use one device to get at their multimedia content such as photos no matter where it is in their house. it can also act as a remote for home theatre and stereo systems. working with home broadband networks and pcs the gadget has built-in wireless and a colourful simple interface. paul arling uei chief said consumers face real problems when trying to get at all the files they own that are typically spread across several different devices. he said the nevo gave people a simple single way to regain some control over digital media in the home. the nevo won two awards at ces one as a girl s best friend award and another for innovation design and engineering. the gadget is expected to go on sale before the summer and will cost about $799 (£425). hotseat is targeting keen gamers with money to spend with its solo chassis gaming chair. the specially-designed chair lets gamers play in surround-sound while stretching out in their own space . it is compatible with all the major games consoles dvd players and pcs. we found that kids love playing in surround sound said jay leboff from hotseat. we are looking at offering different types of seats depending on the market success of this one. the chair also lets people experience surround sound while watching videos with wireless control for six surround sound speakers. and a drinks holder. the chair which looks like a car seat on a skeletal frame should go on sale in april and is expected to cost $399 (£211). satellite radio is big business in the us. in the uk the digital radio technology is known as dab and works on slightly different technology. eton corporation s porsche designed p7131 digital radio set will be launched both as a dab radio in the uk as well as a satellite radio set in the us. dab sets have been slow to take-off in the uk but this one concentrates on sleek looks as much as technology. it is for the risqué consumer said an eton spokesperson. we are proud of it because it has the sound quality for the audiophile and the looks for the design-conscious consumer. the porsche radio is set to go on sale at the end of january in the us and in the first quarter of 2005 in the uk. in the us is it expected to cost $250 (£133). the average person has a library of 600 digital images estimates the consumer electronics association the organisation behind ces. this is expected to grow to a massive 3 420 images - or 7.2gb - in five years time. one gadget that might help swell that collection is sanyo s tiny handheld vpc-c4 camcorder which is another innovation in design and engineering award winner. it combines high quality video and stills in a very small device. it takes mpeg4 video quality at 30 frames a second and has a four megapixel still camera. images and video are stored on sd cards which have come down in price in recent months. a 512mb card will store about 30 minutes of video and 420 stills. the device is so tiny it can be controlled with one thumb. because images and video are stored on sd memory it is portable to other devices and means other data like audio can be stored on the card too. wearable technology has always promised much but failed to deliver because of lack of storage capability and poor design. mpio s tiny digital usb music players come in an array of fashionable colours taking a leaf out of the apple ipod mini book of design and reflecting the desire for gadgets that look good. slung on a cord the player would not look too geeky dangling discreetly from the neck. although the pendant design was launched three months ago the device emphasises large storage as well as good looks for fashion-conscious gadget fiends. an even dinkier model the fy500 comes out in may and will store about 256mb of music. the range of players recently won an international forum design award 2005.

tech

lufthansa may sue over bush visit german airline lufthansa may sue federal agencies for damages after the arrival of us president george w bush disrupted flights. lufthansa said that it may lose millions of euros as a result of air force one landing at frankfurt airport. flights were affected for an hour on wednesday morning double the time that had been expected leading to cancellations and delays. lufthansa accounts for six out of every 10 planes using frankfurt s airport. we are doing research into the possibilities we have michael lamberty a lufthansa spokesman told the bbc. we are checking if there is action to be taken and in which courts it could be taken. mr lamberty explained that the company did not plan to pursue germany s air traffic controllers organisation or the airport authority but wanted instead to see if it was possible to sue the german federal agencies that gave the orders. the company said that it had to cancel 77 short and medium-distance flights affecting about 5 000 passengers. long-haul travellers were not disrupted. central to the problem was that instead of half an hour the arrival of president bush on the german leg of his european tour took the best part of an hour lufthansa said. during that time restrictions were put on planes taxiing taking off and landing at frankfurt s rhein-main airport. the extra time taken by president bush and his entourage meant that there was a knock-on effect that led to significant delays. mr lamberty said that 92 outgoing flights and 86 income flights were delayed by an average of an hour following president bush s arrival affecting almost 17 000 passengers. despite the problems mr lamberty said that it was not certain that lufthansa would take legal action.

business

mps criticise child access system divorced parents seeking access to their children are often disadvantaged by the legal system mps have said. the constitutional affairs select committee said parents with custody could exploit delays in the system to stop former partners gaining access. courts should be used as a last resort but where they are their orders should be enforced more rigorously mps said. but they rejected the claim made by some campaign groups that there should be a legal presumption of equal access. currently the presumption is that the interests of the child are paramount. an arbitrary template imposed on all families whatever the needs of the child would relegate the welfare of individual children to a secondary position the mps said. they said the law should be changed to require family courts specifically to take account of the importance of sustaining the relationship between the child and the non-resident parent in contested cases. this would reassert the rights of non-resident parents to contact with their children as well as the rights of children to contact with both their parents while maintaining sufficient flexibility to cope with issues of safety they said. delays in court hearings and the inability to effectively enforce court orders allowed a new status quo arrangement for the children to become established by default they said. although the courts rigorously avoid conscious bias there are considerable grounds for accepting that non-resident parents are frequently disadvantaged by the system as it is administered at present. given the strong animosity between the parties which is common in contested family cases we find it hard to believe that tactical delay is not sometimes used to the advantage of resident parents. committee chairman alan beith said the five-month inquiry had been a complex and emotive one. at the moment far too many contact and residency cases are being dealt with by the courts when they could be better resolved through professional mediation and negotiation he said. this situation has to change. the court system should only be used as a last resort where mediation and negotiation have completely broken down or where issues of abuse or domestic violence need to be dealt with. this will help to reduce delays and improve the lives of many children across the country.

politics

fockers fuel festive film chart comedy meet the fockers topped the festive box office in north america setting a new record for christmas day. the sequel took $44.7m (£23.2m) between 24 and 26 december according to studio estimates. it took $19.1m (£9.9m) on christmas day alone the highest takings on that day in box office history. meet the fockers is the sequel to ben stiller comedy meet the parents also starring robert de niro blythe danner dustin hoffman and barbra streisand. despite the success of meet the fockers takings were down 26.5% on 2003 s figures - which was blamed on christmas falling over a weekend this year. when christmas falls on a weekend it s bad for business said paul dergarabedian president of exhibitor relations which compiles box office statistics. the weekend s top 12 films took an estimated $121.9m (£63.3m) compared with $165.8m (£86.1m) last year when the third lord of the rings film dominated the box office. meet the fockers knocked last week s top film lemony snicket s a series of unfortunate events down to third place with $12.5m (£6.5m). comedy fat albert - co-written by bill cosby - entered the chart in second place after opening on christmas day taking $12.7m (£6.6m). the aviator starring leonardo dicaprio as howard hughes took $9.4m after expanding from 40 to 1 796 cinemas on christmas day.

entertainment

borders rail link campaign rally campaigners are to stage a rally calling for a borders rail link which was closed in 1969 to be reopened. they will mark the 36th anniversary of the line closure which ran from edinburgh through the borders and on to carlisle with a walk at tweedbank. anne borthwick of campaign for borders rail said reopening the waverley line would restore the area s prosperity. msps are considering the reintroduction of passenger rail services through midlothian to the borders. campaigners have said that reopening the waverley line which could cost up to £100m would be a huge economic boost for the borders. in 2000 borders council said the area s economy had suffered since the closure. ms borthwick said the lobby group was determined to keep the pressure on the scottish executive. we are hoping that many people will join us in a march to mark the 36th anniversary of the closure of the waverley line she said. campaign for borders rail is the biggest independent lobby group in scotland and we have been lobbying tirelessly for the reinstatement of rail services to the borders and eventually to carlisle. we believe that it is time for the scottish executive to commit to the first phase of the project by pledging to fund the line between edinburgh and tweedbank in the first instance and then investigate extending the line in the future. ms borthwick said reopening the line would be a prosperous move and protect the character of the scottish borders. a study in 2000 which was commissioned by the executive scottish borders council midlothian council and scottish borders enterprise found that a half-hourly service from tweedbank to edinburgh could cover its operating costs. it also found that a half-hourly service from gorebridge to edinburgh could cover operating costs and that a freight railway joining the west coast main line at longtown could also be reinstated.

politics

looks and music to drive mobiles mobile phones are still enjoying a boom time in sales according to research from technology analysts gartner. more than 674 million mobiles were sold last year globally said the report the highest total sold to date. the figure was 30% more than in 2003 and surpassed even the most optimistic predictions gartner said. good design and the look of a mobile as well as new services such as music downloads could go some way to pushing up sales in 2005 said analysts. although people were still looking for better replacement phones there was evidence according to gartner that some markets were seeing a slow-down in replacement sales. all the markets grew apart from japan which shows that replacement sales are continuing in western europe mobile analyst carolina milanesi told the bbc news website. japan is where north america and western european markets can be in a couple of years time. they already have tv music ringtones cameras and all that we can think of on mobiles so people have stopped buying replacement phones. but there could be a slight slowdown in sales in european and us markets too according to gartner as people wait to see what comes next in mobile technology. this means mobile companies have to think carefully about what they are offering in new models so that people see a compelling reason to upgrade said gartner. third generation mobiles (3g) with the ability to handle large amounts of data transfer like video could drive people into upgrading their phones but ms milanesi said it was difficult to say how quickly that would happen. at the end of the day people have cameras and colour screens on mobiles and for the majority of people out there who don t really care about technology the speed of data to a phone is not critical. nor would the rush to produce two or three megapixel camera phones be a reason for mobile owners to upgrade on its own. the majority of camera phone models are not at the stage where they can compete with digital cameras which also have flashes and zooms. more likely to drive sales in 2005 would be the attention to design and aesthetics as well as music services. the motorola razr v3 phone was typical of the attention to design that would be more commonplace in 2005 she added. this was not a women s thing she said but a desire from men and women to have a gadget that is a form of self-expression too. it was not just about how the phone functioned but about what it said about its owner. western europe has always been a market which is quite attentive to design said ms milanesi. people are after something that is nice-looking and together with that there is the entertainment side. this year music will have a part to play in this. the market for full-track music downloads was worth just $20 million (£10.5 million) in 2004 but is set to be worth $1.8 billion (£9.4 million) by 2009 according to jupiter research. sony ericsson just released its walkman branded mobile phone the w800 which combines a digital music player with up to 30 hours battery life and a two megapixel camera. in july last year motorola and apple announced a version of itunes online music downloading service would be released which would be compatible with motorola mobile phones. apple said the new itunes music player would become motorola s standard music application for its music phones. but the challenge will be balancing storage capacity with battery life if mobile music hopes to compete with digital music players like the ipod. ms milanesi said more models would likely be released in the coming year with hard drives. but they would be more likely to compete with the smaller capacity music players that have around four gigabyte storage capacity which would not put too much strain on battery life.

tech

post-christmas lull in lending uk mortgage lending showed a post-christmas lull in january indicating a slowing housing market lenders have said. both the council of mortgage lenders (cml) and building society association (bsa) said lending was down sharply. the cml said gross mortgage lending stood at £17.9bn compared with £21.8bn in january last year. the bsa said mortgage approvals - loans approved but not yet made - were £2bn down from £2.6bn in january 2004. at the same time the british bankers association (bba) said lending was weaker . overall the bba said mortgage lending rose by £4bn in january a far smaller increase than the £5.1bn seen in december. this was a return to the weaker pattern of lending seen in the last months of 2004 the bba added. however it is the year-on-year lending comparisons which are the most striking. the cml said lending for house purchases and gross mortgage lending were 29% and 18% lower year-on-year respectively. these figures show beyond doubt the recent slowdown in the housing market peter williams cml deputy director said.

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call centre users lose patience customers trying to get through to call centres are getting impatient and quicker to hang up a survey suggests. once past the welcome message callers on average hang up after just 65 seconds of listening to canned music. the drop in patience comes as the number of calls to call centres is growing at a rate of 20% every year. customers are getting used to the idea of an always available society says cara diemont of it firm dimension data which commissioned the survey. however call centres also saw a sharp increase of customers simply abandoning calls she says from just over 5% in 2003 to a record 13.3% during last year. when automated phone message systems are taken out of the equation where customers have to pick their way through multiple options and messages the number of abandoned calls is even higher - a sixth of all callers give up rather than wait. one possible reason for the lack in patience ms diemont says is the fact that more customers are calling on the move using their mobile phones. the surge in customers trying to get through to call centres is also a reflection of the centres growing range of tasks. once a call centre may have looked after mortgages now its agents may also be responsible for credit cards insurance and current accounts ms diemont says. problems are occurring because increased responsibility is not going hand-in-hand with more training the survey found. in what dimension data calls an alarming development the average induction time for a call centre worker fell last year from 36 to just 21 days leaving agents not equipped to deal with customers . this ms diemont warns is scary and not good for the bottom line either. poor training frustrates both call centre workers and customers. as a result call centres have a high churn rate with nearly a quarter of workers throwing in the towel every year which in turn forces companies to pay for training new staff. resolution rates - the number of calls where a customer s query is resolved to mutual satisfaction - are running at just 50%. when the query is passed on to a second or third person - a specialist or manager - rates rise to about 70% but that is still well below the industry target of an 85% resolution rate. suggestions that outsourcing - relocating call centres to low-cost countries like india or south africa - is to blame are wrong ms diemont says. there are no big differences in wait time and call resolution between call centres based in europe or north america and those in developing countries around the world. you can make call centres perform anywhere if you have good management and the right processes in place she says. however companies that decide to offshore their operations are driven not just by cost considerations. only 42% of them say that saving money is the main consideration when closing domestic call centre operations. half of them argue that workers in other countries offer better skills for the money. but not everybody believes that outsourcing and offshoring are the solution. nearly two-thirds of all firms polled for the survey have no plans to offshore their call centres. they give three key reasons for not making the move: - call centre operations are part of their business core function - they are worried about the risk of going abroad - they fear that they will damage their brand if they join the offshoring drive. the survey was conducted by sunovate on behalf of dimension data and is based on in-depth questionnaires of 166 call centres in 24 countries and five continents. what are your experiences with call centres are you happy to listen to vivaldi or greensleeves or do you want an immediate response and if you work in a call centre: did your training prepare you for your job

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greene sets sights on world title maurice greene aims to wipe out the pain of losing his olympic 100m title in athens by winning a fourth world championship crown this summer. he had to settle for bronze in greece behind fellow american justin gatlin and francis obikwelu of portugal. it really hurts to look at that medal. it was my mistake. i lost because of the things i did said greene who races in birmingham on friday. it s never going to happen again. my goal - i m going to win the worlds. greene crossed the line just 0.02 seconds behind gatlin who won in 9.87 seconds in one of the closest and fastest sprints of all time. but greene believes he lost the race and his title in the semi-finals. in my semi-final race i should have won the race but i was conserving energy. that s when francis obikwelu came up and i took third because i didn t know he was there. i believe that s what put me in lane seven in the final and while i was in lane seven i couldn t feel anything in the race. i just felt like i was running all alone. i believe if i was in the middle of the race i would have been able to react to people that came ahead of me. greene was also denied olympic gold in the 4x100m men s relay when he could not catch britain s mark lewis-francis on the final leg. the kansas star is set to go head-to-head with lewis-francis again at friday s norwich union grand prix. the pair contest the 60m the distance over which greene currently holds the world record of 6.39 seconds. he then has another indoor meeting in france before resuming training for the outdoor season and the task of recapturing his world title in helsinki in august. greene believes gatlin will again prove the biggest threat to his ambitions in finland. but he also admits he faces more than one rival for the world crown. there s always someone else coming. i think when i was coming up i would say there was me and ato (boldon) in the young crowd greene said. now you ve got about five or six young guys coming up at the same time.

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brown in appeal for labour unity gordon brown has made an appeal for unity after reports claimed mr blair went back on a pledge to stand down before the next general election. the chancellor would not comment on the reports but insisted he would not be diverted or distracted from tackling the challenges faced by the country. his only motivation was to ensure labour was re-elected he insisted. mr blair earlier dismissed the claim he had reneged on a promise to stand aside for gordon brown as old news. according to a new book brown s britain by sunday telegraph journalist robert peston mr blair went back on a pledge to make way for mr brown after cabinet allies intervened in june 2004. in an interview with bbc one s breakfast with frost mr blair said: i ve dealt with this six months ago. i said then you don t do deals over jobs like this - you don t. what both of us are actually concentrating on are the issues that concern the country. in a separate interview with bbc political editor andrew marr mr brown said: it s very important that we all do what we can in a unified way to ensure the election of a labour government. i think it is very important to stress that that is the motivation that i have. that is my purpose in politics and that is what every day i seek to do. and i am not going to be diverted or distracted nor is tony blair by newspaper stories or books or rumours or gossip. the only reason why we are in government is to get on with the job in a unified way to deal with the challenges facing this country. mr brown also said he had discussed the general election campaign with the prime minister on saturday and pledged to play his part as he had been asked to do. but mr peston said the pair had mutual animosity and contempt for each other and that mr blair had decided in november 2003 he would quit because he felt he had lost voters trust because of the iraq war. he then changed his mind in june 2004 following intervention from allies in the cabinet and the suspicion that the chancellor was deliberately manoeuvring against him according to the book. andrew marr said: this is enormously damaging. gordon brown knows it as well as tony blair. i think the relationship is genuinely privately very poor indeed. things are very difficult. he added: lots of ministers believe tony blair will attempt to move gordon brown out of the treasury after the election. that depends on whether there s still a labour government and their majority. senior mps are expected to raise concerns about the latest reports of infighting at the regular meeting of labour backbenchers on monday. health secretary john reid said those fuelling such reports were damaging labour s re-election chances and would not be easily forgiven. fresh speculation of a rift recently followed mr blair and mr brown s separate responses to the asian tsunami. these rumours were fuelled by mr blair s decision to hold his monthly media conference at the same time as a long-planned speech by mr brown on uk plans to tackle global poverty with a new marshall plan for africa. there was speculation the pair were trying to outdo each other s response to the disaster. but the prime minister said he had discussed these claims with the chancellor and dismissed them as a load of nonsense . tory leader michael howard accused the prime minister and mr brown of squabbling like schoolboys . liberal democrat parliamentary chairman matthew taylor said the personal ambition of mr blair and mr brown was getting in the way of good government .

politics

china continues breakneck growth china s economy has expanded by a breakneck 9.5% during 2004 faster than predicted and well above 2003 s 9.1%. the news may mean more limits on investment and lending as beijing tries to take the economy off the boil. china has sucked in raw materials and energy to feed its expansion which could have knock-on effects on the rest of the world if it overheats. but officials pointed out that industrial growth had slowed with services providing much of the impetus. growth in industrial output - the main target of government efforts to impose curbs on credit and investments - was 11.5% in 2004 down from 17% the previous year. still consumer prices - at 2.4% - rose faster than in 2004 adding to concern that a sharp rise in producer prices of 7.1% could stoke inflation. and overall investment in fixed assets was still high up 21.3% from the previous year - although some way off the peak of 43% seen in the first quarter of 2004. the result could be higher interest rates. china raised rates by 0.27 percentage points to 5.8% - its first hike in nine years - in october 2004. despite the apparent rebalancing of the economy the overall growth picture remains strong economists said. there is no sign of a slowdown in 2005 said tim congdon economist at ing barings. china s economy is not only gathering speed thanks to domestic demand but also from soaring sales overseas. figures released earlier this year showed exports at a six-year high in 2004 up 35%. part of the impetus comes from the relative cheapness of the yuan china s currency. the government keeps it pegged close to a rate of 8.28 to the us dollar - much to the chagrin of many us lawmakers who blame china for lost jobs and competitiveness. despite urging to ease the peg officials insist they are a long way from ready to make a shift to a more market-set rate. we need a good and feasible plan and formulating such a plan also needs time national bureau of statistics chief li deshui told reuters. those who hope to make a fortune by speculating on a renminbi revaluation will not succeed in making a profit.

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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.

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uk economy facing major risks the uk manufacturing sector will continue to face serious challenges over the next two years the british chamber of commerce (bcc) has said. the group s quarterly survey of companies found exports had picked up in the last three months of 2004 to their best levels in eight years. the rise came despite exchange rates being cited as a major concern. however the bcc found the whole uk economy still faced major risks and warned that growth is set to slow. it recently forecast economic growth will slow from more than 3% in 2004 to a little below 2.5% in both 2005 and 2006. manufacturers domestic sales growth fell back slightly in the quarter the survey of 5 196 firms found. employment in manufacturing also fell and job expectations were at their lowest level for a year. despite some positive news for the export sector there are worrying signs for manufacturing the bcc said. these results reinforce our concern over the sector s persistent inability to sustain recovery. the outlook for the service sector was uncertain despite an increase in exports and orders over the quarter the bcc noted. the bcc found confidence increased in the quarter across both the manufacturing and service sectors although overall it failed to reach the levels at the start of 2004. the reduced threat of interest rate increases had contributed to improved confidence it said. the bank of england raised interest rates five times between november 2003 and august last year. but rates have been kept on hold since then amid signs of falling consumer confidence and a slowdown in output. the pressure on costs and margins the relentless increase in regulations and the threat of higher taxes remain serious problems bcc director general david frost said. while consumer spending is set to decelerate significantly over the next 12-18 months it is unlikely that investment and exports will rise sufficiently strongly to pick up the slack.

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lord scarman 93 dies peacefully distinguished lawyer lord scarman who conducted the inquiry into the 1981 brixton riots has died aged 93. the peer enjoyed a celebrated judicial career serving as law commission chairman in its first seven years. he also chaired the 1969 tribunal set up to investigate civil disturbances in northern ireland. paying tribute the lord chancellor lord falconer said lord scarman was one of the great advocates of our generation . his legacy from his decisions in the lords and the court of appeal is substantial. his work in the wake of the brixton riots and his commitment to the vulnerable and dispossessed was second to none. a great judge a great lawyer and a great man. lord scarman s nephew george ritchie said the peer who passed away peacefully on wednesday would be sadly missed . the lord chief justice lord woolf who is the most senior judge in england and wales said it was lord scarman s pioneering work which paved the way for the human rights act 1998. he was a lawyer and a judge who had a remarkable insight into human nature and an exceptional sensitivity to the needs of a healthy society he said. he was personally totally charming and he will be remembered with great affection and admiration by all who came into contact with him. dame elizabeth butler-sloss the president of the family justice division said lord scarman was a good and humane judge and one of the greatest figures of the late 20th century. lord scarman will be remembered for the public inquiry he led into a string of race riots which began in brixton when racial tensions rose after a police crackdown on street robbery. during the following three days of disturbances that spread to the midlands merseyside bristol and leeds nearly 400 people were injured and buildings and vehicles were set alight. the inquiry famously settled on the so-called rotten apples theory which argued that only a few police officers were racist saying most were not. it spawned new law enforcement practices and led to the creation of the police complaints authority. trevor phillips chair of the commission for racial equality praised lord scarman s ability to listen . he said: when lord scarman toured the streets of brixton his presence was electrifying. a community which had been systematically ignored by everyone else was suddenly embraced by the epitome of the english establishment. his great quality was the ability to listen to young people of all backgrounds many of whose language he could barely understand genuinely to hear what they had to say and to talk to them as human beings. he never lost the special combination of wisdom humanity and the spark of radicalism that marked his watershed report into the brixton riots.

politics

vickery out of six nations england tight-head prop phil vickery has been ruled out of the rest of the 2005 rbs six nations after breaking a bone in his right forearm. vickery was injured as his club side gloucester beat bath 17-16 in the west country derby on saturday. he could be joined on the sidelines by bath centre olly barkley who sat out the derby due to a leg injury. barkley will have a scan on sunday and might miss england s trip to six nations leaders ireland next weekend. the news is just the latest blow for coach andy robinson who has seen his side lose their opening two matches in the 2005 six nations. robinson is already without world cup winners jonny wilkinson will greenwood mike tindall richard hill and trevor woodman through injury. vickery has broken the radius a large bone in his forearm. he only returned to the england side last weekend after a long-term back injury which was followed by a fractured eye socket. and the gloucester prop was only recalled after leicester tight-head julian white suffered a neck injury which has already seen him ruled out of the ireland game. bath prop matt stevens is the only remaining tight-head in england s training squad and could be involved against ireland. but he has to play second fiddle at club level to duncan bell who excelled for england a against france and may now be called into the squad. the extent of barkley s injury is not yet clear but bath boss john connolly rates him no better than 50-50 to face ireland. barkley played at inside cente in england s defeat by france and if he is unable to play england s constantly-changing midfield will once again have to be altered. robinson could choose to recall mathew tait or henry paul although tait endured a nightmare for newcastle against leicester on saturday and paul limped off with an ankle injury against bath. in-form leicester centre ollie smith is the other outstanding candidate and two tries against newcastle will have boosted his chances. fly-half andy goode is also a strong contender for the match-day 22 after an immaculate kicking display on saturday. england fourth in the six nations table with zero points play ireland top of the table in dublin on 27 february kick-off 1500 gmt.

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