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councils must find gypsy sites ministers are telling councils to find more sites for travellers amid continuing rows concerning a string of unauthorised encampments. councils are also to be given stronger powers to move on illegal settlements by gypsy communities on rural land. more money is to be given to councils to develop official caravan parks said housing minister yvette cooper. in november mps urged ministers to make councils create sites because 3 500 travellers have no place to stop. ms cooper said an annual scheme to refurbish existing traveller sites would now be extended to consider council bids for new stopping places. that scheme has paid out £25m in four years with £8m available for 2005. there are two major problems in the planning system at the moment concerning gypsy and traveller sites said ms cooper. firstly local authorities are not identifying enough appropriate locations either for private or public sites. and secondly they do not have enough powers to deal swiftly with development on inappropriate sites. the result is that there are too many developments on inappropriate sites causing tensions and difficulties for both the neighbouring communities and the gypsies and travellers. that is why we are consulting on a new obligation on local authorities to identify more appropriate sites as well as new powers to take immediate action if the development is in the wrong place and cannot be tolerated in even the short-term because of risk to local amenity and the environment. under the new regulations expected to be in force in the spring officials will be able to serve temporary stop notices aimed at preventing works on a site before a council has had chance to obtain a full legal ban. many mps with rural constituencies particularly in eastern england have been pressing the government to create stronger enforcement powers saying villagers are suffering because of the legal delays in removing illegal encampments. andrew ryder of the traveller law reform coalition said: we welcome talk about an obligation on councils to identify land for gypsies and travellers so long as it is a real obligation as opposed to a recommendation which could be and was easily ignored. new accommodation proposals for travellers need to be backed up with decent funding and intervention by the government when councils attempt to dodge their responsibilities towards travellers as they often do. living on the side of the road or being worn down by planning appeals legal action and eviction is no one s idea of fun. in their november report mps from the committee scrutinising the office for the deputy prime minister responsible for housing said most illegal traveller encampments were caused by a lack of places to stop. numerous communities and councils were paying for lengthy and expensive evictions against travelling communities said the mps. in turn the problems had worsened because councils were reluctant to voluntarily provide sites because of resistance from residents. two of the most controversial traveller sites - cottenham in cambridgeshire and minety in wiltshire - remain embroiled in an ongoing legal battle.

politics

speech takes on search engines a scottish firm is looking to attract web surfers with a search engine that reads out results. called speegle it has the look and feel of a normal search engine with the added feature of being able to read out the results. scottish speech technology firm cec systems launched the site in november. but experts have questioned whether talking search engines are of any real benefit to people with visual impairments. the edinburgh-based firm cec has married speech technology with ever-popular internet search. the ability to search is becoming increasingly crucial to surfers baffled by the huge amount of information available on the web. according to search engine ask jeeves around 80% of surfers visit search engines as their first port of call on the net. people visiting speegle can select one of three voices to read the results of a query or summarise news stories from sources such as the bbc and reuters. it is still a bit robotic and can make a few mistakes but we are never going to have completely natural sounding voices and it is not bad said speegle founder gordon renton. the system is ideal for people with blurred vision or for those that just want to search for something in the background while they do something else. we are not saying that it will be suitable for totally blind people although the royal national institute of the blind (rnib) is looking at the technology he added. but julie howell digital policy manager at the rnib expressed doubts over whether speegle and similar sites added anything to blind people s experience of the web. there are a whole lot of options like this springing up on the web and one has to think carefully about what the market is going to be she said. blind people have specialised screen readers available to them which will do the job these technologies do in a more sophisticated way she added. the site uses a technology dubbed panavox which takes web text and converts it into synthesised speech. in the past speech technology has only been compatible with broadband because of the huge files it downloads but cec says its compression technology means it will also work on slower dial-up connections. visitors to speegle may notice that the look and feel of the site bears more than a passing resemblance to the better known if silent search engine google. google has no connection with speegle and the use of bright colours is simply to make the site more visible for those with visual impairments said mr renton. it is not a rip-off. we are doing something that google does not do and is not planning to do and there is truth in the saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery he said. speegle is proving popular with those learning english in countries such as japan and china. the site is bombarded by people just listening to the words. the repetition could be useful although they may all end up talking like robots said mr renton.

tech

cheaper chip for mobiles a mobile phone chip which combines a modem and a computer processor on one bit of silicon instead of two could make phones cheaper and more powerful. the specially-designed chip developed by texas instruments could drive down the cost of making mobiles capable of 3d gaming and 30-frame-a-second video. currently rich multimedia features tend to be on more expensive handsets. the technology omap-vox is being tested by firms in europe and asia and could appear by the end of the year. texas which makes computer chips for more than half the world s mobile phones said it was keen to make multimedia functions like video and gaming more affordable. we re going to drive them down into meat-and-potatoes phones that have the largest market share said doug rasor a marketing vice president at texas. the chip also uses much less power than conventional chips said texas which means less strain on mobile battery life. more than 50 million people own a mobile in the uk but mobile operators are keen to encourage people to move onto more sophisticated handsets that can do more. texas is keen to cash in on the third generation (3g) of mobile technology which offers high-speed networks for video streaming and other multimedia functions. but it faces stiff competition from the likes of intel which is also looking to provide better chips for high-end mobiles. competition to get people using 3g mobiles will grow in the next year as almost all of the uk s operators have now launched third generation networks. a recent survey by sony ericsson predicted that the number of 3g handsets sold in 2005 would double from 2004 to account for 10% of all phones sold. many consumers are still to be convinced though. a further recent survey said that only 4% of mobile owners were thinking of upgrading to 3g phones. many said they were confused about the different ways to pay for phones and the vast array of features most have onboard. but there will be continued demand for better chips as the industry continues to develop new standards and future networks. earlier in january ntt docomo and vodafone joined forces to develop the next generation of high-speed networks known as super 3g intended to be 10 times faster than 3g services. the first stage of development is to be completed by 2007 but no date has been set for a commercial launch the newly-designed omap-vox chip set was announced ahead of the start of a major mobile industry conference 3gsm which takes place in cannes france this week.

tech

short attacks us over tsunami aid former cabinet minister clare short has criticised the us-led tsunami aid coalition saying the un should be leading efforts. president bush has announced that an alliance of the us india australia and japan will co-ordinate a humanitarian drive. but ms short said the effect of the parallel coalition would be to undermine the un. she said only the un had the moral authority to lead the relief work. ms short resigned as international development secretary over the iraq war. i think this initiative from america to set up four countries claiming to co-ordinate sounds like yet another attempt to undermine the un when it is the best system we have got and the one that needs building up she said. only really the un can do that job she told bbc radio four s pm programme. it is the only body that has the moral authority. but it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers. ms short said the countries involved could not boast good records on their response to major disasters. the us was very bad at coordinating with anyone and india had its own problems ms short said. i don t know what that is about but it sounds very much i am afraid like the us trying to have a separate operation and not work with the rest of the world through the un system she added.

politics

electrolux to export europe jobs electrolux saw its shares rise 14% on tuesday after it said it would be shifting more of its manufacturing to low-cost countries. the swedish firm the world s largest maker of home appliances said it is to relocate about 10 of its 27 plants in western europe and north america. it did not say which facilities would be affected but intends moving them to asia eastern europe and mexico. the company has two manufacturing sites in county durham. it makes lawn and garden products in newton aycliffe and cookers and ovens in spennymoor. the newton aycliffe plant could also be affected by electrolux s separate announcement that it is to spin-off its outdoor products unit into a new separate company. electrolux s subsidiary brands include aeg zanussi and frigidaire. the company said it was speeding up its restructuring programme which aims to save between £190m and £265m annually from 2009. we see that about half the plants in high-cost countries - that is around 10 - are at risk said electrolux chief executive hans straberg. it looks pretty grim said swedish trades union official ulf carlsson. what are we going to end up producing in sweden

business

minister defends hunting ban law the law banning hunting with dogs in england and wales is enforceable and very clear alun michael has said. the rural affairs minister said it would become obvious if people flouted the law which came into force on friday and pretended they were not. some 270 hunts met legally on saturday killing a total of 91 foxes - only four were accidentally killed by hounds. but anti-hunt campaigners said there had been widespread intimidation of activists monitoring hunts. countryside alliance chairman john jackson said that saturday had been a massive demonstration by the rural community of support for hunting . people had turned out to show en masse that the hunting act was a bad law he said adding that foxes and other animals had been killed legally as far as he was aware. although hunting with dogs is now a criminal offence exercising hounds chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are still legal. addressing claims that the new law was unenforceable mr michael told bbc radio 4 s today programme: there has been a lot of spin about this by those that support hunting. the reality is that the law is very clear. you can t chase wild mammals with a pack of dogs whether the wild mammal is a fox or a deer. if people do so and pretend they re not it s going to become very clear. you can t hunt accidentally. mr michael also denied the hunting ban had led to a breakdown of trust between the government and rural communities. he said most people living in the countryside were more concerned with issues like the economy the health service and their children s future than hunting. but the league against cruel sports claimed the new act had been broken even though the numbers of foxes killed had fallen. thousands of hunt supporters turned out at 270 hunts across england and wales on the first day of the ban with anti-hunt groups sending out 100 monitors to check the law was not being broken. there were only four arrests - over alleged hunting of hares in wiltshire - although it was not clear whether they were made under the hunting act. they have been released on bail but police say they may face prosecution under new poaching laws. but penny little who monitored the bicester hunt in oxfordshire said she had witnessed gratuitous spiteful killing of foxes . if people tried to run circles around this law the only outcome would be that it was tightened up she said. mike hobday from the league against cruel sports said video evidence of the law being broken would be passed onto police. he said intimidation seemed to have been widespread and called on hunts to do more to stop their supporters intimidating anti-hunt activists videoing hunts. but mr jackson who had been at the bicester hunt in oxfordshire denied there was any intimidation.

politics

actor scott is new bond favourite bookmaker william hill has stopped taking bets on who will be the next james bond following a succession of large wagers on actor dougray scott. the firm closed the book on friday saying insider information could have contributed to the number of bets. in the past gambles like this have often been right william hill spokesman rupert adams said. the closing list gave scott odds of 6-9 followed by oscar nominee clive owen at 5-2. scott first found fame in the tv series soldier soldier and has since then starred in such films as mission impossible ii and the wartime drama enigma. mr adams said one punter had placed a bet of £870 on the 39-year-old actor at odds of 8-1. she told us she had some inside information perhaps she knew he had been to a casting but she wouldn t say he said. others thought to be in the running include star wars actor ewan mcgregor and australian star hugh jackman both of whom have odds of 4-1. colin farrell jude law and troy star eric bana have also been tipped for the role in the past. a large number of bets on actor colin salmon to become the first black james bond were dismissed as a publicity stunt a month ago. the next bond film originally due for release in 2005 has been delayed until 2006 due to sony s takeover of the mgm studio. the most recent die another day was released in late 2002 and saw pierce brosnan make his final appearance as the secret agent. the actor was originally due to make a fifth appearance as bond but was released from his contract in 2004.

entertainment

kilroy unveils immigration policy ex-chatshow host robert kilroy-silk has attacked uk policy on immigration saying britain s open door approach is hitting low wage indigenous workers. the veritas leader said the only people to benefit from immigrants from places like poland were employers landlords members of the metropolitan elite . the mep said his party would only admit foreigners who were required because they had specific skills to offer. and he argued asylum cost £2bn a year for 14 000 successful applicants. mr kilroy-silk said that worked out at £143 000 per successful asylum seeker. he said veritas wanted to grant an amnesty for all those in britain claiming asylum and who have children and deport everyone else. britain should take its fair share of asylum seekers under the united nations convention on human rights he argued. and mr kilroy-silk said he wanted to spend an extra £500m a year to help provide for refugees abroad.

politics

mps issued with blackberry threat mps will be thrown out of the commons if they use blackberries in the chamber speaker michael martin has ruled. the £200 handheld computers can be used as a phone pager or to send e-mails. the devices gained new prominence this week after alastair campbell used his to accidentally send an expletive-laden message to a newsnight journalist. mr martin revealed some mps had been using their blackberries during debates and he also cautioned members against using hidden earpieces. the use of electronic devices in the commons chamber has long been frowned on. the sound of a mobile phone or a pager can result in a strong rebuke from either the speaker or his deputies. the speaker chairs debates in the commons and is charged with ensuring order in the chamber and enforcing rules and conventions of the house. he or she is always an mp chosen by colleagues who once nominated gives up all party political allegiances.

politics

moya fights back for indian title carlos moya became the first man to successfully defend the chennai open title by beating four-times finalist paradorn srichaphan 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7/5). the spaniard then donated his £28 000 prize money to relief efforts for the victims of the asian tsunami. the final was close throughout with thai second seed srichaphan - the 2003 winner - closing out the first set. but moya took the second set before bouncing back from 5-2 down in the decider to force and win a tie-break. moya confirmed afterwards: i m donating my prize money from this tournament for the tsunami victims hoping it makes some difference to their lives. his contribution follows pledges by four other players to donate their prize money from the tournament which went ahead after the 26 december disaster which has so far claimed at least 150 000 lives. scrichapan said he would donate an unspecified amount for relief work in thailand where more than 5 000 people were killed. the atp has announced that it would contribute the us$25 000 tournament fee to unicef s emergency relief fund in tamil nadu. the atp tour s sponsor mercedes said it would also contribute increasing the atp donation to us$40 000.

sport

britain boosted by holmes double athletics fans endured a year of mixed emotions in 2004 as stunning victories went hand-in-hand with disappointing defeats and more drugs scandals. kelly holmes finally fulfilled her potential by storming to double gold on the track at the olympic games. holmes helped erase the gloom hanging over team gb after their biggest medal hope paula radcliffe dropped out of the marathon and then the 10 000m. britain s men s 4x100m relay team also did their bit by taking a shock gold. holmes had started the year in disappointing style falling over in the final of 1500m at the world indoor championships where she was favourite. her olympic build-up was clouded by self doubt but that proved unfounded as she overhauled rival maria mutola to win the 800m - her first global title. just five days later the 34-year-old made it double gold in the 1500m. it was the first time in 84 years a briton has achieved the olympic middle-distance double. while holmes left athens as the star of team gb it was radcliffe who carried expectations before the august games. the 30-year-old marathon world record holder went into the athens event as favourite but an exhausted radcliffe dropped out after 23 miles in tears. her decision to enter the 10 000m five days later also backfired as she again pulled out with eight laps remaining. but radcliffe helped put her olympic trauma behind her with a thrilling win in november s new york marathon. the 4x100m team grabbed some last-gasp glory for the british men s olympic squad after a poor start to the games. it seemed as though athens would be the first games where the men would fail to win a medal with michael east the only individual track finalist in the 1500m. but darren campell jason gardener marlon devonish and mark lewis-francis made amends in the sprint relay. the quartet held off favourites the usa to win britain s first relay medal since 1912 in 38.07 seconds. gardener added the olympic relay crown to his world indoor title over 60m and just like holmes finally lived up to his promise in 2004. kelly sotherton completed team gb s athletics medal haul in athens with a surprise bronze in the heptathlon. the 28-year-old won her first championship medal since becoming a full-time athlete in 2003. but it was a different story for britain s defending champion denise lewis who withdrew on day two of the competition after some poor results. lewis who was troubled by injury has ruled out retiring while sotherton is tipped to build on her success. the athens olympics proved to be a landmark occasion for steve backley who retired from competition after finishing fourth in the javelin. the battling 35-year-old leaves the sport with a vast medal haul including two silvers and one olympic bronze. and backley s departure was balanced by the return of injury-hit decathlete dean macey who came fourth in athens. the continued improvement of sprinter abi oyepitan and long jumper chris tomlinson also boosted team gb. sadly the 2004 olympics did not escape the problems of drugs misuse. on the eve of the games greek sprinters kostas kenteris and katerina thanou missed a drugs test and claimed to have been involved in a road crash. kenteris the 200m champion in 2000 and thanou have since been charged by the greek authorities and await trial. at the games adrian annus (hammer) robert fazelas (discus) and irina korzhanenko (shot) were all stripped of their titles because of doping issues. hungarian compatriots annus and fazelas both refused to give urine samples while russian korzhanenko tested positive for the steroid stanozolol. the fallout from the thg scandal which rocked the sport in 2003 continued to impact in olympic year. britain s 4x100m team took gold without the services of dwain chambers who was handed a two-year ban in february after testing positive for steroid thg. american kelli white was suspended and stripped of her world 100m and 200m titles after failing a drugs test. and world 400m champion jerome young landed a life ban from us chiefs after a second doping offence. russian pole vaulter yelena isinbayeva provided some light relief by smashing the world record seven times on her way to the world indoor and olympic titles. her rivalry with compatriot svetlana feofanova livened up the field events. morocco s hicham el guerrouj also delighted fans by racing to a historic olympic double in the 1500m and 5 000m. and though there was no paula radcliffe in the london marathon there was plenty of drama as kenyans evans rutto and margaret okayo took the titles. rutto held on to win despite slipping on some cobblestones and tumbling into a barrier. okayo also had to battle back after mistiming her tactics but clinched victory on her debut.

sport

wenger keeping faith with almunia arsene wenger has pledged to keep faith with stand-in keeper manuel almunia for the crunch week which could define arsenal s season. almunia will start tuesday s champions league group tie against rosenborg and is likely to face chelsea on sunday. wenger said: you don t think i would take out one goalkeeper for just one game do you i don t do that. i have to give him a run for a few games. it s just that i don t want to make this story bigger than it is. wenger insists he has complete faith in the 27-year-old spaniard who was signed last summer from celta vigo as back-up to jens lehmann. if you look at my career you will see that i have left many big players out for a long time. i ve done it with dennis bergkamp kanu everybody. it s because it s a goalkeeper that s all. it s a usual situation for me. you put your best team out no matter who it is. for me it was not a big mistake at old trafford and i wasn t alarmed by what happened against birmingham either. it s nothing against lehmann. i think he s a great keeper as is almunia. you can only play one of them. these people are not robots - they have good periods and less good periods. just because lehmann doesn t play for two or three weeks or longer or shorter it doesn t mean i ve lost faith in him. but former arsenal keeper david seaman believes lehmann has been harshly treated. seaman told the daily mail: jens is a fantastic keeper. he deserves another chance. he has made a few mistakes but on form he deserves to be the first-team choice. with arsenal hit by injuries and suspension inexperienced midfield pair of mathieu flamini and cesc fabregas will line up against rosenborg but wenger is confident they will prove more than capable. it puts a lot of pressure on them but it s a good learning process said wenger. i m not worried as they are both mentally strong and will put in the needed workrate. the gunners go into the game boosted by the news that defender sol campbell is on the verge of signing a new deal with the club. and the 30-year-old whose current contract runs out in the summer has made it clear he is determined to achieve champions league success with arsenal. campbell said: it means a lot to me to go through it s everything. we want to carry on in this competition. that s where the best teams in europe are. to be in there playing against these guys and trying to win the trophy is the first thing in my mind. meanwhile thierry henry believes he will be blamed if arsenal fail to qualify for the next stage of the champions league. henry will captain the side in place of the suspended patrick vieira as the gunners seek the required victory over rosenborg. and the striker said: if we don t win and we go out of the competition like it or not it s going to be my fault. that s the way it is. if the team don t win i know i will be criticised no matter how i play.

sport

fast moving phone bugs appear security firms are warning about several mobile phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs. the new strains of the cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. the cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the symbian series 60 phone operating system. despite the warnings there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of cabir. the original cabir worm came to light in mid-june 2004 when it was sent to anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. a mistake in the way the original cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory the bug would only have been able to infect one phone at a time. however the new cabir strains have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range bluetooth technology to any vulnerable phone in range. bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of metres. the risk of being infected by cabir is low because users must give the malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually install it. users can protect themselves by altering a setting on symbian phones that conceals the handset from other bluetooth using devices. finnish security firm f-secure issued a warning about the new strains of cabir but said that the viruses do not do any damage to a phone. all they do is block normal bluetooth activity and drain the phone s battery. anti-virus firm sophos said the source code for cabir had been posted on the net by a brazilian programmer which might lead to even more variants of the program being created. so far seven versions of cabir are know to exist one of which was inside the malicious skulls program that was found in late november. symbian s series 60 software is licenced by nokia lg electronics lenovo panasonic samsung sendo and siemens.

tech

us seeks new $280bn smoker ruling the us justice department is to try to overturn a court ruling that threw out its claim for $280bn (£149bn) in damages from tobacco firms. earlier this month a three-judge appeal court panel rejected the claim - filed in 1999 by the administration of bill clinton - in a 2-1 decision. government lawyers said they would ask the full us court of appeals for the district of columbia to hear the case. the court room battle is seen as key in government attempts to fight smoking. it s pretty clear that they ve suffered a severe setback said anthony sebok a professor at brooklyn law school adding that the appeal was what the government would be expected to ask for . prosecutors had argued that tobacco firms lied about the dangers of smoking ignored research that highlighted problems looked to increase addiction by manipulating nicotine levels and targeted the young with their adverts. among the firms accused were altria group rj reynolds tobacco lorillard tobacco liggett group and brown and williamson. prosecutors went after the companies using legislation put in place to fight organised crime and accused the firms of conspiring and running racketeer influenced and corrupt organisations . the tobacco companies denied the charges saying that they never illegally conspired to promote smoking and fool the public. they also said that they have met many of the government s demands laid out in a landmark $206bn settlement hammered out in 1998 with 46 states. a three-judge panel agreed with the companies finding that the case could not be brought under federal anti-racketeering laws. central to the government s case was a meeting in the plaza hotel new york on 15 december 1953. prosecutors contend that executives from the major tobacco firms met and agreed to present a unified strategy denying the harmful effects of smoking. despite denying for decades that smoking could be linked to illness the companies have modified their stances in recent years. altria s philip morris now accepts that nicotine is harmful and the company s main lawyer william ohlemeyer told the bbc last year that earlier statements may have been wrong but they were not dishonest. government lawyers have until 21 march to file their appeal.

business

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

sport

tories attack burglar u-turns tory leader michael howard has accused tony blair of performing u-turns over rules on using force against burglars. the government has ruled out amending the present law which allows reasonable force in self defence. mr howard branded the decision unacceptable saying: it is not householders who should be frightened it s the burglars. home secretary charles clarke said ministers had kept to their pledge to review the law. metropolitan police commissioner sir john stevens last month backed a tory attempt to change the law so only householders using grossly disproportionate force could be prosecuted. the pressure prompted the prime minister to say the police and crown prosecution service would be consulted as part of a review of the law. he told mps: if we get the right response from those people we will of course support a change in the law. instead the government has decided no change is needed but there will be a publicity campaign so people are clear they are entitled to defend themselves. on thursday mr howard told bbc radio 4 s today programme mr blair had initially refused the law change then had come round to the idea and was now backtracking again. he said: we ve had three policy positions in three months and two u-turns. it s not surprising gordon brown told him: there s nothing you could say to me now that i could ever believe. mr howard said the grossly disproportionate test matched the hurdle ministers had introduced for civil cases where burglars where claimed compensation from householders. the issue entered the public spotlight when norfolk farmer tony martin was jailed for shooting dead a 16-year-old burglar in 1999 as he ran away from the farm. but the home secretary said mr howard was wrong to say the law was biased in favour of burglars. the barrister who had represented mr martin had said the rules were weighted overwhelmingly in favour of the householder said mr clarke. he said: the problem is there has not been enough understanding of it - that was the point sir john stevens was making and the prime minister was making. the new guidance would help ensure clarity on the issue added mr clarke. the director of public prosecutions ken macdonald says only 11 householders or occupiers of business premises have been prosecuted in the last 15 years. those cases included a warehouse manager who had waited for a burglar tied him up beat him and set him alight he said. tory mp patrick mercer s private member s bill to change the law received a first reading in parliament on wednesday and goes to a full debate next month.

politics

unclear future for striker baros liverpool forward milan baros is uncertain whether he remains part of boss rafa benitez s plans after being dropped for the carling cup final. baros who is liverpool s leading scorer this season denied reports of a row with benitez but claims he is mystified at being left on the bench. he told czech newspaper daily sport: i don t know why i didn t play on sunday. i didn t argue with anybody. i was disappointed but i am not thinking of leaving right now. the czech international came on as a substitute after 74 minutes but could not prevent his side losing 3-2 to chelsea after extra-time. baros denied suggestions he wanted to leave the millennium stadium before the match upon learning of his omission from the starting line-up. but his admission that he guessed something like this was going to happen on saturday will do little to quell claims of a falling-out with benitez. and although baros insisted thoughts of quitting anfield are not in my mind right now he admitted everything is possible .

sport

laporte tinkers with team france coach bernard laporte has made four changes to the starting line-up that beat england for saturday s six nations clash with wales. he opted for yannick nyanga in the back row instead of grand slam winner imanol harinordoquy who is back in the squad. other changes see julien laharrague win his first cap at full-back aurelien rougerie return after injury on the wing and yannick jauzion in at centre. but laporte has resisted fan pressure to start frederic michalak at fly-half. the dependable yann delaigue keeps the number 10 jersey despite clamours for the flair of michalak. the 26-year-old laharrague gets his chance despite playing on the wing for his club brive. we are launching him into the great international level said team manager jo maso. he is young and this is a great opportunity for us and above all for him. there are 25 matches left before the world cup so we must see as many players as possible. the competition is very high and open. jauzion france s player of the year in 2004 would probably have played in the first two matches instead of the south african-born liebeneberg had he been fit. the stade toulousain star wins his 23rd cap and is reunited with damien traille with whom he forged an effective midfield in 2004. the return of jauzion is going to be a plus for us said laporte. we are going to test him at an international level. julien laharrague (brive) aurelien rougerie (clermont) yannick jauzion (stade toulousain) damien traille (biarritz) christophe dominici (stade francais) yann delaigue (castres) dimitri yachvili (biarritz) julien bonnaire (bourgoin) yannick nyanga (beziers) serge betsen (biarritz) jerome thion (biarritz) fabien pelous (stade toulousain capt) nicolas mas (perpignan) sebastien bruno (sale) sylvain marconnet (stade francais) replacements: william servat (stade toulousain) olivier milloud (bourgoin) gregory lamboley (stade toulousain) imanol harinordoquy (biarritz) pierre mignoni (clermont) frederic michalak (stade toulousain) jean-philippe grandclaude (perpignan)

sport

willis sues over movie injury actor bruce willis is suing revolution studios over an injury he said he suffered while making tears of the sun. willis is seeking medical expenses after he said he was hit in the head by a firework during the filming of the 2002 movie produced by the firm. the lawsuit said the star has endured mental and physical injuries as a result of the alleged incident. we are not able to comment on pending litigation revolution studios spokesman sean dudas said. in tears of the sun willis plays a us military commander who disobeys orders to try and help save a doctor and patients trapped in the nigerian jungle. directed by antoine fuqua the film was poorly received by critics and did not perform strongly at the box office. according to the lawsuit the injury was suffered during the firing of explosions as part of a special effect. the explosions known as squibs were intended to simulate the appearance of bullets striking the ground . the lawsuit said willis has endured extreme mental physical and emotional pain and suffering. there were no specific details on the injuries. while willis does not seek specific monetary damages the lawsuit noted that the star was required to and did employ physicians and other medical personnel . it stated he will incur additional future medical expenses. the lawsuit said revolution studios and special effects foreman joe pancake had a duty to willis to ensure that the squibs were inspected set up placed and detonated in a safe manner and to employ technicians who were trained and competent in their use .

entertainment

controversial film tops festival a controversial film starring hollywood actor kevin bacon as a convicted paedophile won top honours at the london film festival on thursday. the woodsman won the satyajit ray award named after the indian director. the low-budget film directed by nicole kassell is about a convicted child molester trying to rebuild his life after 12 years in jail. judges said the film tackled the contentious subject with great insight and sensitivity . previous films to take the prize include the oscar-winning boys don t cry which was about the true life story of murdered transsexual brandon teena. british writer-director amma asante won the uk film talent award this year for her debut feature a way of life. set in south wales the film is about a teenage single mother who becomes embroiled in a tense stand-off with a turkish neighbour. also on thursday night the fipresci international critics awards went to aaltra a belgian film about the handicapped; and the sutherland trophy which was won by jonathan caouette for his film tarnation. the festival closed with a screening of the film i heart huckabees starring jude law and dustin hoffman and directed by three kings film-maker david o russell. the festival this year also included the first european screening of the new pixar animation the incredibles and the british film bullet boy starring so solid crew rapper asher d.

entertainment

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

tech

steady job growth continues in us the us created fewer jobs than expected in december but analysts said that the dip in hiring was not enough to derail the world s biggest economy. according to labor department figures 157 000 new jobs were added last month. that took 2004 s total to 2.2 million the best showing in five years. job creation was one of last year s main concerns for the us economy. while worries still remain the conditions are set for steady growth in 2005 analysts said. the unemployment rate stayed at 5.4% in december and about 200 000 jobs will need to be created each month if that figure is to drop. it was a respectable report said michael moran analyst at daiwa securities. payroll growth in december was a little lighter than the consensus forecast but we had upward revisions to the prior two months and an increase in manufacturing employment. manufacturing is a cyclical area of the economy and if it s showing job growth it s a good indication that the economy is on a solid growth track. that means that the federal reserve is likely to continue its policy of raising interest rates. the fed lifted borrowing costs five times last year to 2.25% citing evidence the us economic recovery was becoming more robust. job creation was one of last year s main concerns for the us economy and proved to be a main topic of debate in the us presidential election. while demand for workers is far from booming the conditions are set for steady growth. overall compared to the previous year it looks great it just keeps going stronger and stronger and i expect that to be the case in 2005 said kurt karl economist at swiss re in new york. meanwhile economists cautioned against reading too much into data from the federal reserve showing an unexpected $8.7bn drop in consumer debt in november. a fall in consumer spending which makes up about two-thirds of all us economic activity could help limit the extent of any future interest rate rises. but economists said there could be a number of reasons for a fall in the borrowing which include credit cards and personal loans while noting that such figures can vary on a month-to-month basis.

business

newcastle 2-1 bolton kieron dyer smashed home the winner to end bolton s 10-game unbeaten run. lee bowyer put newcastle ahead when he fed stephen carr on the right flank then sprinted into the area to power home a header from the resultant cross. wanderers hit back through stelios giannakopoulos who ended a fluid passing move with a well-struck volley. but dyer had the last word in a game of few chances pouncing on a loose ball after alan shearer s shot was blocked and firing into the top corner. neither side lacked urgency in the early stages of the game with plenty of tackles flying in but opportunities in front of goal were harder to come by. bolton keeper jussi jaaskelainen had to make two saves in quick succession midway through the first-half - keeping out shearer s low shot and dyer s close-range header - but that was the only goalmouth action of note. and it was almost out of nothing that the magpies took the lead on 35 minutes. bowyer found space with a neat turn on the half-way line and striding forward picked out carr to his right. he then continued his run and with perfect timing made his way into the box where he met carr s cross with a downward header into the far corner. bolton had produced little going forward at this point but they responded well. they were level within six minutes thanks to a smart finish from giannakopoulos. jay-jay okocha twisted and turned on the edge of the area and after a neat exchange of passes involving kevin davies and gary speed the greek striker found the bottom corner with a first-time strike. the magpies were opened up again before half-time as davies set giannakopoulos in space and given had to block at his near post. but the home side survived and they should have re-taken the lead with the first meaningful attack of the second half. fernando hierro cynically chopped down dyer on the edge of the area with the midfielder clean through. but the veteran defender escaped with a booking as there were other defenders nearby and from the resultant free-kick laurent robert curled the ball just wide. bolton were creating little going forward and they seemed content to frustrate the magpies. their strategy seemed to be working until the 69th minute. alan shearer s snap-shot was charged down and dyer reacted first to smash the ball past the despairing jaaskelainen from six yards. - bolton boss sam allardyce i am bitterly disappointed with the result but i am probably more disappointed with the second-half performance. in the first half we had put them under a lot of pressure and our goal matched theirs in quality. i thought it would lift us and that they might be tired after playing a lot of games but unfortunately we were not up for the battle in the second half. we allowed them to heap too much pressure on us and in the end we cracked. - newcastle boss graeme souness we deserved the win. we had a really good second half. bolton are a difficult side to play. you have to match them physically first but we did that and then we played some football. we had a slow first 45 minutes when we looked a bit tired but we got going after that. the scoreline flattered them and we could have had one or two more goals. newcastle: given carr boumsong bramble babayaro dyer faye bowyer robert (jenas 77) ameobi shearer. subs not used: butt harper milner hughes. goals: bowyer 35 dyer 69. bolton: jaaskelainen hunt (fadiga 14) n gotty ben haim candela giannakopoulos okocha (vaz te 77) hierro (campo 64) speed gardner davies. subs not used: jaidi poole. booked: ben haim hierro. goals: giannakopoulos 41. att: 50 430 ref: s dunn (gloucestershire).

sport

brazil plays down varig rescue the brazilian government has played down claims that it could step in to save the country s biggest airline. brazil s airport authority chief carlos wilson had claimed the government was on the brink of stepping in to save varig brazil s flagship airline. however the country s vice president jose alencar has said the government still is looking for a solution. varig is struggling under a huge debt burden of an estimated debt of 6.5 billion reais ($2.3bn or £1.2bn). asked whether a rescue was on the cards following a meeting of the country s congress to discuss the airline s crisis mr alencar replied: no i don t think so. we will see. earlier mr wilson had said that president luiz inacio lula da silva has decided to step in and a decree of some kind of intervention could be signed this week. in practice it will be an intervention although this is not the technical name used he said. an intervention means that the government would take administrative control of the company and its finances. for that to happen varig s main shareholder the non-profit ruben berta foundation which represents the airline s employees would have to be removed mr wilson said. however no jobs would be lost and the airline would keep on flying he added. varig which operates in 18 countries apart from brazil has been driven to the brink of collapse because of the country s economic downturn. the depreciation of brazil s currency has had a direct impact on the airline s dollar debt as well as some of its costs. business has improved recently with demand for air travel increasing and a recovery in the brazilian economy. the airline could also win a sizeable windfall from a compensation claim against the government. on tuesday the courts awarded varig 2bn reais ($725m) after ruling in favour of its compensation claim against the government for freezing tariffs from 1985 to 1992. but the government can appeal the decision.

business

rivals of the £400 apple... the mac mini is the cheapest apple computer ever. but though it is cheap for a mac how does it compare to pcs that cost about the same amount dot.life tries to find out if you can you get more for your money if you stick with the beige box. an extremely small computer that is designed to bring the macintosh to the masses. apple offer a less powerful mac mini for £339 but the £399 models has a 1.4ghz power pc chip 80 gigabyte hard drive combined cd burner/dvd player. it comes equipped with usb and firewire ports for peripheral connections ethernet port for broadband a port for standard video output and an audio/headphone jack.the machine comes with mac os x the apple operating system the software suite ilife which includes itunes iphoto imovie idvd and garageband. a monitor keyboard or mouse. there is also no built-in support for wireless technology or any speakers. the lack of a dvd burner is an omission in the age of backing-up important software. wireless and a dvd burner can be added at extra cost. apple are targeting people who already have a main computer and want to upgrade - especially pc users who have used an apple ipod. compact and stylish the mac mini would not look out of place in any home. apple computers are famously user friendly and offer much better network security which means fewer viruses. the package of software that comes with the machine is the best money can buy. the mac mini is just a box. if you don t already have a monitor etc adding them to the package sees the value for money begin to dwindle. macs don t offer the upgrade flexibility of a pc and the machine s specifications lack the horse power for tasks such as high-end video editing or games. the mac mini puts the macintosh within the reach of everyone an apple spokesman said. it will bring more customers to the platform especially pc users and owners. an entry-level machine designed for basic home use. a 2.6ghz intel celeron chip 40 gigabyte hard drive 256mb combined cd burner/dvd player. it comes equipped with a 17 inch monitor keyboard and mouse. the machine has 6 usb ports and an ethernet port for broadband connection. there s also a port for standard video output. the machine comes with windows xp home edition. it provides basic home tools such as a media player and word processor. a dvd burner or any wireless components built in. wireless and a dvd burner can be added at extra cost. homes and small offices including those looking to add a low cost second computer. cost is the clear advantage. the dell provides enough power and software for basic gaming and internet surfing. it s easily upgradeable so a bigger hard drive better sound and graphics cards can be added. the dell is hardly stylish and the hard drive is on the small size for anyone wanting to store photos or a decent sized digital music collection. this machine is for small businesses and for people who want a second computer for basic home use perhaps in a kids bedroom a spokesman for dell said. i think we offer better value once you realise all the extras needed for the mac mini. a desktop computer that pc pro magazine dubbed best performer in a group test of machines that cost only £399 (£469 including vat). a good basic pc that according to pc pro has superb upgrade potential . for your money you get a 1.8ghz amd sempron processor 512mb of ram 120gb hard drive dvd writer 16-inch monitor mouse keyboard and windows xp2 much more than the basics. it cannot handle 3d graphics and has no firewire slots. those on a limited budget who want a machine they can add to and improve as their cash allows. it s cheap and has plenty of room to improve but that could end up making it expensive in the long run. it s a good basic workhorse. it s not pretty and has a monitor rather than a flat-panel display. some of the upgrades offered by jal to the basic model are pricey. you might find that you want to chop and change quite quickly. nick ross deputy labs editor at pc pro said the important point about buying a cheap and cheerful pc is the upgrade path. interest has switched from processor power to graphics and sound cards as that s what makes the difference in games. even manufacturers are not going to be marketing machines as faster he said they ll emphasise the different features. a computer built from bits you buy and put together yourself. a surprisingly good pc sporting an amd athlon xp 2500 processor 512 megabytes ram a graphics card with 128 ram on board plus tv out a 40 gb hard drive cd-writer and dvd player windows xp home. anything else. you re building it so you have to buy all the software you want to install and do your own trouble-shooting and tech support. building your own machine is easier than it used to be but you need to read specifications carefully to make sure all parts work together. experienced and keen pc users. building your own pc or upgrading the one you have is a great way to improve your understanding of how it all works. it s cheap you can specify exactly what you want and you get the thrill of putting it together yourself. and a bigger thrill if everything works as it should. once it s built you won t be able to do much with it until you start buying software for it. if it starts to go wrong it might take a lot of fixing. as gavin cox of the excellent buildyourown.org.uk website put it: it will be tough to obtain/build a pc to ever be as compact and charming as the mac mini. performance-wise it s not cutting edge and is barely entry-level by today s market but up against the mac mini i believe it will hold its own and even pull a few more tricks says gavin cox. the good news is that the machine is eminently expandable. by contrast says mr cox the mac mini is almost disposable.

tech

public show for reynolds portrait sir joshua reynolds portrait of omai will get a public airing following fears it would stay hidden because of an export wrangle. the tate gallery unsuccessfully tried to buy the picture from its anonymous owner after a ban was issued preventing the painting from leaving the uk. the 18th century painting has remained in storage but the owner has agreed to allow it to be part of an exhibition. the exhibition of reynolds work will be shown at tate britain from may. joshua reynolds: the creation of celebrity will feature prints caricatures and sculpture by the 18th century artist who painted some of the most famous personalities of his day. portrait of omai fetched the second highest amount for a british painting when it was sold at auction for £10.3m in 2001. it was bought by a london dealer who sold it on to a collector. the unnamed collector wanted to take it out of the country but was barred from doing so by the government because of its historical significance. in march 2004 the tate managed to raise £12.5m funding to buy the portrait but the owner refused to sell and it has been held in storage since. the portrait is of a young man who was dubbed the noble savage when he arrived in london from polynesia. he became a darling of london society and was invited to all the best parties by people who were fascinated by such an exotic character. sir joshua painted him after his arrival in 1774 and it became the artist s most famous work after it was first exhibited at the royal academy in 1776.

entertainment

putin backs state grab for yukos russia s president has defended the purchase of yukos key production unit by state-owned oil firm rosneft saying it followed free market principles. vladimir putin said it was quite within the rights of a state-owned company to ensure its interests were met. rosneft bought 100% of baikal finance group in a move that amounts to the renationalisation of a major chunk of russia s booming oil industry. rosneft will now control about 16% of russia s total crude oil output. yukos share jumped in moscow climbing as much as 50% before being suspended. rosneft is already in the process of merging with gazprom the world s biggest gas company a move that will see gazprom return to majority state-ownership. baikal was the surprise buyer of oil and gas giant yukos s main production division at a forced auction on sunday. everything was done by market methods mr putin said at his year-end press conference in moscow. shedding some light on the kremlin s motivation mr putin referred to a period of so-called cowboy capitalism that followed the collapse of the soviet union. he said privatisations carried out in the early 1990s had involved trickery including law breaking by people seeking to acquire valuable state property. now the state using market methods is safeguarding its interests. i think this is quite normal the russian president said. a rosneft spokesman has said the acquisition is part of its plan to build a balanced national energy corporation. the latest announcement comes after more than a year of wrangling that has pushed yukos one of russia s biggest companies to the brink of collapse. the russian government put yukos s yuganskneftegas subsidiary up for sale last week after hitting the company with a $27bn (£14bn) bill for back taxes and fines. analysts say that yukos s legal attempts to block the auction by filing for bankruptcy protection in the us are probably what caused this week s cloak-and-dagger dealings. gazprom the company originally tipped to buy yuganskneftegas was banned from taking part in the auction by a us court injunction. by selling the yukos unit to little-known baikal and then to rosneft russia is able to circumvent a host of tricky legal landmines analysts said. you cannot sue the russian government said eric kraus a strategist at moscow s sovlink securities. the russian government has sovereign immunity. the government is renationalising yuganskneftegas. even so analysts reckon that the saga still has a long way to go. the rosneft announcement came just hours after yukos accused gazprom of illegally taking part in sunday s auction. it has said it will be seeking damages of $20bn. the claim was made at the latest hearing in the us bankruptcy court in houston texas where yukos had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. if found in contempt of the us court order blocking the auction gazprom could face having foreign assets seized. yukos lawyers had also been expected to try to have baikal s assets frozen. lawyers claimed the auction was illegal because yukos - with an office in houston - had filed for bankruptcy and therefore its assets were under the protection of us law which has worldwide jurisdiction. further muddying the waters is a merger between rosneft and gazprom which authorities have said will go ahead as planned.

business

deutsche boerse boosts dividend deutsche boerse the german stock exchange that is trying to buy its london rival has said it will boost its 2004 dividend payment by 27%. analysts said that the move is aimed at winning over investors opposed to its bid for the london stock exchange. critics of the takeover have complained that the money could be better used by returning cash to shareholders. deutsche boerse also said profit in the three months to 31 december was 120.7m euros ($158.8m; £83.3m). sales climbed to 364.4m euros lifting revenue for the year to a record 1.45bn euros. frankfurt-based deutsche boerse has offered £1.3bn ($2.48bn; 1.88bn euros) for the london stock exchange. rival pan-european bourse euronext is working also on a bid. late on monday deutsche boerse said it would lift its 2004 dividend payment to 70 euro cents (£0.48; $0.98) from 55 euro cents a year earlier. there is a whiff of a sweetener in there anais faraj an analyst at nomura told the bbc s world business report. most of the disgruntled shareholders of deutsche boerse are complaining that the money that is being used for the bid could be better placed in their hands paid out in dividends mr faraj continued. deutsche boerse is trying to buy them off in a sense he said.

business

doves soar to uk album summit manchester rock band doves have entered the uk album chart at number one with their new release some cities. the trio replace flamboyant us act scissor sisters at the top. the album follows single black and white town which reached number six. r&b star nelly has the new number one single with over and over which sees him team up with tim mcgraw. girls aloud akon and kaiser chiefs all have new singles in the top ten as do futureheads and usher. the latest elvis presley re-release (marie s the name) his latest flame entered the chart at number three one place ahead of girls aloud s wake me up. hip-hop performer akon s locked up is at number five while hotly-tipped leeds band kaiser chiefs have their second chart hit at number six with oh my god. futureheads cover of kate bush s hounds of love entered the chart at number eight while usher s caught up was a new entry at number nine. in the album chart operatic quartet il divo s eponymous debut rose 23 places to number six while crooner tony christie s definitive collection is a new entry at number 10 making it the highest-charting album of the singer s career.

entertainment

asian quake hits european shares shares in europe s leading reinsurers and travel firms have fallen as the scale of the damage wrought by tsunamis across south asia has become apparent. more than 23 000 people have been killed following a massive underwater earthquake and many of the worst hit areas are popular tourist destinations. reisurance firms such as swiss re and munich re lost value as investors worried about rebuilding costs. but the disaster has little impact on stock markets in the us and asia. currencies including the thai baht and indonesian rupiah weakened as analysts warned that economic growth may slow. it came at the worst possible time said hans goetti a singapore-based fund manager. the impact on the tourist industry is pretty devastating especially in thailand. travel-related shares dropped in europe with companies such as germany s tui and lufthansa and france s club mediterranne sliding. insurers and reinsurance firms were also under pressure in europe. shares in munich re and swiss re - the world s two biggest reinsurers - both fell 1.7% as the market speculated about the cost of rebuilding in asia. zurich financial allianz and axa also suffered a decline in value. however their losses were much smaller reflecting the market s view that reinsurers were likely to pick up the bulk of the costs. worries about the size of insurance liabilities dragged european shares down although the impact was exacerbated by light post-christmas trading. germany s benchmark dax index closed the day 16.29 points lower at 3.817.69 while france s cac index of leading shares fell 5.07 points to 3.817.69. investors pointed out however that declines probably would be industry specific with the travel and insurance firms hit hardest. it s still too early for concrete damage figures swiss re s spokesman floiran woest told associated press. that also has to do with the fact that the damage is very widely spread geographically. the unfolding scale of the disaster in south asia had little immediate impact on us shares however. the dow jones index had risen 20.54 points or 0.2% to 10 847.66 by late morning as analsyts were cheered by more encouraging reports from retailers about post-christmas sales. in asian markets adjustments were made quickly to account for lower earnings and the cost of repairs. thai airways shed almost 4%. the country relies on tourism for about 6% of its total economy. singapore airlines dropped 2.6%. about 5% of singapore s annual gross domestic product (gdp) comes from tourism. malaysia s budget airline airasia fell 2.9%. resort operator tanco holdings slumped 5%. travel companies also took a hit with japan s kinki nippon sliding 1.5% and his dropping 3.3%. however the overall impact on asia s largest stock market japan s nikkei was slight. shares fell just 0.03%. concerns about the strength of economic growth going forward weighed on the currency markets. the indonesian rupiah lost as much as 0.6% against the us dollar before bouncing back slightly to trade at 9 300. the thai baht lost 0.3% against the us currency trading at 39.10. in india where more than 2 000 people are thought to have died the rupee shed 0.1% against the dollar analysts said that it was difficult to predict the total cost of the disaster and warned that share prices and currencies would come under increasing pressure as the bills mounted.

business

the comic book genius of stan lee stan lee the man responsible for a string of comic superheroes that have become household names has won a court battle for a slice of the profits from the hit spider-man movies. many marvel at the man who gave his characters extraordinary powers and everyday headaches - a formula which revolutionised comics. born in 1922 to poor working-class jewish immigrants from romania stan lieberman got a job in timely publications a company owned by a relative. he was assigned to the comics division and - thanks to a fertile imagination - rose to editor by the age of 18. for more than 20 years he was the ultimate hack - knocking out crime stories horrors westerns anything to sate the appetite of his juvenile readership. words of more than two syllables were discouraged. characters were either all good or bad with no shades of grey. so embarrassed was lieberman by much of what he was writing that he refused to put his real name on the byline. he assumed the dumb name stan lee now legally adopted. by the time he was 40 lee had decided he was too old for the comic game. his british-born wife joan suggested he had nothing to lose and for his swansong should write the kind of characters he really wanted to create. after a rival comic had come up with a superteam consisting of batman superman and wonder woman timely needed to respond. lee s answer in 1961 was the fantastic four - a team of astronauts who gained super powers after being bombarded with cosmic rays. they were to change lee s life and the comics industry forever. lee gave each character individual everyday teenage problems such as dandruff ingrown toenails and acne. they would frequently fall out with their parents and each other. the fan letters poured in. without immediately knowing it stan lee had ushered in the golden age of comics and his imagination was rekindled. his marvel universe spawned the new title of marvel comics. soon after nerdy peter parker was transformed - after a bite from an irradiated spider - into someone who could crawl up the sides of new york s skyscrapers. spider-man was born. he was to become an icon of modern popular culture. spidey as he is affectionately known had quite extraordinary powers - yet he had problems at work at home and with his girlfriends. at last the teenager was no longer just the sidekick but the main hero. and the hero was no longer just brawn he had brains too. just because he s a hero and has super powers doesn t mean he doesn t have problems stan lee told the bbc. the incredible hulk the mighty thor iron man and the rest all grappled with problems like drug abuse bigotry and social inequality. radically lee gave the artists responsible for the comic designs credits for their work. jack kirby frank miller john romitaand and others achieved cult status in their own right. other superheroes broke new ground in other ways. daredevil was blind black panther was black and silver surfer pondered the state of humanity. lee s influence remains. some years ago the marvel hero northstar came out of the closet. in its heyday marvel was selling 50 million copies a year. until he retired from editing in 1971 stan lee wrote all the copy for marvel s covers. in 1999 his stan lee media venture aimed at marrying comic-strips with the internet went spectacularly wrong. lee went bankrupt and his business partner landed in prison for fraud. in 2001 though he started a new company entitled pow! (purveyors of wonder) entertainment which is currently developing films and television programmes. his latest project is a superhero based on a real person - jay j armes who has metal claws after losing both hands aged 12 and fights crime with a tiger. but his 40-year-old creations are still as enduring as ever - with x-men the hulk and daredevil have all been turned into hollywood action movies in the last five years. but spider-man has been the biggest box office hit with the 2002 original and its 2004 sequel taking almost $1.6bn (£857m) in ticket sales around the world - before dvd and merchandise sales are counted. it seems stan lee is as indestructible as his heroes.

entertainment

berlin honours s korean director south korean film director im kwon-taek has received an honorary golden bear at the berlin film festival. im who has made more than 100 films in a 40-year career was hailed for his remarkable visual beauty technical innovation and intellectual depth . twenty of his films are screening in a special retrospective during the festival which runs until 20 february. the veteran film-maker 68 won the best director prize at the cannes film festival in 2002 for chihwaseon. although his films vary in style they all bear his unmistakable stamp: they are forceful and charged cinematographically as well as reticent stylised and musical organisers said in a statement. meanwhile a film version of bizet s opera carmen - translated into the south african language xhosa - has received a warm reception at the festival. u-carmen ekhayelitsha (carmen in khayelitsha) which is one of 21 films up for berlin s top prize the golden bear is british director mark dornford-may s first feature film. it s the first time any opera has been translated into a black south african language. xhosa works brilliantly it s such a musical language said music director charles hazlewood.

entertainment

ukip could sue veritas defectors the uk independence party could take legal action to unseat two london assembly members who defected to robert kilroy silk s veritas party. damian hockney now veritas deputy leader and peter hulme-cross were elected in 2004 on the list system. the party argues the pair should give up their seats as they won them as ukip representatives not as individuals. mr hockney said the law was clear that those elected on a list who quit their party should keep their seats. ukip chairman petrina holdsworth urged the men to step down from the gla in a letter. she said: the party has taken legal advice and it is clear that we could take legal proceedings against you which could result in the return of our seats and/or damages against you. we would however like you to be given an opportunity to reflect on what you have done to restore your own credibility with the electorate and return the seats to the party which won them fair and square at the last election. mr hockney said the law worked in exactly the same way for the gla as it did for other electoral list systems. the greater london act is clear that if someone resigns who was elected on a list their party whip the seat belongs to them and not the party. he said mr hulme-cross and himself had no intention of resigning and added that they felt that it was ukip who were not being true to the electorate. he accused the party of signing up to a deal with the tories in europe rather than sticking to an independent stance. but the claim was denied by ukip spokesman who said: mr hockney s accusations are like his sense of political morals - empty. veritas was formed by mr kilroy-silk earlier this month after he quit ukip following an unsuccessful bid to take over as leader.

politics

us insurer marsh cuts 2 500 jobs up to 2 500 jobs are to go at us insurance broker marsh & mclennan in a shake up following bigger-than-expected losses. the insurer said the cuts were part of a cost-cutting drive aimed at saving millions of dollars. marsh posted a $676m (£352m) loss for the last three months of 2004 against a $375m (£195.3m) profit a year before. it blamed an $850m payout to settle a price-rigging lawsuit brought by new york attorney general elliot spitzer. under the settlement announced in january marsh took a pre-tax charge of $618m in the october-to-december quarter on top of the $232m charge from the previous quarter. clearly 2004 was the most difficult year in mmc s financial history marsh chief executive michael cherkasky said. an ongoing restructuring drive at the group also led to a $337m hit in the fourth quarter the world s biggest insurer said. analysts expect its latest round of cuts to focus on its brokerage unit which employs 40 000 staff. the latest layoffs will take the total number of jobs to go at the firm to 5 500 and are expected to lead to annual savings of more than $375m. as part of its efforts to cut costs the company said it was halving its dividend payment to 17 cents a shares from 34 cents a move which should enable it to save $360m. looking ahead mr cherkasky forecast profitable growth for the year ahead with an operating margin in the upper-teens and with the opportunity for further margin expansion . meanwhile the company also announced it would spin-off its mmc capital private equity unit which manages the $3bn trident funds operation to a group of employees. marsh did not say when the move would take place but said it had signed a letter of intent. the insurer hit the headlines in october last year when it faced accusations of price rigging. new york attorney general elliot spitzer sued the company accusing it of receiving illegal payments to steer clients to selected firms as well as rigging bids and fixing prices. in january marsh agreed to pay $850m to settle the suit - a figure in line with the placement fees it collected in 2003 - and agreed to change its business practices. in february a former senior executive pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a wide-ranging probe of fraud and bid-rigging in the insurance industry. in january a former senior vice president also pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the investigation. in an effort to reform its business practises marsh said it has already introduced new leadership new compliance procedures and new ways of dealing with customers. as a result we are ready to put these matters behind us and move ahead in 2005 to restore the trust our clients have placed in us and to rebuild shareholder value mr cherkasky said.

business

glasgow hosts tsunami benefit gig the top names in scottish music are taking part in a benefit concert in aid of the victims of the asian tsunami. all 10 000 tickets for saturday s concert featuring franz ferdinand belle and sebastian and travis at glasgow s secc sold out in 36 hours. mull historical society deacon blue idlewild texas mogwai and teenage fanclub are among the other acts performing at the concert. organisers hope to raise at least £250 000 from the show. it follows a cardiff gig starring eric clapton keane and jools holland which raised more than £1.25m. and it is taking place on the same night as a tsunami benefit show in bristol which will see massive attack and portishead share a stage for the first time. colin macintyre of mull historical society was playing another gig on the same day but said he was determined to make the glasgow benefit. he said: i think we were all affected by seeing the reports coming from the far east. we all know somebody who was there but more than that it was that we had never seen a wave of destruction a natural disaster like this in my generation. i m lucky as an artist to be able to perform at something like this.

entertainment

pm apology over jailings tony blair has apologised to two families who suffered one of the uk s biggest miscarriages of justice. the prime minister was commenting on the wrongful jailing of 11 people for ira bomb attacks on pubs in guildford and woolwich in 1974. mr blair said: i am very sorry that they were subject to such an ordeal and injustice. he made the apology to members of the conlon and maguire families in his private room at westminster. in a statement recorded for television mr blair said the families deserved to be completely and publicly exonerated . the families had hoped the apology would be made during prime minister s questions in the house of commons. however one of the so-called guildford four gerry conlon - who was wrongly convicted of planting the bombs - said the families were delighted with the apology. he said mr blair had spoken with such sincerity adding: he went beyond what we thought he would he took time to listen to everyone. you could see he was moved by what people were saying. tony blair has healed rifts he is helping to heal wounds. it s a day i never thought would come. the move followed a huge campaign in ireland for a public apology after eleven people were wrongly convicted of making and planting the ira bombs which killed seven people. mr blair s official spokesman said no-one present at the meeting would ever forget the strength of feeling of relief that the prime minister s statement brought to them . most of those convicted were either members or friends of the two families. all were arrested because of a family connection to gerry conlon. mr conlon s father giuseppe was arrested when travelling to london from belfast to help his son. he died while serving his sentence. also arrested were anne maguire and members of her family. mrs maguire was the relative with whom giuseppe planned to stay in london as well as two family friends. she said it was a wonderful feeling to have had the apology and that a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. the people who were still doubting us should now believe that we were totally innocent she said. they were all jailed for handling explosives based on scientific evidence which was later entirely discredited. in october 1989 the court of appeal quashed the sentences of the guildford four and in june 1991 it overturned the sentences on the maguire seven. mr conlon s case was highlighted in the oscar-nominated film in the name of the father starring daniel day-lewis.

politics

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

politics

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

business

norway upholds napster ruling a norwegian student who ran a website which linked to downloadable mp3 files has been ordered to pay compensation by the country s supreme court. frank allan bruvik was ordered to pay 100 000 kroner (£8 000) to the music industry in norway. he was a student when he set up his napster.no site which allowed users to submit and receive links to mp3 files. bruvik had earlier been cleared on appeal after a lower court had found for the music industry. music industry bosses in norway said the ruling would help build confidence in the internet as a distribution medium. frank allan bruvik set up the napster.no website as part of a school project in 2001 while studying computer engineering in the norwegian town of lillehammer. the website was not associated with the napster.com site in the usa which had been operating since 1999 and was already facing legal action. bruvik s site was online between august and november 2001 and while it did not host any music at its peak it was providing links to more than 170 free files on other servers. as well as providing links the site allowed those visiting it to submit links that could later be accessed by other visitors. a legal complaint for copyright violation was filed by groups including norway s performing rights society tono and the norwegian branches of sony music and universal music who saw it as an important test of principle. a norwegian court ruled in 2003 that bruvik would have to pay 100 000 kroner to the music industry but the country s court of appeal cleared him saying that the copyright violation occurred when others posted the music. however the supreme court stated that the music was clearly published in violation of copyright law it added that the case was decided based on the responsibility for abetting an illegal act and that bruvik s actions were premeditated. norway s music industry said it was satisfied with the ruling because showed that music piracy would not be accepted. meanwhile in the usa a further 717 lawsuits against people alleged to have traded copyrighted songs were filed this week by the recording industry association of america. the suits brought on behalf of the major record companies cite the individuals for illegally distributing music via unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as kazaa and edonkey. as with preceding cases the fresh action was made against so-called john doe defendants who are identified only by the codes given to their computers internet connections.

tech

saudi investor picks up the savoy london s famous savoy hotel has been sold to a group combining saudi billionaire investor prince alwaleed bin talal and a unit of hbos bank. financial details of the deal which includes the nearby simpson s in the strand restaurant were not disclosed. the seller - irish-based property firm quinlan private - bought the savoy along with the berkeley claridge s and the connaught for £750m last year. prince alwaleed s hotel investments include the luxury george v in paris. he also has substantial stakes in fairmont hotels & resorts which will manage the savoy and simpson s in the strand and four seasons. fairmont said it planned to invest $48m (£26m) in renovating parts of the savoy including the river room and suites with views over the river thames. work was expected to be completed by summer 2006 fairmont said.

business

nintendo ds makes its euro debut nintendo s ds handheld game console has officially gone on sale in europe. many stores around the uk opened at midnight to let keen gamers get their hands on the device. the two-screen clamshell gadget costs £99 (149 euros) and 15 games are available for it at launch some featuring well-known characters such as super mario and rayman. the ds spearheads nintendo s attempt to continue its dominance of the handheld gaming market. since going on sale in japan and the us at the end of 2004 nintendo has sold almost 4m ds consoles. part of this popularity may be due to the fact that the ds can run any of the catalogue of 700 games produced for nintendo s gameboy advance handheld. games for the ds are expected to cost between £19 and £29. about 130 games for the ds are in development. as well as having two screens one of which is controlled by touch the ds also lets players take on up to 16 other people via wireless. a download play option means ds owners can take each other on even if only one of them owns a copy of a particular game. other ds owners can also be sent text messages and drawings. nintendo is also planning to release a media adapter for the handheld so it can play music and video. five virgin megastores and 150 game shops were expected to open early on friday morning to let people buy a ds. we know that customers want it as soon as it s released - and that means the minute not the day said robert quinn game s uk sales director. but nintendo will only have sole control of europe s handheld gaming market for a few weeks because soon sony is expected to release its psp console. although nintendo is aiming for younger players and the psp is more for older gamers it is likely that the two firms will be competing for many of the same customers. sony s psp represents a real threat to nintendo because of the huge number of playstation owners around the world and the greater flexibility of the sleek black gadget. the psp uses small discs for games can play music and movies without the need for add-ons and also supports short-range wireless play. when it goes on sale the psp is likely to cost between £130 and £200.

tech

white admits to balco drugs link banned american sprinter kelli white says she knowingly took steroids given to her by bay area lab co-operative (balco) president victor conte. conte faces a federal trial next year on charges of distributing steroids and tax evasion and white said at first he tried to cover up what he was doing. he s the one who told me that it wasn t what he said it was white said in the san francisco chronicle. but she added: it was my decision to go to him not anybody else s. white said conte at first told her the substance was flaxseed oil only to change his story later. white failed a drugs test after winning the 100m and 200m titles at the 2003 world athletics championships. she was subsequently handed a two-year ban in may this year and has admitted taking the stimulant modafinil. at first white claimed she took the drug to combat narcolepsy but she now takes full responsibility for her actions. my whole belief about victor is that he was selling a product white said in the la times. whether it be a good product or a bad product he was selling a product. white was introduced to conte through her coach remy korchemy who is also a defendant in the balco case. the 27-year-old believes doping is so common in sport she felt compelled to cheat herself if she was to have any chance of winning. i have no clue what it s going to take to change that said white. i would say i made a mistake and i would never ever go back. i would never recommend anyone to take that route.

sport

spam e-mails tempt net shoppers computer users across the world continue to ignore security warnings about spam e-mails and are being lured into buying goods a report suggests. more than a quarter have bought software through spam e-mails and 24% have bought clothes or jewellery. as well as profiting from selling goods or services and driving advertising traffic organised crime rings can use spam to glean personal information. the business software alliance (bsa) warned that people should stay alert . many online consumers don t consider the true motives of spammers said mike newton a spokesperson for the bsa which commissioned the survey. by selling software that appears to be legitimate in genuine looking packaging or through sophisticated websites spammers are hiding spyware without consumers knowledge. once the software is installed on pcs and networks information that is given over the internet can be obtained and abused. the results also showed that the proportion of people reading - or admitting to reading - and taking advantage of adult entertainment spam e-mails is low at one in 10. the research which covered 6 000 people in six countries and their attitudes towards junk e-mails revealed that brazilians were the most likely to read spam. a third of them read unsolicited junk e-mail and 66% buy goods or services after receiving spam. the french were the second most likely to buy something (48%) with 44% of britons taking advantage of products and services. this was despite 38% of people in all countries being worried about their net security because of the amount of spam they get. more than a third of respondents said they were concerned that spam e-mails contained viruses or programs that attempted to collect personal information. both industry and the media have helped to raise awareness of the issues that surround illegitimate e-mail helping to reduce the potential financial damage and nuisance from phishing attacks and spoof websites said william plante director of corporate security and fraud protection at security firm symantec. at the same time consumers need to continue exercising caution and protect themselves from harm with a mixture of spam filters spyware detection software and sound judgement.

tech

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

sport

gadget growth fuels eco concerns technology firms and gadget lovers are being urged to think more about the environment when buying and disposing of the latest hi-tech products. at the consumer electronics show in las vegas earlier this month several hi-tech firms were recognised for their strategies to help the environment. ebay also announced the rethink project bringing together intel apple and ibm among others to promote recycling. the us consumer electronics market is set to grow by over 11% in 2005. but more awareness is needed about how and where old gadgets can be recycled as well as how to be more energy efficient said the us environmental protection agency (epa). of particular growing concern is how much energy it takes to recharge portable devices one of the fastest growing markets in technology. the consumer electronics association (cea) has predicted that shipments of consumer technologies in 2005 will reach more than $125.73 billion (nearly £68 billion). ebay s initiative pulls together major technology firms environment groups government agencies and ebay users to give information about what to do with old computers and where to send them. the online auction house thinks that its already-established community of loyal users could be influential. we really became aware of the e-waste issue and we saw that our 125 million users can be a powerful force for good ebay s david stern told the bbc news website. we saw the opportunity to meet the additional demand we have on the site for used computers and saw the opportunity too to good some good for the environment. but it is not just computers that cause a problem for the environment. teenagers get a new mobile every 11 months adults every 18 months and a 15 million handsets are replaced in total each year. yet only 15% are actually recycled. this year a predicted two billion people worldwide will own a mobile according to a deloitte report. schemes in the us like ripmobile could help in targeting younger generations with recycling messages. the initiative which was also launched at ces rewards 10 to 28-year-olds for returning unused phones. this system allows for the transformation of a drawer full of unused mobile phones into anything from music to clothes to electronics or games said seth heine from ripmobile. one group of students collected 1 000 mobiles for recycling in just three months. mr heine told the bbc news website that what was important was to raise awareness amongst the young so that recycling becomes learned behaviour . europe is undoubtedly more advanced than the us in terms of recycling awareness and robust end of life programmes although there is a tide change happening in the rest of the world too. intel showcased some its motherboards and chips at ces which are entirely lead free. there is more and more awareness on the consumer side but the whole industry is moving towards being lead free intel s allen wilson told the bbc news website. there is still low-level awareness right now but it is on the rise - the highest level of awareness is in europe. a european union (eu) directive weee (waste electronic and electrical equipment) comes into effect in august. it puts the responsibility on electrical manufacturers to recycle items that are returned to them. but developments are also being made to design better technologies which are more energy efficient and which do not contain harmful substances. elements like chromium lead and cadmium - common in consumer electronics goods - will be prohibited in all products in the eu by 2006. but it is not just about recycling either. the predicted huge growth in the gadget market means the amount of energy used to power them up is on the rise too. the biggest culprit according to the epa is the innocuous power adaptor nicknamed energy vampires . they provide vital juice for billions of mobile phones pdas (personal digital assistants) digital cameras camcorders and digital music players. although there is a focus on developing efficient and improved circuits in the devices themselves the technologies inside rechargers are still outdated and so eat up more energy than is needed to power a gadget. on 1 january new efficiency standards for external power supplies came into effect as part of the european commission code of conduct. but at ces the epa also unveiled new guidelines for its latest energy star initiative which targets external power adapters. these map out the framework for developing better adaptors that can be labelled with an energy star logo meaning they are about 35% more efficient. the initiative is a global effort and more manufacturers adaptors are being brought on board. most are made in china. about two billion are shipped global every year and about three billion are in use in the us alone. the epa is already working with several companies which make more than 22% of power supplies on the market. we are increasingly finding companies that not only want to provide neat hi-tech devices but also bundle with it a hi-tech efficient power supply the epa s andrew fanara said. initiatives like this are critical; if power adaptors continue to be made and used as they are now consumer electronics and other small appliances will be responsible for more than 40% of electricity used in us homes said the epa.

tech

blair returns from peace mission prime minister tony blair has arrived back from his diplomatic mission to the middle east to try to resurrect the peace process. mr blair held talks with his israeli counterpart ariel sharon and the palestinian leader mahmoud abbas. he confirmed that a renewed drive to reform the palestinian authority and address security issues would come at a london conference in march. mr blair also made a surprise trip to iraq this week. the israelis described the meeting as important but said they would not need to attend. mr blair briefly visited the tomb of yasser arafat in ramallah - the first world leader to do so. he nodded briefly towards the tomb rather than lay a wreath in what palestinian officials said was a compromise gesture agreed at the last minute. the bbc s paul reynolds says the london conference will be a limited measure to shore up the leadership of mahmoud abbas also known as abu mazen who is expected to win the palestinian presidential election on 9 january. at a news conference following talks with mr blair mr abbas said the british prime minister was in a unique position to help us progress in our peaceful pursuit . he added: your endeavour to hold a conference in london is another example of your deep commitment to this purpose. in an interview with the bbc s political editor andrew marr mr blair said getting progress between israelis and palestinians would be tough but at least we have got the first step . mr blair acknowledged some people believed he was too close to the israelis but said the israelis were entitled to expect palestinians to give up terrorism. he argued that mr sharon was committed to the internationally-agreed roadmap peace plan and said his bid to disengage from gaza had to be part of the peace process not the end of it. earlier mr sharon again said he had not seen the slightest step the palestinians were working to end terror attacks - though he acknowledged palestinian leaders were in the middle of an election campaign that could be hampering their efforts. before visiting israel mr blair made a surprise visit to iraq where he met leaders in baghdad during his first trip to the city. he was briefed on preparations for the national poll which is scheduled for next month but is threatened by a deadly campaign of insurgent violence. he also flew to basra in southern iraq where british forces are stationed.

politics

us to rule on yukos refuge call yukos has said a us bankruptcy court will decide whether to block russia s impending auction of its main production arm on thursday. the russian oil firm has filed for bankruptcy protection in the us in an attempt to halt the forced sale. however judge letitia clark said the hearing would continue on thursday when arguments in the case would be heard. russian authorities are due to auction off yuganskneftegas on 19 december to pay a huge tax bill sent to yukos. russian prosecutors are forcing the sale of the firm s most lucrative asset yuganskneftegas to help pay a $27bn (£14bn) back tax bill which they claim is owed by yukos. filing for bankruptcy protection in the us was a last resort to preserve the rights of our shareholders employees and customers said yukos chief executive steven theede. the company added it had opted to take action through american courts as us bankruptcy law gives worldwide jurisdiction over a debtor company s property and because it was seeking a judiciary willing to protect the value of shareholders investments. however as the firm is based in russia and has no significant us assets lawyers are unsure of the outcome of the case. we are here to stop 60% of our body from being cut off on sunday zack clement a lawyer for yukos told judge clark in an emergency hearing in houston texas on wednesday. as well as the bid to get chapter 11 bankruptcy - which protects firms from creditors allowing them to continue trading as they restructure their finances - the group also made a claim for damages against the russian government. yukos asked the houston court to order russia to arbitration so that it can press claims for billions of dollars in damages over a campaign of illegal discriminatory and disproportionate tax claims. mr clement said that under russian law the russian government was obliged to enter into arbitration as set out in international law. he added that the opening bid for the firm s yuganskneftgas unit was $8bn - less than half of the $20bn that yukos advisers say it is worth. we believe the only significant bidder at the auction on sunday is gazprom he said referring to russia s natural gas giant. yukos maintains that the forced auction is illegal and will cause the company to suffer immediate and irreparable harm. many commentators believe the russian government s aggressive pursuit of yukos is a politically-motivated response to the political ambitions of its former chief executive mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky who had funded liberal opposition groups was arrested in october last year on fraud and tax evasion charges and is still in jail analysts believe that if its production unit is auctioned off it is likely to be bought up by a government-backed firm like gazprom effectively bringing a large chunk of russia s lucrative oil and gas industry back under state control.

business

disney backs sony dvd technology a next generation dvd technology backed by sony has received a major boost. film giant disney says it will produce its future dvds using sony s blu-ray disc technology but has not ruled out a rival format developed by toshiba. the two competing dvd formats blu-ray developed by sony and others and toshiba s hd-dvd have been courting top film studios for several months. the next generation of dvds promises very high quality pictures and sound as well as a lot of data. both technologies use a blue laser to write information. it has a shorter wavelength so more data can be stored. disney is the latest studio to announce which technology it is backing in a format battle which mirrors the 1980s betamax versus vhs war. sony lost out to jvc in that fight. the current battle for hollywood s hearts and minds is a crucial one because high-definition films will bring in billions of revenue and the studios would prefer to use one standard. last month paramount universal and warner brothers said they were opting for the toshiba and nec-backed format hd-dvd high-definition discs. those studios currently produce about 45% of dvd content. sony pictures entertainment and mgm studios have already staked their allegiance with the blu-ray disc association whose members also include technology companies dell samsung and matsushita. twentieth century fox is still to announce which technology it will be supporting. if fox decided to go with blu-ray too it would mean the format would have a 47% share of dvd content. disney said its films would be available on the blu-ray format when dvd players for the standard went on sale on north america and japan expected in 2006. universal is to start producing films on the hd-dvd format in 2005 and paramount will start releasing titles using the standard in 2006. toshiba expects sales of hd-dvds to reach 300bn yen ($2.9bn £1.5bn) by 2010.

tech

fao warns on impact of subsidies billions of farmers livelihoods are at risk from falling commodity prices and protectionism the un s food & agriculture organisation has warned. trade barriers and subsidies severely distort the market the fao report on the state of agricultural commodity markets 2004 said. as a result the 2.5 billion people in the developing world who rely on farming face food insecurity. the most endangered are those who live in the least-developed countries. the fao report said that support for farmers in industrialised nations was equivalent to 30 times the amount provided as aid for agricultural development in poor countries. the fao has urged the world trade organisation to swiftly conclude negotiations to liberalise trade easing developing countries access to the world market. it also criticised the high tariffs imposed by both developed and developing nations. it recommends that developing countries reduce their own tariffs to encourage trade and take advantage of market liberalisation. according to the organisation subsidies and high tariffs have a strong impact on the trade of products such as cotton and rice. global exports of these products are mainly in the hands of the european union and the us who - thanks to subsidies - sell them at very low prices. in fact almost 30 wealthy nations spend more than $300bn (£158.8bn; 230.9bn euros) in agricultural subsidies. the market situation has divided developing nations in two groups the fao said. the first group have a reasonably diverse range of agricultural products while in the second group agriculture lies largely in the hands of small-scale producers. for 43 developing countries more than 20% of their export incomes come from the sale of just one product. these countries are mainly situated in sub-saharan africa latin america and the caribbean.

business

bank voted 8-1 for no rate change the decision to keep interest rates on hold at 4.75% earlier this month was passed 8-1 by the bank of england s rate-setting body minutes have shown. one member of the bank s monetary policy committee (mpc) - paul tucker - voted to raise rates to 5%. the news surprised some analysts who had expected the latest minutes to show another unanimous decision. worries over growth rates and consumer spending were behind the decision to freeze rates the minutes showed. the bank s latest inflation report released last week had noted that the main reason inflation might fall was weaker consumer spending. however mpc member paul tucker voted for a quarter point rise in interest rates to 5%. he argued that economic growth was picking up and that the equity credit and housing markets had been stronger than expected. the bank s minutes said that risks to the inflation forecast were sufficiently to the downside to keep rates on hold at its latest meeting. however the minutes added: some members noted that an increase might be warranted in due course if the economy evolved in line with the central projection . ross walker uk economist at royal bank of scotland said he was surprised that a dissenting vote had been made so soon. he said the minutes appeared to be trying to get the market to focus on the possibility of a rise in rates . if the economy pans out as they expect then they are probably going to have to hike rates. however he added any rate increase is not likely to happen until later this year with mpc members likely to look for a more sustainable pick up in consumer spending before acting.

business

broadband challenges tv viewing the number of europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months with the web eating into tv viewing habits research suggests. just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband up from 34 million a year ago according to market analysts nielsen/netratings. the total number of people online in europe has broken the 100 million mark. the popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from tv say analysts jupiter research. it found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching tv in favour of the net the report by nielsen/netratings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year. the biggest jump was in italy where it rose by 120%. britain was close behind with broadband users almost doubling in a year. the growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on fast-net subscription plans. twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing said gabrielle prior nielsen/netratings analyst. as the number of high-speed surfers grows websites will need to adapt update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones. the total number of europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year the report showed with the biggest rise in france italy britain and germany. the ability to browse web pages at high speed download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time. a study by analysts jupiter research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. in homes with broadband 40% said they were spending less time watching tv. the threat to tv was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up in particular the uk france and spain said the report. it said tv companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where when and how europe s population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for tv newspaper and radio said jupiter research analyst olivier beauvillian.

tech

games win for blu-ray dvd format the next-generation dvd format blu-ray is winning more supporters than its rival according to its backers. blu-ray backed by 100 firms including sony is competing against toshiba and nec-backed hd-dvd to be the format of choice for future films and games. the blu-ray association said on thursday that games giants electronic arts and vivendi would both support its dvd format. the next generation of dvds will hold high-definition video and sound. this offers incredible 3d-like quality of pictures which major hollywood studios and games publishers are extremely keen to exploit in the coming year. in a separate press conference at the consumer electronics show in las vegas toshiba announced that dvd players for its technology would be on the market by the end of 2005. as we move from standard definition video images to high-definition images we have a much greater need for storage richard doherty from panasonic s hollywood laboratories one of the pioneers of blu-ray told the bbc news website. so by utilising blue laser-based technology we can make an optical laser disc that can hold six times as much as today s dvd. a blu-ray disc will be able to store 50gb of high-quality data while toshiba s hd-dvd will hold 30gb. mr doherty added that it was making sure the discs could satisfy all high-definition needs including the ability to record onto the dvds and smaller discs to fit into camcorders. both toshiba and blu-ray are hopeful that the emerging dvd format war akin to the betamax and vhs fight in the 1980s can be resolved over the next year when next-generation dvd players start to come out. when players do come out they will be able to play standard dvds too which is good news for those who have huge libraries of current dvds. but the support from vivendi and electronics arts is a big boost to blu-ray in the battle for supremacy. gaming is a $20 billion industry worldwide so is as crucial as the film industry in terms of money to be made. the technical requirement for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc technologies said michael heilmann chief technology officer for vivendi universal. blu-ray offers the capacity performance and high-speed internet connectivity to take us into the future of gaming. ea a leading games developer and publisher added that the delivery of high-definition games of the future was vital and blu-ray had the capacity functionality and interactivity needed for the kinds of projects it was planning. sony recently announced it would be using the technology in its next generation of playstations. mr doherty said gamers were ravenous for high-quality graphics and technology for the next generation of titles. gamers especially those working on pcs are always focused on more capacity to deliver textures deeper levels for delivering higher-resolution playback. he added: the focus for games moving forward is on increased immersion. gaming companies really like to focus on creating a world which involves creating complicated 3d models and textures and increasing the resolution increasing the frame rate - all of these are part of getting a more immersive experience. fitting these models on current dvd technologies means compressing the graphics so much that much of this quality is lost. as games move to more photo-real capability the current technology is limiting. they are thrilled at the advanced capacity to start to build these immersive environments said mr doherty. currently graphics-intensive pc games also require multiple discs for installation. high-definition dvds will cut down on that need. likewise consoles rely on single discs so dvds that can hold six times more data mean much better high-resolution games. blu-ray has already won backing from major hollywood studios such as mgm studios disney and buena vista as well as top technology firms like dell lg samsung and phillips amongst others. while toshiba s hd-dvd technology has won backing from paramount universal and warner bros. the real world benefits (of hd-dvd) are apparent and obvious said jim cardwell president of warner home video. mr cardwell added that rapid time to market and dependability were significant factors in choosing to go with hd-dvd. both formats are courting microsoft to be the format of choice for the next generation xbox but discussions are still on-going. next generation dvds will also be able to store images and other data. ces is the largest consumer electronics show in the world and runs from 6 to 9 january.

tech

itunes user sues apple over ipod a user of apple s itunes music service is suing the firm saying it is unfair he can only use an ipod to play songs. he says apple is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with the site. apple which opened its online store in 2003 after launching the ipod in 2001 uses technology to ensure each song bought only plays on the ipod. californian thomas slattery filed the suit in the us district court in san jose and is seeking damages. apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice the lawsuit states. the key to such a lawsuit would be convincing a court that a single brand like itunes is a market in itself separate from the rest of the online music market according to ernest gellhorn an anti-trust law professor at george mason university. as a practical matter the lower courts have been highly sceptical of such claims prof gellhorn said. apple has sold more than six million ipods since the gadget was launched and has an 87% share of the market for portable digital music players market research firm npd group has reported. more than 200 million songs have been sold by the itunes music store since it was launched. apple has unlawfully bundled tied and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players and vice-versa the lawsuit said. mr slattery called himself an itunes customer who was also forced to purchase an apple ipod if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to. a spokesman for apple declined to comment. apple s online music store uses a different format for songs than napster musicmatch realplayer and others. the rivals use the mp3 format or microsoft s wma format while apple uses aac which it says helps thwart piracy. the wma format also includes so-called digital rights management which is used to block piracy.

tech

apple laptop is greatest gadget the apple powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time by us magazine mobile pc. the 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first lightweight portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook pcs. the magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets which includes the sony walkman at number three and the 1956 zenith remote control at two. gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. the magazine specified that gadgets also needed to be a self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own not a subset of another device . in general we included only items that were potentially mobile said the magazine. in the end we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget it concluded. the oldest gadget in the top 100 is the abacus which the magazine dates at 190 a.d. and put in 60th place. other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position) the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the kodak brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). the tivo personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10 which also includes the first flash mp3 player (diamound multimedia) as well as the first successful digital camera (casio qv-10) and mobile phone (motorola startac). the most popular gadget of the moment the apple ipod is at number 12 in the list while the first sony transistor radio is at number 13. sony s third entry in the top 20 is the cdp-101 cd player from 1983. who can forget the crystalline hiss-free blast of madonna s like a virgin emenating from their first cd player asked the magazine. karl elsener s knife the swiss army knife from 1891 is at number 20 in the list. gadgets which could be said to feature surprisngly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd) the nintendo gameboy (25th) and the pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). the list also contains plenty of oddities: the pez sweet dispenser (98th) 1980s toy tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). why worry about mobile phones. soon they will be subsumed into the pda s / laptops etc. what about the marine chronometer completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. for it s time a technological marvel! sony net minidisc! it paved the way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. i always used my netmd and could not go anywhere without it. a laptop computer is not a gadget! it s a working tool! the sinclair executive was the world s first pocket calculator. i think this should be there as well. how about the clockwork radio or gps or a pocket calculator all these things are useful to real people not just pc magazine editors. are the people who created this list insane surely the most important gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone it has revolutionalised communication which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. from outside the modern age the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget without which modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. has everyone forgot about the breville pie maker an interesting list. of the electronic gadgets thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the tandy 100. the size of a4 paper and light three weeks on a set of batteries an excellent keyboard a modem. a pity tandy did not make it dos compatible. what s an apple powerbook 100 it s out of date - not much of a gadget . surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener swiss army knife safety razor blade wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves it has to be the mobile phone. no other single device has had such an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time. the ball point pen has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. also many might be grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule. the casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in 1980. a true gadget it could be carried around and shown off. all top 10 are electronic toys so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-tech obsession than anyhting else. i say this as the swiss army knife only made no 20. sinclair ql a machine far ahead of its time. the first home machine with a true multi-takings os. shame the marketing was so bad!!! apple.. a triumph of fashion over... well everything else. utter rubbish. yes the apple laptop and sony walkman are classic gadgets. but to call the sextant and the marine chronometer gadgets and rank them as less important than a tv remote control reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. the former literally helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. the latter is the seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. no competition. i d also put apple s newton and the first palm pilot there as the front runners for portable computing and possibly the toshiba libretto for the same reason. i only wish that vulcan inc s flipstart wasn t just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top. how did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the telephone (mobile or otherwise) what about radios and tvs the swiss army knife. by far the most useful gadget. i got mine 12 years ago. still wearing and using it a lot! it stood the test of time. psion organiser series 3 should be up there. had a usable qwerty keyboard removable storage good set of apps and programmable. case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first i think). great product innovation. the first mobile pc was voted best gadget by readers of...err... mobile pc ! why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site it s obviously the mobile phone or remote control and readers of a less partisan publication would tell you that. the motorola startac should be number one. why there will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are either gone or integrated in communications devices. the psion series 3c! the first most practical way to carry all your info around... i too would back the sinclair spectrum - without this little beauty i would never have moved into the world of it and earn the living that i do now. i d have put the mobile phone high up the list. probably a nokia model. sinclair spectrum - 16k. it plugged into the tv. games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that s what i do for a living now. i wish more modern notebooks -- even apple s newest offerings -- were more like the pb100. particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball which has given way to the largely useless trackpad which every notebook on the market today uses. they re invariably inaccurate uncomfortable and cumbersome to use. congratulations to apple a deserved win!

tech

van nistelrooy set to return manchester united striker ruud van nistelrooy may make his comeback after an achilles tendon injury in the fa cup fifth round tie at everton on saturday. he has been out of action for nearly three months and had targeted a return in the champions league tie with ac milan on 23 february. but manchester united manager sir alex ferguson hinted he may be back early. he said: there is a chance he could be involved at everton but we ll just have to see how he comes through training. the 28-year-old has been training in holland and ferguson said: ruud comes back on tuesday and we need to assess how far on he is. the training he has been doing in holland has been perfect and i am very satisfied with it. even without van nistelrooy united made it 13 wins in 15 league games with a 2-0 derby victory at manchester city on sunday. but they will be boosted by the return of the dutch international who is the club s top scorer this season with 12 goals. he has not played since aggravating the injury in the 3-0 win against west brom on 27 november. ferguson was unhappy with van nistelrooy for not revealing he was carrying an injury. united have also been hit by injuries to both alan smith and louis saha during van nistelrooy s absence meaning wayne rooney has sometimes had to play in a lone role up front. the teenager has responded with six goals in nine games including the first goal against city on sunday.

sport

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

sport

sculthorpe wants lions captaincy paul sculthorpe has admitted he would love to succeed andy farrell as great britain skipper if the wigan star does switch codes to rugby union. sculthorpe was vice-captain in the tri-nations and took the st helens captaincy from chris joynt last year. i would definitely want the job - i make no bones about it sculthorpe told bbc sport. it s something i ve always wanted to do. i d gladly take it if it was offered to me. the 27-year-old who captained st helens to challenge cup success last year said following in the footsteps of farrell would be a challenge. andy would be a hard act to follow but it s something i m confident of being up to he said. the gb team isn t a one-man team. there are a lot of good young players who are pushing for places anyway. sculthorpe said the rugby league world would understand if farrell did decide to move to rugby union. it s a short career and you have to make of it what you can said sculthorpe. nobody can blame him if he does go - he s done everything in the game of rugby league. financially it could set him up for life. if he fancies a new challenge then who could fault him sculthorpe also called on the rugby league authorities to have a serious look at the number of games the top players are being asked to play. sean long sculthorpe s saints and lions team-mate has expressed doubts about his international future i think sean s situation is to do with the sheer number of games we re playing he said. the way he s looking at it is that if he can extend his career by a couple of years by not playing international rugby then he s willing to do that. the rfl has got to do something about the fixtures. we re playing 42 weeks of the year and it s too much. a lot of the niggly injuries that i ve suffered with over the last couple of years have come about because of the lack of rest time. st helens have been strongly linked with a move for brilliant young forward sonny bill williams and sculthorpe said he would love the 19-year-old to come to knowsley road. he s a great player - a big strong lad who can certainly hit hard in defence but who is also very skilful he said. i d love him to come to st helens. who knows what might happen but you want the best players in your team and he s certainly one of the best players in the world.

sport

jobs go at oracle after takeover oracle has announced it is cutting about 5 000 jobs following the completion of its $10.3bn takeover of its smaller rival peoplesoft last week. the company said it would retain more than 90% of peoplesoft product development and product support staff. the cuts will affect about 9% of the 55 000 staff of the combined companies. oracle s 18-month fight to acquire peoplesoft was one of the most drawn-out and hard-fought us takeover battles of recent times. the merged companies are set to be a major force in the enterprise software market second only in size to germany s sap. in a statement oracle said it began notifying staff of redundancies on friday and the process would continue over the next 10 days. by retaining the vast majority of peoplesoft technical staff oracle will have the resources to deliver on the development and support commitments we have made to peoplesoft customers over the last 18 months oracle s chief executive larry ellison said in a statement. correspondents say 6 000 job losses had been expected - and some suggest more cuts may be announced in future. they say mr ellison may be trying to placate peoplesoft customers riled by oracle s determined takeover strategy. hours before friday s announcement there was a funereal air at peoplesoft s headquarters reported ap news agency. a peoplesoft sign had been turned into shrine to the company with flowers candles and company memorabilia. we re mourning the passing of a great company the agency quoted peoplesoft worker david ogden as saying. other employees said they would rather be sacked than work for oracle. the new company is going to be totally different said anil aggarwal peoplesoft s director of database markets. peoplesoft had an easygoing relaxed atmosphere. oracle has an edgy aggressive atmosphere that s not conducive to innovative production. on the news oracle shares rose 15 cents - 1.1% - on nasdaq. in after-hours trading the shares did not move.

business

turkey turns on the economic charm three years after a gruelling economic crisis turkey has dressed its economy to impress. as part of a charm offensive - ahead of 17 december when the european union will decide whether to start entry talks - turkey s economic leaders have been banging the drum to draw attention to recent achievements. the economy is growing fast they insist. education levels among its young and large population are rising. unemployment levels in percentage terms are heading fast towards single digits. inflation is under control. a new law to govern its turbulent banking system is on the cards. the tourism industry is booming and revenues from visitors should more than double to $21bn (£10.8bn) in three years. moreover government spending is set to be frozen and a burdensome social security deficit is being tackled. income and corporate taxes will be cut next year in order to attract $15bn of foreign investment over the next three years. a loan restructuring deal with the international monetary fund (imf) is pretty much in the can. and following recent macroeconomic restructuring efforts its currency is floating freely and its central bank is independent. the point of all this has been to convince europe s decision makers that rather than being a phenomenally costly exercise for the eu allowing turkey in would in fact bring masses of economic benefits. the cake will be bigger for everybody said deputy prime minister abdullatif sener earlier this month. turkey will not be a burden for the eu budget. if admitted into the eu turkey would contribute almost 6bn euros ($8bn; £6bn) to its budget by 2014 according to a recent impact study by the country s state planning organisation. as turkey s gross domestic output (gdp) is set to grow by 6% per year on average its contribution would rise from less than 5bn euros in 2014 to almost 9bn euros by 2020. turkey could also help alleviate a labour shortage in old europe once its population comes of age. by 2014 one in four turks - or about 18 million people - will be aged 14 or less. a literate and qualified turkish population insisted mr sener will make a positive impact on the eu. this runs contrary to the popular view that turkey is getting ready to dig deep into eu taxpayers wallets. however turkey s assertions are confirmed by brussels own impact studies which indeed say that turkish membership would be good news for the eu economy. but only over time. costs are projected to be vast during the early years of turkey s membership with subsidies alone estimated to exceed 16.5bn euros and according to some predictions balloon to 33.5bn euros. this would include vast agricultural subsidies and regional aid though such payments should decline as the country s farm sector which currently employs one in three turks would employ just one in five by 2020. such high initial expenses would be coupled with risks that the benefits flagged up by turkey s government would never be delivered say those who feel the turkish project should be shunned. some fear that rather than providing an educated sophisticated labour force for europe at large the people who will leave turkey to seek work abroad will be poor uneducated - and plentiful. more recently less palatable concerns - at least in liberal european circles - have been voiced with senior eu or member state officials talking darkly of a river of islam an oriental culture and a threat to europe s cultural richness . of course many opponents are politically motivated - their views ranging from xenophobic prejudices about the country s muslim traditions to well-documented concerns about the government s human rights record. yet their economic arguments should not be dismissed out of hand. critics insist that much of the optimism about turkey s economic roadmap has been over-egged - an argument amplified by a 134% rise in the country s current account deficit to $10.7bn during the first 10 months of this year. the country s massive debt - which includes $23bn owed to the imf and billions borrowed via the international bond markets - also remains a major obstacle to its ambition of joining the eu. in the new member states of the european union gross public debt is typically about 40% of gross domestic product says reza moghadam assistant director of the imf s european department. at about 80% of gdp turkey s gross debt is double that figure. turkey s debts have largely arisen from its efforts to push through banking reform after a run on the banks in 2001 caused the country s devastating recession. there is no question that although turkey is doing much better than in the past it remains quite vulnerable says michael deppler director of the imf s european department. its debt is far too high for an emerging economy. a key factor for eu decision makers should be whether or not turkey has met its economic criteria. but economics is not a science. and although the state of turkey s economy is important as is its pace of reform the final decision on 17 december will be taken by politicians who will of course be guided by their political instincts.

business

federer claims dubai crown world number one roger federer added the dubai championship trophy to his long list of successes - but not before he was given a test by ivan ljubicic. top seed federer looked to be on course for a easy victory when he thumped the eighth seed 6-1 in the first set. but ljubicic who beat tim henman in the last eight dug deep to secure the second set after a tense tiebreak. swiss star federer was not about to lose his cool though turning on the style to win the deciding set 6-3. the match was a re-run of last week s final at the world indoor tournament in rotterdam where federer triumphed but not until ljubicic had stretched him for five sets. i really wanted to get off to a good start this time and i did and i could really play with confidence while he still looking for his rhythm federer said. that took me all the way through to 6-1 3-1 0-30 on his serve and i almost ran away with it. but he came back and that was a good effort on his side. ljubicic was at a loss to explain his poor showing in the first set. i didn t start badly but then suddenly i felt like my racket was loose and the balls were flying a little bit too much. and with roger if you relax for a second it just goes very quick he said. after those first three games it was no match at all. i don t know it was really weird. i was playing really well the whole year and then suddenly i found myself in trouble just to put the ball in the court. but despite his defeat the world number 14 was pleased with his overall performance. i had a chance in the third and for me it s really positive to twice in two weeks have a chance against roger to win the match. it s an absolutely great boost to my confidence that i m up there and belong with top-class players.

sport

laura ashley chief stepping down laura ashley is parting company with its chief executive ainum mohd-saaid. the clothing and home furnishing retailer said ms mohd-saaid had resigned for personal reasons. her departure will come into effect on 1 february and follows the departure of co-chief executive rebecca navarednam on 1 january. ms mohd-saaid is to be replaced by lillian tan presently a non-executive director of the company and head of a malaysian retailer. in a statement issued on thursday laura ashley thanked ms mohd-saaid for her services to the company. its shares were down 8.51% to 10.75p in late thursday morning trading on the london stock exchange. since 2002 ms tan has been managing director and chief executive of metrojaya one of the largest retail groups in malaysia. laura ashley which is due to issue its next trading statement in the next few weeks has in recent months been hit by reports of poor sales. in october last year it announced the closure of one of its two welsh factories. in september the company had said that its half-year clothing sales had been below expectations . in recent times it has put renewed focus on home furnishings rather than clothing but last september it reported that interim six month losses had risen from £1m to £1.2m while sales had fallen from £138m to £118m. laura ashley which floated on the london stock exchange for £200m ($376m) in 1995 is majority-owned by malaysia entrepreneur dr khoo kay peng. in 1996 its share price was more than 200p. it has long been reported that dr khoo intends to take the company private but he has always denied this. laura ashley is a bit of a shrivelled husk of a company said retail analyst nick bubb of evolution securities. it is all pretty odd with its malaysian owners seemingly just shuffling the deckchairs. laura ashley was founded by its late namesake in kent in 1955 before moving to mid wales in 1961 where it still has its main uk factory.

business

brookside creator s channel 4 bid the creator of defunct tv soap brookside has written to the culture minister to offer to buy channel 4. phil redmond now chairman of mersey tv told tessa jowell he would run it with its current remit intact for the next 10 years. but media watchdog ofcom has said the the commercially funded public service broadcaster will not be privatised. a spokesman for the department for culture media and sport said there were no plans to sell the channel. he added that primary legislation would be required for the station to be sold off which the government was not intending to introduce. brookside was axed in 2003 after its ratings slumped from a peak of seven million to just 1.5 million. redmond also brought teen soap hollyoaks to channel 4 and created grange hill the school-based drama serial which was first broadcast on bbc one in 1978. he was awarded the cbe for services to drama earlier this year.

entertainment

hingis to make unexpected return martina hingis makes her return to competitve tennis after two years out of the game at the volvo women s open in pattaya thailand on tuesday. she faces german marlene weingartner in the first round. as a competitor and athlete i always want to win. i hope my body will hold up said hingis. you miss being out there in a grand slam final and not competing. it s a big difference between playing and commenting for tv. i miss it a lot. the former world number one was 22 when she retired after having surgery on both ankles and her last wta event was in filderstadt germany in october 2002 when she lost to elena dementieva. only last year she insisted that a comeback was unlikely but speaking in thaliand hingis admitted: i said that because i didn t know what would happen with my body. her appearance will also benefit charities in the region and the swiss star will donate her prize money.

sport

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

politics

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

politics

label withdraws mcfadden s video the new video of former westlife singer brian mcfadden has been pulled after a dublin school complained about being associated with his song irish son. st fintian s high school says it is clearly identified in the video while mcfadden never went there. mcfadden makes claims that he was beaten at his own school in the song s lyrics saying it had cell blocks . the performer s record label sony bmg has withdrawn the video and issued replacements to television stations. the label believed the school name was fictitious until they received the complaint. they have said the reference to the school was unintentional and coincidental. the head of christian brothers school st fintian s richard fogarty said the video implied that the 24-year-old pop star had attended his school and was abused there. the school has always treated its pupils with respect mr fogarty said in a statement. mcfadden makes specific references to the christian brothers in his song but did not attend st fintian s. corporal punishment was outlawed in irish schools in 1982 when mcfadden was two years old. mcfadden whose debut solo album is released next week has said that every song is autobiographical and a true story . alcoholism and domestic violence are among the other topics dealt with in his songs half of which have been written with robbie williams former collaborator guy chambers. mcfadden who quit chart-topping group westlife in march went to number one in september with his first solo single real to me. he enjoyed 12 chart-toppers with the boy band before parting company with them.

entertainment

glastonbury fans to get id cards fans who buy tickets for this year s glastonbury festival will be issued with photo id cards in an attempt to beat touts it has been confirmed. the cards will include a photograph of the ticket-holder plus an electronic chip with their details to prevent tickets being sold on or forged. tickets for the june event are expected to go on sale in april. there is only one place in the world where you will be able to get tickets festival organiser michael eavis said. that will be the official source. if you get them anywhere else you won t get in. fans not wanting to carry the entrance card could present their passport or driving licence instead he added. more than 153 000 people are expected to travel to mr eavis somerset farm from 24-26 june but the event s rising popularity has meant an extremely high demand for tickets in recent years. when the id card idea was floated mr eavis daughter emily said it would be quite a big step in terms of ticketing for events if implemented and they were going as far as we can to cut touting. as long as it s approached in the right way it might really work it might really change the system she said. in 2004 all 112 000 tickets for the public sold out in 24 hours. they were personalised with the names of purchasers who were asked to bring identification such as a driving licence passport or household bill. but some forgot to take the right information while some touts simply offered to supply their own bills along with the ticket bearing their name. no details of this year s line-up have been confirmed but rumours have suggested u2 and coldplay may be among the headliners.

entertainment

fuming robinson blasts officials england coach andy robinson insisted he was livid after his side were denied two tries in sunday s 19-13 six nations loss to ireland in dublin. mark cueto s first-half effort was ruled out for offside before the referee spurned tv replays when england crashed over in the dying minutes. [i m] absolutely spitting. i m livid. there s two tries we ve been cost robinson told bbc sport. we ve got to go back to technology. i don t know why we didn t. south african referee jonathan kaplan ruled that cueto was ahead of charlie hodgson when the fly-half hoisted his cross-field kick for the sale wing to gather. kaplan then declined the chance to consult the fourth official when josh lewsey took the ball over the irish line under a pile of bodies for what could have been the game-winning try. i think mark cueto scored a perfectly legal try and i think he should have gone to the video referee on josh lewsey said robinson. it is how we use the technology. it is there and it should be used. i am still trying to work out the cueto try. i have looked at both and they both looked tries. we are very disappointed and this will hurt there is no doubt about that. we are upset now but the referee is in charge and he has called it his way and we have got to be able to cope with that. we did everything we could have done to win the game. i am very proud of my players and with a couple of decisions this could have been a very famous victory. i thought we dominated. matt stevens had an awesome game at tighthead prop while the likes of charlie hodgson martin corry and lewis moody all came through well. josh lewsey was awesome and every one of the forwards stood up out there. given the pressure we were under credit must go to all the players. we have done everything but win a game of rugby but ireland are a good side. they defended magnificently and they ve got every chance of winning this six nations. england have lost their first three matches in this year s six nations and four out of their six games since robinson took over from sir clive woodward in september.

sport

police urge pub closure power new powers are needed to close disorderly pubs bars and clubs for up to a week or even permanently police chiefs have told mps. association of chief police officers president chris fox said the current 24-hour closure power did not have enough impact on bad landlords. mr fox s comments follow the controversy over plans to allow pubs to open around the clock. he rejected critics calls for the law change to be delayed. instead the new licensing act could help reduce drunken disorder - but only if it was properly planned he argued. acpo made its call for stronger closure powers in a paper for the commons home affairs select committee. after the meeting mr fox said being able to close premises for only 24 hours did not necessarily make an impact. if it s 12.30 on a saturday morning and you close for 24 hours there s not a lot of pain for the premises because they probably wouldn t open on sunday anyway. this is about getting through to the management that they can t run a disorderly house without facing some immediate sanctions. under acpo s proposal the closure orders would be used only with the agreement of the local licensing authority. the new licensing laws will give police greater powers to close pubs and clubs - but only for 24-hour periods. mr fox said the drinks industry was currently not regulating itself. it s making money at the cost of human misery and the public purse and the strategic planning process has been less than useless he said. mr fox said the new laws due to start being phased in next month could help if food outlets public transport and public toilets could cope with late-night drinkers. staggering it (closing hours) will be a solution if the infrastructure is there if the premises are properly managed and people aren t being served rolling drunk and underage and then tossed out into the street he said. we have the problem from 11pm to 2am in any event. we have to get a grip on the underlying causes of this. acpo wants pubs and clubs which cause extra work for police and hospitals to have to pay towards the costs. home secretary charles clarke is currently looking at the idea of a levy on the drinks industry to pay for the cost of extra policing. the licensing changes have sparked concern among some mps councils and some senior police officers who fear they could exacerbate drinking problems. culture secretary tessa jowell on tuesday said it was not her job to bow to the campaign against the changes. it was the status quo not the new laws which were causing current binge drinking problems she told bbc two s newsnight. leaked documents have suggested ex-home secretary david blunkett branded new opening hours as a leap in the dark . but ms jowell insisted his concerns had been met. the police s job against alcohol-related crime would be made easier if all pubs did not close at the same time she added.

politics

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

sport

unilever shake up as profit slips anglo-dutch consumer goods giant unilever is to merge its two management boards after reporting unsatisfactory earnings for 2004. it blamed the poor results on sluggish decision making a rise in discounted retailers and a wet european summer. the company also cited difficult trading conditions and a lack of demand for goods such as its slimfast range. unilever which owns brands including dove soap said annual pre-tax profit fell 36% to 2.9bn euros (£1.99bn). shares fell 1% to 510.75 pence in london and dropped by 1.2% to 50.50 euros in amsterdam. under the restructuring plans patrick cescau the uk-based co-chairman will become group chief executive. dutch co-chairman antony burgmans will take on the role of non-executive chairman. we have recognised the need for greater clarity of leadership and we are moving to a simpler leadership structure that will provide a sharper operational focus mr burgmans said. we are leaving behind one of the key features of unilever s governance but this is a natural development following the changes introduced last year. the company which has had dual headquarters in rotterdam and london since 1930 will announce the location of its head office at a later date. unilever is not alone in trying to simplify its business. oil giant shell last year dismantled its dual-ownership structure after a series of problems relating to the size of its oil reserves that hammered its share price and led to the resignation of key board members. the best part of the news this morning was that the company announced a structure simplification said arjan sweere an analyst at petercam. the company said the organizational changes would speed decision making and it also may make further changes. the company said its main focus will be on improving profits and it is planning to accelerate and increase investment in its 400 main brands. while it is certainly the case that markets have been tougher in the past eighteen months than we had expected we have also lost some market share said mr cescau. we let a range of targets limit our ability flexibility and did not adjust our plans quickly enough to a more difficult business environment. our objective is to reverse the share loss that we experienced in some markets in 2004 and return to growth. unilever said european sales fell 2.8% last year dragged down by below part sales at its beverage division where revenues dipped by almost 4%. sales of ice cream and frozen food dipped by 3.4% in the us last year revenue grew by 1.5% despite disappointing sales in slimfast the company said. in asia leading products came under attack from rivals such as procter & gamble. unilever took a 1.5bn euro one-time charge in the fourth quarter including a 650m euro write-down on slimfast diet foods. sales of slimfast products have been hit in recent years by the popularity of the atkins diet. but looking ahead unilever said it was optimistic about prospects for its slimming products saying that demand is on the wane for rival low-carbohydrate diets. the company also said it planned to spend 500m euros this year buying back shares.

business

german growth goes into reverse germany s economy shrank 0.2% in the last three months of 2004 upsetting hopes of a sustained recovery. the figures confounded hopes of a 0.2% expansion in the fourth quarter in europe s biggest economy. the federal statistics office said growth for the whole of 2004 was 1.6% after a year of contraction in 2003 down from an earlier estimate of 1.7%. it said growth in the third quarter had been zero putting the economy at a standstill from july onward. germany has been reliant on exports to get its economy back on track as unemployment of more than five million and impending cuts to welfare mean german consumers have kept their money to themselves. major companies including volkswagen daimlerchrysler and siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and costs. according to the statistics office destatis rising exports were outweighed in the fourth quarter by the continuing weakness of domestic demand. but the relentless rise in the value of the euro last year has also hit the competitiveness of german products overseas. the effect has been to depress prospects for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole as well as germany. eurozone interest rates are at 2% but senior officials at the rate-setting european central bank are beginning to talk about the threat of inflation prompting fears that interest rates may rise. the ecb s mandate is to fight rising prices by boosting interest rates - and that could further threaten germany s hopes of recovery.

business

jarvis sells tube stake to spain shares in engineering group jarvis have soared more than 16% on news that it is offloading its stake in london underground consortium tube lines. the sale of the 33% stake to spain s ferrovial for £146m ($281m) is a lifeline to jarvis which was weighed down by debts of more than £230m. the company recently warned it could go under if it did not secure a refinancing deal by mid-january 2005. but now its banks have agreed to extend its credit facilities until march 2006. the company also said it had agreed terms over the completion of 14 of its biggest construction projects under the government s private finance initiative (pfi). jarvis wants to scale back the division which has proved too costly and has been blamed for many of its problems. instead it plans to focus on uk rail renewal roads and plant hire work. madrid-based ferrovial already holds a 33% stake in tube lines which maintains the jubilee northern and piccadilly lines. the spanish group has been keen to snap up more uk infrastructure assets having bought amey in 2003. jarvis said the sale which raked in more than the £100m analysts had expected would substantially enhance its financial position. i am now confident that we can now move forward in 2005 towards rebuilding jarvis and return it to growth as a profitable business said chief executive alan lovell. shares in jarvis were up more than 16% to 18 pence by the close of trade on friday.

business

eu to probe alitalia state aid the european commission has officially launched an in-depth investigation into whether italian airline alitalia is receiving illegal state aid. commission officials are to look at rome s provision of a 400m euro ($495m; £275m) loan to the carrier. both the italian government and alitalia have repeatedly denied that the money - part of a vital restructuring plan - is state aid. the investigation could take up to 18 months. however transport commissioner jacques barrot said he wanted it to be carried out as swiftly as possible. the italian authorities have presented a serious industrial plan said mr barot. we now have to verify certain aspects to confirm that this plan contains no state aid. i would like our analysis to be completed swiftly. the matter of possible state aid was brought to the commission s attention by eight of alitalia s rivals including germany s lufthansa british airways and spain s iberia. while alitalia needs to restructure to bring itself back to profitability the rival carriers say it has both violated state aid rules and threatened competition. alitalia lost 330m euros in 2003 as it struggled to get to grips with high costs spiralling oil prices competition from budget carriers and reduced demand. it plans to split into az fly and az services which will handle air and ground services respectively. alitalia already enjoyed state aid in 1997. eu rules prevent that from happening again in what is known as the one time last time rule for airlines. otherwise eu regulations on state aid stipulate that governments may help companies financially but only on the same terms as a commercial investor. the airline declined to comment on the commission decision.

business

labour mp praises tory campaign the conservatives have been a lot smarter in the way they have conducted the general election campaign a labour backbencher has said. derek wyatt said having a five month campaign turned off voters and suggested people were already rather bored of the thing . he wants a greater campaigning role for chancellor gordon brown. labour said the economy was at the heart of the campaign and mr brown therefore had a prominent role. but mr wyatt argued: by some way he is currently the figure in all of the polls that people trust and see that has delivered over eight years an economy unmatched anywhere in the world. so it would be a tad foolish of the labour party if we did not use him as we have done over the past three elections. labour s election chief alan milburn denied there was an attempt to sideline mr brown after facing criticism for letting the tories set the agenda. however mr wyatt predicted the campaign would get under way properly once the chancellor delivered his budget. the mp for sittingbourne and sheppey said prime minister tony blair had been trying very hard to improve his own standing with the electorate through a sort of campaign of trust . but mr blair had been hurt by the iraq controversy he added. a labour party spokesman played down differences with mr wyatt and said mr brown already had a prominent campaign role. this election is a choice between labour taking britain forward and the conservatives taking us back.

politics

online commons to spark debate online communities set up by the uk government could encourage public debate and build trust says the institute of public policy research (ippr). existing services such as ebay could provide a good blueprint for such services says the think-tank. although the net is becoming part of local and central government its potential has not yet been fully exploited to create an online commons for public debate. in its report is online community a policy tool the ippr also asks if id cards could help create safer online communities. adopting an ebay-type model would let communities create their own markets for skills and services and help foster a sense of local identity and connection. what we are proposing is a civic commons will davies senior research fellow at the ippr told the bbc news website. a single publicly funded and run online community in which citizens can have a single place to go where you can go to engage in diversity and in a way that might have a policy implication - like a pre-legislation discussion. the idea of a civic commons was originally proposed by stephen coleman professor of e-democracy at the oxford internet institute. the ippr report points to informal small scale examples of such commons that already exist. it mentions good-practice public initiatives like the bbc s ican project which connects people locally and nationally who want to take action around important issues. but he adds government could play a bigger role in setting up systems of trust for online communities too. proposals for id cards for instance could also be widened to see if they could be used online. they could provide the basis for a secure authentication system which could have value for peer-to-peer interaction online. at the moment they have been presented as a way for government to keep tabs on people and ensuring access to public services said mr davies. but what has not been explored is how authentication technology may potentially play a role in decentralised online communities. the key idea to take from systems such as ebay and other online communities is letting members rate each other s reputation by how they treat other members. using a similar mechanism trust and cooperation between members of virtual and physical communities could be built. this could mean a civic commons would work within a non-market system which lets people who may disagree with one another interact within publicly-recognised rules. e-government initiatives over the last decade have very much been about putting basic information and service guides online as well as letting people interact with government via the web. many online communities such as chatrooms mailing lists community portals message boards and weblogs often form around common interests or issues. with 53% of uk households now with access to the net the government suggests mr davies could act as an intermediary or middleman to set up public online places of debate and exchange to encourage more cosmopolitan politics and public trust in policy. government already plays a critical role in helping citizens trade with each other online. but it should also play a role in helping citizens connect to one another in civic non-market interactions said mr davies. there is a role for public bodies like the bbc libraries and government to bring people back into public debate again instead of millions of cliques talking to each other he added. the paper is part of the ippr s digital society initiative which is producing a number of conferences and research papers leading up to the publication of a manifesto for a digital britain.

tech

shark tale dvd is us best-seller oscar-nominated animation shark tale has raked in $80m (£42.4m) in the first week of its us dvd release becoming the year s best-selling home video so far. the tally for its dvd and video sales soared past the film s opening week us box office takings of $56m (£29.7m). shark tale is now the sixth-highest earning dvd for first week sales. the all-time first-week record is held by 1995 s lion king followed by shrek 2 finding nemo the original shrek and monster s inc. shark tale whose voice cast includes will smith robert de niro renee zellweger and martin scorsese sold more than 6 million dvds and videos across the united states and canada. it becomes the highest first-week earner for february outshining my big fat greek wedding which sold four million units in 2003. films which are expected to earn strong home video returns are usually timed for release in the busiest retail season which falls before christmas. the best-selling home video of last year was the dreamworks hit shrek 2 which took an estimated $458 m (£242.7m) in north america alone.

entertainment

kennedy calls for iraq exit plans tony blair should set out a proper exit strategy from iraq in the wake of next sunday s elections in the country lib dem leader charles kennedy has said. in a speech focusing on issues arising from the re-election of george w bush mr kennedy said iraq had become a crucible of militant terrorism . he wants to see a phased withdrawal of uk troops as soon as the situation allows he said in london. any exit strategy must augment and support the democratic process. there are some who are of the opinion that the mere presence of british and american troops in iraq feeds the insurgency he said. there is some truth in that especially after the initial mistakes that were made - the heavy-handedness of operations like fallujah and the well-publicised instances of abuse at the hands of coalition forces. mr kennedy pointed out that the netherlands portugal and the czech republic which all have troops operating in the southern sector of iraq have announced their imminent withdrawal regardless of the situation on the ground . he accused mr blair s government of being less than straightforward over its plans. next week the prime minister should make a statement regarding the elections in iraq mr kennedy said during his city of london speech. he should set out a proper exit strategy including the phased withdrawal of british troops as the security situation allows. mr kennedy also argued that british troops deployed in iraq should be replaced with forces from other countries - especially islamic countries .

politics

economy focus for election battle britain s economic future will be at the heart of labour s poll campaign chancellor gordon brown has said. he was speaking after cabinet members held their last meeting at no 10 before the expected election announcement. he said voters would recognise that labour had brought stability and growth and would continue to do so. meanwhile the tories outlined their plans to tackle yob culture and the lib dems gave more details about their proposals to replace council tax. earlier the archbishop of canterbury wrote to all three parties urging them not to fight the election by exploiting people s fears. in an open letter he called on them not to turn the election into a competition about who can most effectively frighten voters about terrorism asylum and crime. he said they should concentrate instead on issues such as the environment international development and the arms trade family policy and the reform of the criminal justice system. shadow foreign secretary michael ancram said: we have fought a very positive campaign. i think he will want to look quite carefully at what jack straw said about michael howard. in a speech to the foreign policy centre mr straw said of the tory leader: he is clever fluent and tactical but he is not wise. he lacks strategy and good judgment and his quick temper and impetuosity too often get the better of him. the foreign secretary told the bbc: i was making the observation that because of michael howard s impetuosity you can get lurches of policy. liberal democrat chairman matthew taylor said: people are already really turned off by the kind of campaign the others are fighting and you will see us putting emphasis on some of these huge issues facing the world particularly the environment. labour s focus on the economy as their key message - came on the day a new report was published by the institute of fiscal studies suggesting that household incomes have fallen for the first time in more than a decade. the ifs says the drop partly reflects measures announced in what it called the chancellor s tax-raising budget of 2002. the treasury dismissed the research as complete rubbish . party election supremo alan milburn said the apparent drop in average incomes was because self-employed people had been affected by a world downturn which hit their profits. since 1997 the reported average take-home income had risen by 20% in real terms if you took out the self-employed mr milburn told bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr brown also dismissed the figures insisting that the typical family has been much better off under labour.

politics

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

tech

multi-purpose tv aids india two-thirds of the world s population 4 billion people live on $2 000 a year or less. you might think that the last thing on their minds would be getting a television set or a computer. but that s not the case. many people in the developing world give up one of their daily meals so they can afford to buy a tv. and now an indian-born computer engineer thinks he s come up with a way to give them cheap access to the internet. carnegie mellon professor raj reddy has spent the bulk of his professional career trying to find ways to make technology accessible to poor people. the first step is to figure out why poor people would want a personal computer and professor reddy thinks he has a pretty good idea of why they might. i come from a village says prof reddy i know what the population is like many of them are illiterate and many of them have other concerns. there nobody will use it for the conventional uses of a pc word processing and powerpoint he said. so it s clear to me that if people wanted to use pcs in a village - it has to usable by illiterate people and it must be primarily for entertainment education telemedicine and access to expert advice. prof reddy also thinks that tying it into some kind of aid package was the wrong approach. after all he asked -- what aid group could possibly give expensive computers to 250 million less fortunate indians let alone the billions of poor people around the world instead prof reddy decided to think of those 250 million indians as a potential market. the problem then becomes one of making the product compelling enough. it must be so compelling that you would give up your third meal in order to have this prof reddy says. people do this today with television sets. if you go to india and many other countries they will first go get a television set before they worry about one more meal. why because personalized entertainment has become very important. this hatched a completely new idea. he calls it a pctvt - a personal computer television and telephone all in one that runs on a normal desktop machine. literate users can surf through the applications with a keyboard and mouse but illiterate users can use what looks like a television remote control. on the screen pictures - not words - designate applications like tv voice mail and video e-mail. this dependence on graphics video and audio means that a computer for an illiterate person needs 100 times more power and more memory than one for a phd. prassana rambathla one of prof reddy s graduate students says that when you re talking illiterate you re talking audio and video and that demands exponentially high bandwidth. it can t choke at any point in time and it has to withstand anything no matter what you re pressing. the major part is making it foolproof very tough so that it never breaks he says. the carnegie mellon team says this project is only possible because pcs are now so much cheaper and have built-in audio and video hardware and software. limited trials of the pctvt are due to start this month in the indian state of andhra pradesh. although andhra pradesh has a fairly good infrastructure but work has to be done to ensure reliable connections to the net. prof reddy has teamed up with eric brewer at the university of california at berkeley. the answer says prof brewer is wi-fi. we re looking at the thing you ll see in starbuck s or many other hotspots he says. we re doing a lot of work on long-distance wireless and how to make the network work better in the presence of intermittency when the power goes up and down and the links go up and down and the computers you re connected to just get turned off for no reason. prof reddy says he hopes to lease the pctvts for about $10 a month and thinks indians will rent the units for the television and dvd capabilities. reddy says he can then introduce the pctvt s other technologies - such as video mail. for example a farmer could use the pctvt s webcam to send a picture of a harmful insect to a local official who could send back a proposed course of action to the farmer. prof reddy thinks this kind of communication is the real pay-off. the underlying problem he says is how you can increase their wealth and reduce their poverty and reduce their illiteracy and improve their health care. and what i m postulating is that this is the technology that will enable them. if i didn t have it it would be an uphill battle. even with the technology it s an uphill battle. but i have a tool. there is hope. i can reach them in ways that have not been possible before. clark boyd is technology correspondent for the world a bbc world service and wgbh-boston co-production

tech

benitez issues warning to gerrard liverpool manager rafael benitez has ordered captain steven gerrard not to play down their champions league ambitions and be more positive. gerrard told the bbc liverpool were unlikely to win the trophy this year. benitez responded: i spoke to steven and said to him that in future it s better to think we can win the champions league. why not he said: we need winners here and everyone thinking only of winning. i always want to win. benitez added: when we lose i only think of solutions. if you only think about winning the next game you don t know what the draw will be. if we can win the next game maybe we will draw a side that isn t so strong or a side with injuries or suspensions. benitez is hoping to win his first trophy since arriving at liverpool from valencia when they play chelsea in the carling cup on sunday in cardiff.

sport

dvd copy protection strengthened dvds will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-piracy measures devised by copy protection firm macrovision. the pirated dvd market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years ago. macrovision says its new ripguard technology will thwart most but not all of the current dvd ripping (copying) programs used to pirate dvds. ripguard is designed to... reduce dvd ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer said the firm. macrovision said the new technology will work in nearly all current dvd players when applied to the discs but it did not specify how many machines could have a problem with ripguard. the new technology will be welcomed by hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from dvd sales. the film industry has stepped up efforts to fight dvd piracy in the last 12 months taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of dvd movies for download. ultimately we see ripguard dvd... evolving beyond anti-piracy and towards enablement of legitimate online transactions interoperability in tomorrow s digital home and the upcoming high-definition formats said steve weinstein executive vice president and general manager of macrovision s entertainment technologies group. macrovision said ripguard was designed to plug the digital hole that was created by so-called decss ripper software. it circumvents content scrambling system measures placed on dvds and let people make perfect digital copies of copyrighted dvds in minutes. those copies could then be burned onto a blank dvd or uploaded for exchange to a peer-to-peer network. macrovision said ripguard would also prevent against rent rip and return - where people would rent a dvd copy it and then return the original. ripguard is expected to be rolled out on dvds from the middle of 2005 the company said. the new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used those programs will now most likely crash the company said. macrovision has said that rip guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures.

tech

us cyber security chief resigns the man making sure us computer networks are safe and secure has resigned after only a year in his post. amit yoran was director of the national cyber security division within the us department of homeland security created following the 9/11 attacks. the division was tasked with improving us defences against malicious hackers viruses and other net-based threats. reports suggest he left because his division was not given enough clout within the larger organisation. mr yoran took up his post in september 2003 and his first task was to get the cyber security division up and running. the organisation had a staff of about 60 people and a budget of about $80m (£44.54m). the division was charged with thinking up and carrying out action to make us networks more impervious to attack and disruption by the viruses worms and hack attacks that have become commonplace. in the last 12 months mr yoran oversaw the creation of a cyber alert system that sends out warnings about big hitting viruses and net attacks as they occur. the warnings also contained information about how firms and organisations could protect themselves against these attacks. the cyber security division also audited us government networks to discover exactly what was sitting on which network. the next step was to be the creation of a scanning system to identify vulnerabilities that made federal networks and machines susceptible to attack by malicious hackers and virus writers. mr yoran s division was also doing work to identify the networks and machines that had been broken into by cyber criminals. despite this success mr yoran left his post abruptly at the end of last week reportedly only giving one day s notice to bosses at the department of homeland security. amit yoran has been a valuable contributor on cyber security issues over the past year and we appreciate his efforts in starting the department s cybersecurity program said a department of homeland security spokeswoman. some reports have suggested that mr yoran felt frustrated by the lack of prominence given to work to protect against net-based threats in the wider homeland organisation. an attempt by us politicians to pass a law to promote mr yoran and raise the profile of his department s work is now mired in congress.

tech

england s defensive crisis grows england s defensive worries have deepened following the withdrawal of tottenham s ledley king from the squad to face holland. chelsea s john terry and wayne bridge are also out leaving coach sven-goran eriksson with a real problem for wednesday s match at villa park. injured rio ferdinand and sol campbell were both left out of the squad and matthew upson has already pulled out. wes brown and jamie carragher are likely to be the makeshift partnership. terry the captain of chelsea as they push for the premiership title would have been a certain starter in the absence of campbell and ferdinand. but now he has pulled out with a bruised knee and is likely to be replaced by carragher alongside brown. manchester united s brown last played for england in the defeat by australia at upton park in february 2003. the 25-year-old was only called into the squad on sunday night as cover following the enforced withdrawal of upson who has a hamstring injury. and brown now looks certain to add to his tally of seven senior appearances for england. king was forced to pull out after his groin injury was assessed by england s medical staff. eriksson has still not decided whether to call up any further back-up having already summoned phil neville after bridge pulled out with a foot injury.

sport

farrell saga to drag on - lindsay wigan chairman maurice lindsay says he does not expect a quick solution to the on-going saga of captain andy farrell s possible switch to rugby union. leicester and saracens are leading the chase for the player but lindsay told the bbc it was not yet a done deal. as well as the rugby football union the league the individual club and the england coaching team have a say so it s not a quick decision he said. he s given us 12 years service so if he wants to go we d support him. the prospect of farrell switching codes has been the main talking point of the super league season so far. it came as a bolt out of the blue to us admitted lindsay. but he s a very loyal friend to the club so there s no question that he s deserting us. he just fancies a challenge. although the move would be a lucrative one for both farrell and wigan lindsay said money was not a motivating factor for the club. the money side of things hasn t been concluded but it s not the point for wigan he told radio five live. a shortage of money has never been a problem for us. even if we did have it under the salary cap we can t spend a penny of it anyway - we d rather have the player. lindsay also said he understood why rugby union was so interested in signing up farrell. it d be a great loss for us but a great boost for them said the warriors chief. this guy is an absolute sporting icon. he s been at the top for so long and has demonstrated so many attributes that you need to make it in a tough contact sport. athletes like him - ellery hanley and martin johnson - don t come along very often. you re very lucky to have them whilst you ve got them.

sport

ibm puts cash behind linux push ibm is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three years beefing up its commitment to linux software. the cash injection will be used to help its customers use linux on every type of device from handheld computers and phones right up to powerful servers. ibm said the money will fund a variety of technical research and marketing initiatives to boost linux use. ibm said it had taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software. in 2004 ibm said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using linux to help staff work together more closely. the money will be used to help this push towards greater collaboration and will add linux-based elements to ibm s workplace software. workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to corporate networks. one of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it easier to use linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with workplace. even before ibm announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates of the open source way of working. in 2001 it put $300m into a three-year linux program and has produced linux versions of many of its programs. linux and the open source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to tinker with the core components of software programs. they reason that more open scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation.

tech

guantanamo four questioned the four britons freed from us custody in guantanamo bay are expected to be allowed a visit by one relative. moazzam begg martin mubanga feroz abbasi and richard belmar were held for three years accused of al-qaeda links. mr begg s father azmat said he had been told he could see his son for 20 minutes and would say he was a hero . the men are being held at london s paddington green police station where they are expected to be questioned by uk anti-terror officers. but louise christian the lawyer representing mr abbasi and mr mubanga said the families would be reunited with the men away from the station. before being driven by police from birmingham to london azmat begg said he was concerned for his son moazzam s mental state and was looking forward to giving him a hug. as azmat begg arrived at the london police station there appeared to be some confusion as to the visiting arrangements. police have said they have a duty to investigate the men who were arrested on their return to the uk. but metropolitan police commissioner sir john stevens said evidence obtained by mi5 while the four were in cuba was absolutely inadmissible in uk courts. in an interview with the independent sir john said his officers would have to find other evidence before the suspects could be tried in the uk. he told the newspaper: if an admission is made it is a totally different ball game... it could be used as evidence. the options are: if there is enough evidence they will be charged. if not they will be released as soon as possible. the men have been allowed to meet their lawyers. louise christian said that after being tortured and abused at guantanamo bay the men s arrest was unfair and inappropriate. she told bbc news she remained very concerned about their psychological state. gareth peirce lawyer for mr begg said she was shocked at the condition of the men and appalled that the authorities felt the need to detain them. washington has claimed all four were enemy combatants who trained at camps run by al-qaeda. the pentagon says they were freed after the uk government promised they would not be a threat to the national security of the us or any of its allies. the detainees were immediately arrested under section 41 of the terrorism act 2000 when they landed at raf northolt west london on tuesday. massoud shadjareh from the muslim safety forum said: what sort of homecoming is this they are innocent people. the muslim council of britain urged that the men should receive counselling and medical help. we want these men to be returned into the arms of their waiting family said iqbal sacranie secretary general of the council.

politics

band aid retains number one spot the charity single by band aid 20 has held on the chart top spot for a second week strengthening its chances of becoming the christmas number one. do they know it s christmas featuring artists including chris martin and jamelia held off kylie minogue to remain the week s biggest single. next week s chart will reveal who will have the festive chart-topper minogue s latest release i believe in you went in at number two pushing down ice cube s you can do it to three. destiny s child also slipped one place to four with lose my breath followed by girls aloud at five with the children in need record i ll stand by you. the only other new entry in the top 10 came from robbie williams track misunderstood a new track written for his greatest hits album. there were no new releases in the entire top 40 album charts as record companies put out all the big releases early hoping to cash in on the lucrative christmas market. u2 s how to dismantle a bomb remains at number one for a third week in a row followed by williams greatest hits. opera band il divo have moved up one place with their eponymous album to number three. maroon 5 s album songs about jane has moved up to number seven despite being released 47 weeks ago. and the abba gold greatest hits album has crept back into the top 40 more than nine years after it was first released.

entertainment

renault boss hails great year strong sales outside western europe helped renault boost its profits by more than 40% in 2004 although the firm warned of lower margins this year. france s second largest carmaker enjoyed a healthy 43% rise in net profits to 2.4bn euros ($3.1bn; £2.9bn) as sales rose 8% to 40.7bn euros. the firm said strong demand outside western europe and the good performance of its megane range lifted its results. chairman louis schweitzer said 2004 had been a great year for the firm. renault sold more than 2.4 million vehicles in 2004 an increase of 4% on the previous year. growth came mainly from outside western europe with particularly strong sales in turkey russia and north africa. in total sales outside western europe - renault s core market - rose 16.5%. japanese carmaker nissan - in which renault owns a 44% stake - contributed 1.7bn euros in net income over the year. nissan chairman carlos ghosn is to succeed mr schweitzer at the head of renault later this year. renault said the outlook for the industry in europe this year was stable with small growth forecast in other regions. the firm will benefit from the launch of a new clio model in the coming year and the roll-out of the logan in many markets. however the firm said it expected operating margins to be lower in 2005 at 4% of sales as opposed to 5%. in a sluggish market and an environment impacted by the rise in raw material prices renault intends to continue to grow its global sales the company said in a statement.

business

hearts 2-1 livingston hearts wrapped up their scottish cup quarter-final tie against livingston with two goals in the first 10 minutes. lee miller scored inside the opening 60 seconds heading over colin meldrum and into the net from a jamie mcallister free kick. mcallister himself scored the second when he met saul mikoliunas cross at the back post to put the game beyond the visitors. craig easton headed in a controversial goal after an hour but hearts held on. the opening goal came after gus bahoken had clumsily fouled miller 35 yards from goal. mcallister floated the free kick into the livi box and miller outjumped the static visiting defence to loop his header from 10 yards over meldrum. with just 10 minutes on the clock the home side doubled their lead. mikoliunas sprinted down the right crossed to the back post where mcallister raced in to head past meldrum. moments later miller came close to grabbing his second with a first-time drive from 16 yards which skimmed the bar. then mcallister picked up a pass from stephen simmons and drove an angled shot from 20 yards narrowly past meldrum s far post. the impressive mikoliunas twice went close before half time - a low drive was comfortably gathered by meldrum and then he curled a left-footed shot past the keeper s right-hand post. livi manager richard gough made three changes at the interval bringing on defender goran stanic midfielder gabor vincze and striker ferenc horvath for bahoken derek lilley and mark wilson. but in the opening stages of the second period little changed. however the west lothian side gave themselves a lifeline with a controversial goal. eric deloumeaux sent jason dair away on the right and he tried to give the ball to mcpake who looked to be in an offside position. the livi striker ignored the pass however and dair ran on to it and played easton in at the back post and he headed home from close range. the home side called for offside against mcpake but referee alan freeland ignored their claims and pointed to the centre-circle. livi went all out for the equaliser. in the 87th minute burton o brien was hauled back at the edge of the box by neil macfarlane but dair sent his shot just inches wide. gordon webster miller hartley neilson mcallister simmons (macfarlane 64) berra burchill (wyness 82) mikoliunas (cesnauskis 77) wallace. moilanen kizys. berra webster. miller 1 mcallister 10. meldrum mcnamee bahoken (stanic 45) deloumeaux strong dair easton mark wilson (vincze 45) lilley (horvath 45) o brien mcpake. mckenzie hand. : vincze horvath. easton 60. 9 796 a freeland

sport

reds sink 10-man magpies titus bramble s own goal put liverpool on the comeback trail as injury-hit newcastle were well beaten at anfield. patrick kluivert s close-range finish put newcastle ahead after 31 minutes but they were pegged back as bramble headed in steven gerrard s corner. neil mellor gave liverpool the lead before half-time from milan baros pass before the czech added a third after rounding shay given on the hour. newcastle then had lee bowyer sent off for two bookable offences. liverpool brought back luis garcia after a hamstring injury while newcastle were forced to draft in kluivert after craig bellamy was a late withdrawal with a back injury sustained in the warm-up. and garcia should have crowned his return with a goal inside the opening minute when he took a pass from baros but shot wildly over the top from eight yards. olivier bernard was only inches away from giving newcastle the lead after 20 minutes when he fired just wide from a free-kick 25 yards out. but souness s side did go ahead 11 minutes later in highly controversial circumstances. kluivert looked suspiciously offside when kieron dyer set bowyer free but the dutchman was then perfectly placed to score from six yards. the lead lasted three minutes with liverpool back on terms as bramble headed gerrard s corner into his own net under pressure from sami hyypia. and liverpool were ahead after 37 minutes when baros slid a perfect pass into mellor s path for the youngster to slip a slide-rule finish into given s bottom corner. garcia s finishing was wayward and he was wasteful again in first-half injury time shooting tamely at given after good work by xabi alonso. any hopes of a newcastle recovery looked to be snuffed out on the hour when a brilliant turn and pass by harry kewell set baros free and he rounded given to score. jermaine jenas then missed a glorious chance to throw newcastle a lifeline shooting over from just eight yards out from shola ameobi s cross. then bowyer who had already been booked for a foul on alonso was deservedly shown the red card by referee graham poll for a wild challenge on liverpool substitute florent sinama-pongolle. dudek finnan hyypia carragher riise luis garcia (nunez 73) gerrard alonso kewell (traore 85) baros mellor (sinama pongolle 75). subs not used: hamann harrison. bramble 35 og mellor 38 baros 61. given andrew o brien elliott bramble bernard bowyer dyer (ambrose 80) jenas milner (n zogbia 72) kluivert (robert 58) ameobi. subs not used: harper. bowyer (77). bowyer elliott bernard. kluivert 32. 43 856. g poll (hertfordshire).

sport

lib dems unveil election slogan the liberal democrats will present themselves as the real alternative in the forthcoming general election campaign charles kennedy has said. unveiling the slogan at the party s spring conference he said there was no glass ceiling to its ambitions. he told delegates that labour had abused the public s trust and that the tories had failed to oppose them. in response the conservatives insisted that theirs was the party that understood the forgotten majority . speaking in harrogate mr kennedy said: people want a credible principled political party which offers a different vision of what britain can be. only the liberal democrats stood against the iraq war he said and they had also provided strong opposition to the government s plans on id cards anti-terror measures and taxation. he said: if you voted conservative in 2001 ... what good did it do you your vote was wasted. what people needed was ... a party which was listening to their concerns; a party which was prepared to stand up and say so; a party which said no to the prime minister. responding to the claims tory party co-chairman liam fox said: like labour the lib dems are soft on crime support higher taxes oppose controlled immigration and support giving europe more control over our lives. mr kennedy also outlined his party s plan to impose a 50% income tax rate on earnings over £100 000 a year. the money would be used to help pay for key policies such as abolishing university tuition fees scrapping council tax in favour of local income tax and providing free care for the elderly he said. labour and the tories claim the sums do not add up and that working families would be hardest hit. mr kennedy said: britain is the fourth-largest economy in the world. we have world class businesses and a world class workforce. so why are two million of our pensioners living below the poverty line all the parties are campaigning hard for an expected election in may although prime minister tony blair has not confirmed any timing. earlier mr kennedy told radio 4 s today programme there was no possibility of forming a coalition with labour in the event of a hung parliament. we go into the election as an independent party and we come out as an independent party he said. mr kennedy has been under fire in recent days for missing monday s commons vote on the government s controversial anti-terrorism laws along with 16 other lib dem mps. on saturday the lib dem chief executive said it was just a cock-up that mr kennedy and his colleagues missed the vote which the government won by a majority of only 14. nobody had any idea that was going to happen lord rennard told reporters at the party conference. he said he was certain mps would get another chance to vote against the plans.

politics

bond game fails to shake or stir for gaming fans the word goldeneye evokes excited memories not only of the james bond revival flick of 1995 but also the classic shoot-em-up that accompanied it and left n64 owners glued to their consoles for many an hour. adopting that hallowed title somewhat backfires on this new game for it fails to deliver on the promise of its name and struggles to generate the original s massive sense of fun. this however is not a sequel nor does it relate to the goldeneye film. you are the eponymous renegade spy an agent who deserts to the bond world s extensive ranks of criminal masterminds after being deemed too brutal for mi6. your new commander-in-chief is the portly auric goldfinger last seen in 1964 but happily running around bent on world domination. with a determination to justify its name which is even less convincing than that of tina turner s similarly-titled theme song the game literally gives the player a golden eye following an injury which enables a degree of x-ray vision. rogue agent signals its intentions by featuring james bond initially and proceeding to kill him off within moments squashed by a plummeting helicopter. the notion is of course to add a novel dark edge to a 007 game but the premise simply does not get the juices flowing like it needs to. recent bond games like nightfire and everything or nothing were very competent and did a fine job of capturing the sense of flair invention and glamour of the film franchise. this title lacks that aura and when the bond magic shines through it feels like a lucky accident. the central problem is that the gameplay just is not good enough. quite aside from the bizarre inability to jump the even more bizarre glaring graphical bugs and dubious enemy ai the levels simply are not put together with much style or imagination. admittedly the competition has been tough even in recent weeks with the likes of halo 2 and half life 2 triumphing in virtually every department. what the game is good at is enveloping you in noisy dynamic scenes of violent chaos. as is the trend of late you are made to feel like you are in the midst of a really messy and fraught encounter. sadly that sense of action is outweighed by the difficulty of navigating and battling within the chaos meaning that frustration is often the outcome. and irregular save points mean you have to backtrack each time you are killed. a minute red dot passes for a crosshair although the collision-detection is so suspect that the difficulties of aiming weapons are compensated for. shooting enemies from a distance can be tricky and you will not always know you have picked them off since dead enemies vanish literally before they have fully hit the floor and they do so in some woefully uninspiring death animations. it is perhaps indicative of a lack of confidence that the game maker s allow you several different weapons almost immediately and throw you quickly into raging firefights - no time is risked with a measured build-up. by far the most satisfying element of the game is seeing old favourites like dr no goldfinger hat-fiend oddjob and crazed russian sex beast xenia onatopp resurrected after all these years and with their faces rendered in an impressively recognisable fashion. there is a real thrill from doing battle with these legendary villains and it is a testament to the power of the bond universe that they can cut such a dash. but the in-game niggles combined with a story and presentation that just do not feel sufficiently well thought-through will make this a disappointment for most. diehard fans of bond will probably find enough here to make it a worthwhile purchase and try to ignore the failings. the game is weak not completely unplayable. then again 007 fanatics may also take umbrage at the cavalier blending of characters from different eras. given james bond s healthy pedigree in past games there is every reason to hope that this is just a blip a commendable idea that just has not worked that will be rectified when the character inevitably makes his return. goldeneye: rogue agent is out now

tech

bid to cut court witness stress new targets to reduce the stress to victims and witnesses giving evidence in courts in england and wales have been announced by the lord chancellor. lord falconer wants all crown courts and 90% of magistrates courts to have facilities to keep witnesses separate from defendants within four years. more video links will also be made available so that witnesses do not have to enter courtrooms. it is part of a five-year plan to help build confidence in the justice system. ministers say the strategy is aimed at re-balancing the court system towards victims and increasing the number of offenders brought to justice. launching the department for constitutional affairs plan lord falconer said: one of the top priorities will be a better deal for victims. the needs and safety of victims will be at the heart of the way trials are managed. courts judges magistrates prosecutors police and victim support - all working together to ensure the rights of victims are put first without compromising the rights of the defendant. he went on: giving evidence is a nerve-wracking experience especially when you re a victim. yet with a will and with support it can be done. lord falconer told bbc radio 4 s today programme it was impossible for some elderly people to go to court to give evidence. other witnesses could be intimidated by sitting alongside defendants outside courts. you are never going to get rid of some element of the trauma of giving evidence he said. but you can make people believe that the courts understand the problem it s not some kind of alien place where they go where they are not thinking about them. the plan comes as the lord chancellor also considers allowing cameras into courts for the first time since 1925 as long as they were used for cases that did not involve witnesses. another feature of the strategy is constitutional reform with a government bill to set up a supreme court and a judicial appointments commission returning to the house of lords on tuesday. ministers had proposed getting rid of the title of lord chancellor but the lords have over-ruled this. lord falconer said it was right for the highest court to be completely distinct from parliament. the person in charge of the court system should not also be speaker of the house of lords he said and should be the best person chosen from either house of parliament. what they did not what they were called was the critical issue he added.

politics

candidate resigns over bnp link a prospective candidate for the uk independence party (ukip) has resigned after admitting a brief attachment to the british national party(bnp). nicholas betts-green who had been selected to fight the suffolk coastal seat quit after reports in a newspaper that he attended a bnp meeting. the former teacher confirmed he had attended the meeting but said that was the only contact he had with the group. mr betts-green resigned after being questioned by the party s leadership. a ukip spokesman said mr betts-green s resignation followed disclosures in the east anglian daily times last month about his attendance at a bnp meeting. he did once attend a bnp meeting. he did not like what he saw and heard and will take no further part of it the spokesman added. a meeting of suffolk coastal ukip members is due to be held next week to discuss a replacement. mr betts-green of woodbridge suffolk has also resigned as ukip s branch chairman.

politics

china keeps tight rein on credit china s efforts to stop the economy from overheating by clamping down on credit will continue into 2005 state media report. the curbs were introduced earlier this year to ward off the risk that rapid expansion might lead to soaring prices. there were also fears that too much stress might be placed on the fragile banking system. growth in china remains at a breakneck 9.1% and corporate investment is growing at more than 25% a year. the breakneck pace of economic expansion has kept growth above 9% for more than a year. rapid tooling-up of china s manufacturing sector means a massive demand for energy - one of the factors which has kept world oil prices sky-high for most of this year. in theory the government has a 7% growth target but continues to insist that the overshoot does not mean a hard landing in the shape of an overbalancing economy. a low exchange rate - china s yuan is pegged to a rate of 8.28 to the dollar which seems to be in relentless decline - means chinese exports are cheap on world markets. china has thus far resisted international pressure to break the link or at least to shift the level of its peg. to some extent the credit controls do seem to be taking effect. industrial output grew 15.7% in the year to october down from 23% in february and inflation slowed to 4.3% - although retail sales are still booming.

business

vouchers to cut winter deaths pensioners are being promised energy savings by the liberal democrats as snow and cold temperatures continue. the party says the plans could save the average pensioner £100 every year and cut winter deaths. the government gives £200 for winter fuel to households with people over 60 or £300 where people are over 80. the tories promise to keep the payments. the lib dems would allow people to swap these winter fuel payments for discounts on home insulation. shadow local government secretary ed davey said: the current scheme has helped some older people but this new liberal democrat approach will go much further to end the scandal of tens of thousands of old people dying from the winter cold every year. the vouchers are designed to let pensioners choose from a list of approved energy supplies who would compete for business by offering discounts on home insulation schemes. the plan would boost energy conservation says the party - and insulation could save £100 every year for pensioner households so using the money more intelligently than at present.

politics

briton wins short film oscar three of the five nominees in the live-action short film category at this year s oscars were british. for andrea arnold who won the category ashvin kumar and gary mckendry the past month has thrust them from relative obscurity into the limelight. arnold s gritty drama wasp is about a single mother living on the breadline while kumar s little terrorist follows a young pakistani muslim boy who gets stuck on the wrong side of the heavily armed indian border. mckendry s entry everything in this country must forces british soldiers and catholics to challenge their relationship during the troubles in northern ireland. last week the trio attended an official screening of all the nominated short films at the academy s headquarters in beverly hills. i felt so privileged to have a thousand people watching my film on the biggest screen i ve ever seen says arnold. set in her native dartford wasp tells the story of a young mum who unable to find a babysitter leaves her four young daughters outside a pub while she s on a date. the image that sparked the film was that of a wasp crawling into a baby s mouth. the other nominees said they made their films for this reason or that - they had something to say. but i just start with an image i can t shake off work outwards from that and see what comes out she explains. since she presented children s tv shows number 73 and motormouth in the 1980s arnold has kept a low profile and is having trouble adapting to this sudden onslaught of attention. i m not interested in the publicity. it s not my personality. i m overwhelmed by all the fuss she said. it s all a bit like a beauty contest - all the films are great and so different. but even though my film has won 30 awards worldwide (including one at sundance last month) i d still be proud of it - even if it hadn t won any. asked what the nomination means to her arnold says she feels flattered and honoured . we ve all been overwhelmed by the response and can t get it in perspective yet. i m still reeling. and she won t commit to an opinion of hollywood yet. i m just in the middle of it living moment to moment day to day. but despite her reservations about the academy awards and the media frenzy that surrounds it she accepts that it has opened doors for her. people will definitely listen to what i want to do now and the phone didn t stop ringing for a week after i got nominated. as for the future arnold firmly believes that you often get a stronger vision of the world with short films. you re left more to your own devices without people interfering as much. that said she is currently working on a feature film with dogville and dancer in the dark director lars von trier.

entertainment

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

business